Final Reflection

This semester in ENT3003 was very interesting and gave me an excellent foundation of the cognitive process involved in entrepreneurship.  By far the most formative experience was the refinement of my elevator pitch concerning my business venture.  One experience that I will remember for years to come is the assignments that required me to interview strangers in random locations while asking questions about my business venture.  My most joyous experience and the experience I am proudest of is crafting my venture concept towards the end of the semester.  This allowed me think about my venture concept in detail to consider my targeted location, pricing details, product and service mix, competitors, constructive feedback, etc.

            At the beginning of the semester I had no idea that this class would help me develop the mindset and attitude of an entrepreneur.  I thought being and thinking like an entrepreneur was exclusive to millionaires with big businesses and thousands of customers.  I definitely have become very confident that I am an entrepreneur and understand that being an entrepreneur focuses on a person’s conception of an idea to meet an unmet need.  I engage in this type of thought process at home, work, with my daughter, and my wife on a frequent basis.  The assignments in the class stimulated my thoughts to help me develop a venture concept and proved to me that I am capable of being an entrepreneur that make my ideas materialize into an actual business.

            The one recommendation that I would make to future ENT3003 students is to come up with a business idea from the beginning of the semester that your heart is truly vested into.  Otherwise, you will not enjoy the assignments.  I know this by looking at a few of my classmates’ assignments and you can tell the lack of effort on the assignment which I think was a result of them just choosing a random business idea at the beginning of the semester.  To perform best in the course I would recommend dedicating one to two hours per day to this class to work on assignments and view lectures with the intention of working ahead at all times.  Also, I would recommend reaching out to the TA mentors for help which I failed to do when I had a family emergency that caused me to fall behind and not complete a few assignments.  They are there to help in emergency situations so use them.  Another recommendation to perform best in ENT3003 is to “Just Do It” because the more you think about how uncomfortable an assignment may be, the more likely you will be to not complete an assignment.  To foster that mindset, I would suggest brainstorming and formulating an approach or plan to the tougher assignments that brings a student out of their comfort zone.  Writing down key bullet points will make some of the harder assignments seem extremely easy.  For example, when several questions are asked to meet the criteria of the assignment then I would just write answers to those questions in bullet format and then go back and construct the submission in paragraph form.

Venture Concept No. 2

Venture Concept No. 1

Opportunity

There is a great opportunity to bring community fitness centers to housing developments to cater to the fitness needs of the residents of Tallahassee.  Potential customers include residents of housing developments that don’t have the time in their busy days to drive several miles to their nearest gym or may not have the knowledge and motivation to reach their personal fitness goals. The forces in the environment that have created the opportunity is the strong desire for people to become healthier and feel great about themselves in a convenient and time efficient manner.  The most important environmental force is the influx of college graduates from Florida State and Florida A&M deciding to make Tallahassee their home due to the major infrastructural changes taking place and the plans to make the city more of a major metropolitan area.  The increase in population has had a direct effect on traffic in the city, which results in residents being less active.  Also, there are only two major gyms in Tallahassee that provide satisfactory service and equipment, which is Anytime Fitness and Planet Fitness.  Both of these gyms are located on the Northside of town and there are not great options for those residents living on the Southside of Tallahassee.  Currently, most customers are satisfying their needs by becoming members at one of the two major gyms in Tallahassee or exercising at home.  Most customers are only loyal to a particular gym as a result of the geographical convenience offered by the gym.  If I can disrupt that customer loyalty by using my Personal Trainer certification to build a strong relationship and offer affordable pricing to these customers, then I can establish an extremely loyal customer base before the doors open for business.  Think of the difference between Apple and HP computers, for example.  Apple develops personal relationships with their customers and provide an unique experience when you enter the store as opposed to HP, which lacks a physical store to develop strong relationships with their customers.  The concept of developing strong relationships leads to customer loyalty.  There is a huge opportunity to offer a convenient and unique gym atmosphere to the people of Tallahassee.  The opportunity will be open for as long as college graduates continue to contribute to the population increase in Tallahassee.

Innovation

The concept of the gym will center around an offering of classes inspired by military special operations fitness routines such as Navy SEALS, Army Rangers, Pararescuemen, Combat Rescuemen, etc.  I will use these same type of workouts during the pre-planning phase of providing personal training services to customers in the targeted geographic areas.  This type of innovation will give customers a rather unique experience in receiving personal training on this level and intensity.  Of course, for those with novice fitness abilities then I will scale these personal workouts to meet their needs.  Once the gym opens it will have a swimming pool to incorporate the routines of Navy SEALS but the classes would be modified to accommodate the fitness levels of gym members.  A level of integrity and respect would be maintained to prevent the perception that I actually served as member in these career fields.  I would only use the workout routines and not incorporate a “boot camp” style environment.  However, I would invite friends that served in these career fields to conduct week long “boot camp” style classes. Also, a variety of equipment and machines will be available for housing residents to utilize 24 hours a day.  Another source of revenue will be the Sankofa Cafè which will serve various health drinks, snacks, supplements, herbal teas, breakfast sandwiches, vegan/healthy cook books, and special ops workout literature.  The cost for gym membership will be $79.99 per month and $25 per month for each additional family member to have unlimited access to classes and gym equipment.  If you choose to only use the gym equipment with 24-hour access then membership is $29.99.  Non-residents of the housing development are welcome to the gym as well but will pay an additional $19.99 per month for gym membership.

