Venture Concept, No. 2

Opportunity:

Many women, especially women of color, feel a sense of insecurity or danger when they are isolated in certain dangerous situations. For example, walking home alone at night could be a time when someone would exhibit this imminent fear. There is an opportunity here to give back that sense of security to these individuals, and that is by providing a service where women can be education on proper crisis management in addition to different types of self-defense techniques. The specific group of customers we’re catering to will fall under the spectrum of young women between the ages of 17-30 who live in urban areas.

Innovation:

Albeit not radically innovative, this service does have a sense of incremental innovation. The service will allow for a combination of physically active workshops teaching self-defense and and an educational experience teaching basic crisis management with some experienced professionals. This combo differs from your typical gym membership or Krav Maga class, it’s encompassing a nature of things and it’s catering it to a group of individuals who need it the most. This course can be offered at a pay-per-class rate at just $10 per class. For our returning customers though, this service can offer a monthly membership as well at $20 for four sessions, which includes the Krav Maga self-defense class and crisis management seminar/lecture.

Venture Concept:

This service will satisfy this opportunity of insecurity and fear instilled in women by empowering them to stand up for themselves. In the grand scheme of things, it’s not the women’s fault that these situations happen to them but some of these events are inevitable and only drastic changes in societal norms will prevent this from happening. But as an immediate remedy and an empowering one at that, providing a service that incorporates self-defense techniques to a marginalized group of individuals (all women) and educates them on proper crisis management can end this imminent fear and possibly the stigma surrounding women as well. Some competitors might be other programs that offer self-defense classes or other gym memberships. The business would probably only have a few instructors, mainly previously experienced RAD (Rape Aggressive Defense) instructors and occasionally certified speakers who can discuss crisis management and different types of action scenarios.

Three minor elements:

Most important resource: I would definitely say the mission of the company is our most important resource. It is intangible, but without the goal of the business is lost. We are here to empower women and take away the fear of being in isolated locations and feel defenseless. We want to provide a safe and inclusive space and that all falls under our mission. We have the ability to use that resource to the best of its capability and provide a sense of community for all women, including women of color.

What’s next: It would be ideal to expand our mission even further and find ways to incorporate just women but other marginalized groups such as those that are a part of the LGBTQ+ community, mainly transgender individuals. They suffer from a lot of violent crimes, and I would want this business’s next venture to focus on providing a safe and inclusive space for them as well. Our mission would extend to protect everyone who have had their rights violated through means of violence.

What’s next for me: Five years from now on, I could only hope this venture goes national and becomes a part of a movement. Although a lot of this sounds like it would fall under a non-profit organization, this could be a business that could eventually chain and/or franchise itself where multiple different locations across the United States open up shop and provide this service. I can only hope it grows to become this big phenomenon, and eventually I would hope to travel and motivate other instructors and managers of these business on how to grow their franchise successfully.

Feedback: 

To be honest, most of the feedback I received on my post were positive and not many changes were suggested. In fact, many of the people who commented on my posts were very encouraging and wished me the best on my business venture. I truly appreciated the feedback and it makes me hopeful for the future and where this business may take me.