Venture concept 2
Opportunity
After conducting extensive research I have come across an opportunity that needs to be addressed immediately. The need of this opportunity exists among young blind professionals with an ambition to create great futures for themselves. This opportunity has been created because of the changes in the American society over the last twenty years. Ever since the Americans with disabilities Act was passed in 1990, it has given blind and visually impaired individuals the equal opportunities necessary to compete in the work force with their sited counter parts. This market mostly exists in the united states, and the majority of the market is comprised of young men and women between the ages of 22 and 30. I have noticed that the opportunity is more prevalent in large cities with great sources of public transportation and eye specialists. Currently, customers are satisfying this specific need with local vocational rehabilitation, and blind service organizations. I have discovered throughout my research that nearly 100% of all blind or visually impaired people that receive services from these types of organizations are not satisfied with the results. Ultimately, there is no loyalty to the current organizations that exists because of the outcome of the service they provide. This opportunity is huge considering the massive amount of advancements in technology for the blind. The Americans with Disabilities Act was an incredible break through for visually impaired people, but it would not have meant much if we did not create the technology necessary to do the things that sited individuals do. In my opinion this opportunity is a "window," and as of right now the window is cracked open, and little by little the window is going to open more. I cannot put a time frame on this opportunity, but I do believe that this need will increase more and more throughout the years.
Innovation
I am creating a non profit organization that will be devoted to the professional development of visually impaired people. The goal is to help visually impaired people obtained prominent jobs in society. As of right now most blind individuals have monotonous jobs like sewing uniforms, hole punching, and other tasks that require a very limited skill set. From experience, I know that these individuals are capable of so much more. We would also like to educate society and show them the true capabilities and limitations of these people. Lastly, we plan to create a service that will cater to parents who have blind children, so they can learn principles on how to raise their child in a way that will not limit the child, but instead encourage them to explore the world and be ambitious despite their limitations. Like I stated above, we are a non profit organization, and we plan to be funded through the state, government, and charitable donations.
Venture concept
I believe that the innovation described above will create a solution for the opportunity because who better to know the needs of a blind person than a blind individual himself. Also, the solution that I have created is very similar to the solution that currently exists, but the main difference is that I am emphasizing that the abilities of visually impaired individuals are a lot greater than the majority of society perceives them to be. I believe that customers would switch to this new product immediately because of the possibilities that it presents. This organization could be the difference between customer service representative and defence attorney. The current competitors of my organization would be vocational rehabilitation and blind organizations. Over all my organization will employ 12 people to start. The positions will consists of 1 president, 1 vice president, 1 treasurer, 1 secretary, 4 people devoted to speaking engagements, 2 people devoted to the professionals focus group, and the last 2 people devoted to the parents with visually impaired children focus group. We will also higher as needed employees that will help out with the different groups.
I believe that my most important resource in creating this organization will be my experience as a blind individual. I know what has worked in the passed, and I know what has failed. I believe that what I bring to the table is irreplaceable.
What is next? I am not sure what is next just yet, but it would be cool to see this organization expand throughout the united states. Also, I would like to one day incorporate some type of counseling expert to help these visually impaired individuals that struggle with insecurity. I would like them to learn, and teach others that it is not about their appearance but instead their potential.
In the next five years I would like this organization to reach the entire south east section of the united states, and in the next 10 years the whole country. In 10 years I would like to be known as an activists for individuals with all types of physical disabilities. I would also like to create other non profit organizations that will help with bringing disabled people into the professional work force.
Overall, the feedback from students was pretty good. Everyone said they really enjoyed my first venture concept, and I was very pleased by this! On the other hand, there were some areas based on the interviews I conducted in earlier assignments that I could improve. I believe that the most profound area was in regards to the market I am trying to reach. Currently, I am only serving young blind professionals Who have and ambition to achieve great success in their career, but after feedback I was given the advice to also hit the market that consists of blind individuals who don’t really believe that they could ever have this type of success. Their reasoning behind this was that even if the new market doesn’t achieve the same results as the original market, it will still create more ambition in the new market, which will ultimately result in more visually impaired individuals making an impact on today’s workforce.
I think that ultimately I did not want to add this new market, because since this is a new idea I wanted to focus on a smaller group of people. Although, I do believe that adding the new market will ultimately add a new dynamic to this opportunity. To be honest, I just didn’t want the extra work. The one major thing I changed in the new venture concept what is the adding of a new market.
