Idea Napkin Number One

11A - Idea Napkin Number One

1.     My name is Madison Soltis. I am a first-year Exploratory major at UF, but I am hopefully going to shift my focus to Architecture or Interior Design soon. I personally think that one of my skills is talking to people and really being able to influence how they see something or actually getting them to see it. Specifically, in regard to my business concept, I feel that people just need to be environmentally aware in general. I want to get into architecture and interior design, but I am also a big advocator for being sustainable, being modern, and also being fun. I think this business, if started, would play a definite big role in my life. Hopefully, it would become something I could be consumed by because of how many other people realize the great benefits of it.

2.     I am offering people, homeowners, businesses, anyone, a product to help them be sustainable and be more conscious of the environment. I am offering them easily accessible solar panels to line their roofs with. The consumer will have lowered electricity costs among the other environmental impacts the panels will have.

3.     I am offering this product to anyone who has a roof over their heads- whether that be homeowners or people who run/own a business or work at other buildings. The demographic range most likely falls between the ages of 30-60. Since the panels are in no way as cheap as some think they are, the target market is older individuals who have settled into a home and could afford such an undertaking. The commonality between all the potential customers would most likely be their need to save on electricity costs, since the green movement doesn’t seem to be that high in numbers yet.

4.     I think that people would pay money for this product because it is something new and not commonly seen before. While I wish the reason was anything about and related to the environment, it would most likely be about having something that most people don’t and being able to show it off. Then, once they realize what good it’s doing for their electricity bill and the environment, they may share with others, leading that to be the reason why people invest and not just because of cool looks.

5.     My primary location to sell this product would be in Miami. To my knowledge, Miami doesn’t have any well-known businesses selling solar panels or even marketing them to homeowners. My business would be different because it would market directly to homeowners or businesses, instead of trying to only sell to beaches or environmental areas.

After laying out all the groundwork for my business venture, I find it hard to believe that this is something that could truly survive as an actual business. While I still think it’s a really good and really fun idea, I don’t see it excelling in the future. I didn’t factor the cost of the solar panels correctly, and I feel that that is the extremely weak part of my concept.