Idea Napkin: Part 1

Who are you?

I am currently a double major in Management and Psychology at the University of Florida, interested in a career of employee development and training, more commonly known as the Human Resources sector. My business idea revolves around this concept of empowerment and training for every-day individuals, specifically women and those in marginalized groups. By following a career specialized in the development and actualization of individuals, I can hope this business venture of self-defense workshops can come into fruition.

What are you offering to customers?

The service is a self-defensive workshop course that can be taken by anyone. The first course is free for new members and after that, each class will be $10. These self-defense workshops will incorporate some physical component, such as karate, judo, aikido, and boxing techniques that are helpful for self-defense. Aside from the physical component, we will incorporate action and case scenarios in which members and instructors can act hypothetical situations. Crisis management education will also become a function of the course, where presentations on gun violence, domestic abuse, and assault will given by professionals. These presentations will provide insight on the necessary dialogue, communication styles, and precautions that need to be taken during these types of crises. Eventually, once our clientele grows, we hope to offer monthly memberships at $25 per month for five workshop courses.

Who are you offering it to?

The demographic my business will specifically cater to is females between the ages of 17-40 who live in big, urban cities. An interest form will be shared on our social media platform, and we’d specifically like to cater all women who have felt some form of endangerment while being alone at night.

Why do they care?

The portion of persons age 12 or older who were victims of violent crime increased from 0.98% in 2015 to 1.14% in 2017.  People want to feel a sense a safety and what better way to ensure that if not teaching people how to confidently defend themselves. With violent crimes increasing and life expectancy decreasing in the U.S. from gun violence, assault, and suicide, we need to find a way to better empower our people, specifically women who fall victim to these factors. The mission of the business is something everyone can stand by, and if it’s the safest of their own life people are more than willing to pay for it.

What are your core competencies?

• Empowering women through strength-building workshops and crisis management education
• Not your average gym membership, healthy mind, body, and soul is at the root of our business and most importantly a sense of security, safety, and confidence to conquer any precarious thing life hits you
• There are free programs that provide basic self-defense skills (e.g., Rape Aggression Defense (RAD) program) but they only provide a limited amount of sessions
• We believe in giving our dedicated members an opportunity to become instructors and teach these workshops too.

Evaluation

I can wholeheartedly say that many of these elements align with each other perfectly. The mission and goals complement each other quite well, and the driving factor on empowering women and providing a healthy mind, body, and soul can be an easy service to sell. The only aspects that may need to be considered further and for the time being seem a bit out of reach is overhead and access to the necessary experts who can start off these workshops. Experienced instructors in aikido, judo, or even karate will be hard to find and can be difficult to compensate. At the beginning of the business, it will be difficult to turn a profit and we might need to offer some discounted courses for new members.