29A - Venture Concept No. 2

Opportunity.

I discovered an opportunity in the three-hole punch and hole reinforcer area. In my own personal experience and what has been echoed from many peers is that papers in a binder rip very easily. The only way to fix this is to apply hole reinforcers by hand that requires a serious time investment. I found that there are not automated products on the market and decided to create a two in one three-hole puncher and hole reinforcer that will not only save customers time, but also money. The target market for this product ranges from individual households to office and schools. All three markets have a need for this product and the product will be built differently for industrial vs individual use. As far as demographically, any age from middle school to working adult will find this product useful. This opportunity is very big because once a patent is obtained it will be hard for other larger companies to replicate the product and may have the chance to sell to a larger company. This window of opportunity will be open for as long as paper is still being used. I understand there has been a decline of paper use due to environmental movements over the last decade. However, in many situations paper binders are still necessary and will remain necessary for a long period of time.

Innovation.

My innovation is taking the old-fashioned process of a three-hole puncher and combining the service of a hole reinforcer into one piece of equipment. At the same time, I am automated the process of hand placing a hole reinforcer on each individual hole, which is a long and tiresome process. One side of the product will be a handle to push down and punch three holes into the paper. On the adjacent side will be another handle that you will press down after the holes have been punched and will place a protective ring around each hole. I will make money off of this product because I will not only sell the product for more than it costs to build, but also sell specialized reinforcer stickers that will need to be refilled as they run out. These reinforcers will be adding continual revenue because they will be designed be the only option for a replacement.

Venture Concept.

My innovation is solving the problem of there not being an efficient way to reinforce holes on a piece of paper. This product will address the problem of saving time and money. I believe my customers will switch to this product because the price will be competitive to existing three-hole punchers, but it will offer more services. Also, everyone who has experienced a ripped page in their binder will not hesitate to buy this product. I do not think it will be hard to switch over customers as long as enough promotion and advertising is done. People generally are not very loyal to three-hole punchers so the problem with brand loyalty should not be an issue. Also, as long as the price is competitive with the other brands there should be no reason why anyone would not switch over to this one. My competitors are all the other companies that make three-hole punchers. A weakness they all have is the lack of innovation. Many of these brands have sold the same or similar product for many years that has not offered any better benefits. Packaging will not play a huge role, but pricing points will because my product will offer more services but be priced similarly to existing competitors. I would keep the number of employees fairly small at the beginning and focus on getting investments to look to expand the production and lower the cost to produce the product.

The three minor elements

My most important resource in my venture is the patent. Applying and receiving a patent for this product will make it legally impossible for competitors to imitate the product. Also, by the time the patent has expired the brand name will be able to make it superior to competitors.

I am not looking into the future yet for a next venture. However, I want to try and expand globally if this product has a lot of success in the United States. This product has a need throughout the world, and I would want to take advantage of globalization.

In five years, I would like to be at the point of considering a private equity firm buying out a large portion of my company or potentially being acquired by a bigger brand. As far as an entrepreneur, this first venture will hopefully give me enough capital to pursue any other sort of ventures I would like to in the distant future. In addition, I understand that there is a global trend of becoming paperless. That is why I would consider all offers for companies to buy a majority share in my business because I am not sure what the future holds.

2.  Student Feedback

I received a lot of positive feedback from my peers. One thing I noted was that I should have discussed more about making my product available globally. Someone else mentioned that they were considering that for their product as well and it is such a great way to rapidly expand my product and find new markets.

3. Describe how you changed your venture concept

One area of my venture concept that I revised was expanding upon my exit plan and what I would like to do in the future. The assignment 25A, ‘what’s next’ that we worked on after this assignment was turned in made me think more about the long term and provide a better answer. I also took more time editing this for grammar errors as I wanted this venture concept to be more finalized.

4. Include a Picture

I included a picture of Earth to talk about how expansive it is and all the opportunities I will gave by selling and promoting my product globally.