Venture Concept

This business venture will address the issue of providing convenient fitness options to housing residents of Tallahassee by, first, providing personal training services to a targeted region of Tallahassee, then placing a fitness center in a housing development that offers on-site certified personal trainers to conduct classes.  I will provide these personal training services under the same company name, Alpha Body Fitness.  During the pre-planning phase of providing personal training services I will accommodate customers with affordable options such as flexible payment plans, pay as you go plans, or discounted pricing for contract agreements.  Once I establish a large customer base, then I will begin to let these loyal customers know about the fitness center opening.    The current customers of my personal training services will receive a loyalty discount for becoming a gym member once the facility opens.  Some aspects that will attract even more members is it’s close proximity within their homes and it offers workout plans used by some of the most physically elite group of individuals in the world.  Generally, people tend to revere members of special ops career fields because of their impeccable physical stature and the unique military mission that they have volunteered to risk their lives upon.  This will attract something similar to a cult following of people interested in challenging their bodies to realize incredible physical results.  Also, my main focus is to ensure people are treated and feel like family when they enter my gym.  People will be more inclined to switch gym memberships or remain a member at my gym if they feel as sense of family and care from myself and the staff.  I want gym members to know that I genuinely care for their well-being and it will not be very hard for them to switch their gym memberships because all gyms that I was a member of never made me feel as such.  My main competitors are Anytime Fitness and Planet Fitness.  Their main weakness is their lack of interaction with their members because their main focus is not offering classes to develop a personal relationship with their customers.  Their class offerings are more of an augmented service to their business model.  Their main weakness is the distance from their gym members’ homes.  The price point will make or break the success of the gym and I have to offer a reasonable price to bring an overflow of customers into the gym as well as keep my staff of certified personal trainers satisfied.  The customer experience is also key to the gym’s success because the fitness center’s main focus is a strong and positive personal relationship with our members.  The perfect location for the first location will be in the central part of Tallahassee because my main competition is on the Northside and there are not any great options for residents on the Southside.  If I locate the business in the central part of the city then I can grab a good portion of members from my competition while also catering to the needs of those living on the Southside.  More specifically, the fitness center will be located directly outside of the housing development so as to not affect traffic flow within the residential area and still serve non-residents of that community.  I would staff the gym with about three instructors and two part-time employees to work the Sankofa Cafè (only one employee needed per shift).  Most importantly, I need a CPA to manage the finances of the business.

Feedback

Most of the feedback received on my venture concept was praise of the idea.  The one piece of feedback that stood out to me was someone explaining how one of their friends began in the fitness industry by being a personal trainer to build a large customer base and credibility.  His friend then opened a gym that was successful in his business.  I incorporated the feedback by making the decision to provide personal training services as the precursor to opening the gym and making my primary focus the targeted region where I plan to build the gym.  I will offer use many of the same workouts that will be used once the gym opens.  This will allow me to establish customer loyalty by building strong relationships during personal training sessions.  This will form a solid foundation prior to opening the fitness center.

My Exit Strategy

Planning my exit strategy is extremely important but even more exciting to think about when envisioning the potential long term success of the business venture.  My exit strategy is to preserve Alpha Body Fitness Center as a 100% family owned business and protect the venture from outside investors and partnerships.  I want to implement my exit strategy in a two-part phase.  First, I will officially bring her into the decision making process at the age of 25 to give her time to finish college while working part-time with Alpha Body.  She will learn the operational side of the business during this time.  Once she fully understands the daily operations of the business, then I will immediately promote her to CEO at the age of 30 while I still retain full ownership.  When I feel confident that she can successfully run the business then I will retire and relinquish ownership to my daughter. 

            I chose this particular exit strategy because I don’t want my daughter to have to work for someone else her entire life.  I want her to have financial and spiritual freedom to make her own decisions without anyone having power and reign over her career.  Also, I want to pass the business to her early enough before she becomes fully invested in a career outside of the family business.  My heart is into health, fitness, and helping people which is the foundation of Alpha Body Fitness Center.  My main interest would be to create a well respected identity in Tallahassee and cities beyond that’s associated with the family name that my daughter can be proud of.  The one characteristic that describes my exit strategy is leaving behind a legacy that can be passed on for generations to come.  Finally, my plan will be to give the family business a bit of a fresh and young perspective while maintaining the long proven characteristics that defined the success of the business since inception. 

            My exit strategy has definitely influenced decisions in crafting my business venture concept.  For example, the decision to create a true family environment by delineating from just great customer service has been the foundational quality to creating a legacy that will be well respected in the community.  Also, the ancillary product mix I chose to offer such as healthy cook books, special operations workout books, herbal teas, organic supplements, etc. will help people understand that Alpha Body Fitness Center is not only interested in pushing them to reach their physical fitness goals but also their overall health and wellness.  Most importantly, Alpha Body Fitness Center will be located within residential communities which is much different that your traditional gym.  The concept of being located within the residential communities of Tallahassee gives the business an identity as a major pillar in these communities and it will be extremely hard to walk away from a business that has established strong relationships with it’s residents.  My planned exit strategy has also influenced my intentions of expansion.  I plan to pass Alpha Body Fitness Center to my daughter and the success and longevity of the business will dictate how far the business expands.