Assignment 24: Venture Concept No.1

Bulk Bites

Opportunity

The opportunity that I'm pursuing is solving hunger in between meals with a healthy snack. Those who are heavy into working out, this snack is meant to aid them in growing muscle mass by providing this snack to be eaten in between meals. However, for those who aren't heavy into increasing muscle mass, this product is also designed to be eaten to ensure that people are getting their needed calories for the day. Those who have this need are primarily gym goers and college students. The nature of the need is usually an everyday thing. For college students, the product is normally designed for cases where they are overwhelmed with classes and are unable to get something to eat. The snack provides a healthy way that students can get their needed nutrition for the day. Forces and/or changes that are creating this opportunity is the slow shift into more and more people wanting to work out and become stronger. For students, classes are the primary sources of change that create this opportunity. The market that I am targeting are the students at the University of Florida. I'm marketing my product to both male and female. This product is primarily marketed to the 18-30 age range mostly because the product is for those who are students and people who regularly go to the gym. Currently, people are satisfying this need by making protein shakes and buying store bought snacks that they can eat between their meals. I feel that people who take protein shakes aren't too loyal to the shakes because they take too much time to make and there's too much cleaning involved. Those who buy store bought snacks I feel are a little more loyal to what they buy to a certain extent. They like the selection and ease of purchase; however, they can get sick of certain flavors of snacks that are on the shelves. The opportunity isn't necessarily too big because there are a lot of alternatives available and some people already make their own snacks. I feel that the window of opportunity will always be open because there's always going to be new college student and people who are trying to get bigger in the gym. As long as people don't want to spend their own free time and effort into making healthy snacks, the opportunity will stay open. 

Innovation

The product that I am offering is a healthy snack made up of peanut butter, raisins, honey, oats, and protein powder. This product satisfies all nutrient values including protein, carbs, sugars, and fruits. This product is meant to satisfy hunger for a short period of time in between meals. How this product works is that you eat about 2-3 "bites" in between your meals to hold your stomach off till your next meal. Its meant to build on your gains in the gym and satisfy the normal person's hunger. I'm selling my product in bulk (hence Bulk Bites the name) at 10 and 25. The prices for the Bulk Bites are $15 and $25, respectively.

 Venture Concept

The Bulk Bites will solve my opportunity because its designed to help individuals who go to the gym a more satisfying way of in-taking protein powder, which is what they might use to make shakes. For the college students, the snack is quick and easy to eat because of how small they are. They're easy to transfer and normally 2-3 satisfy the hunger of a normal college student; therefore, each 25 batch will last a while for them. Gym goers and college students will buy my product because it's healthy and it provides a new way of getting their needed nutrition for the day. Among the alternatives like protein shakes and store-bought snacks, my product is far tastier than any shake and healthier than any snack that's on the shelf. The reasons why gym goers will switch is because gym goers understand that it's better to have physical forms of nutrient intake and will see that its a lot more simple and cleaner than a protein shake. Shakes are also less filling than physical food. The reason why college students will switch is because they're almost always hungry and they don't have to put in the time and effort to make their own snacks. I do feel that it'll be hard to get people to switch because people don't know the taste of the snacks. I guess the competitors for what I'm going through are the companies who make protein bars and health bars. The possible weakness and vulnerabilities to these companies is that they don't emphasize the homemade and healthy factor. The customer experience is the main factor that is defining my opportunity because I'm allowing my customers to give feedback on what they may want specialized for their batch. Some individuals may want something changed from the original recipe because they're allergic or don't find it enjoyable. I don't plan on expanding too large to where I would need employees; therefore, I don't have a number for the amount of employees I would have. The role in my venture is to stay small because I want to emphasize the fact that my product is homemade. 

Three Minor Elements

1.  My most important resource is the homemade factor of my product. Because I plan on staying small, I am able to appeal to customers who worry about what's in their snacks. It's hard for companies to match this because it would be inefficient for how big they expanded their business.
2. What's next for my venture is maybe selling a Bulk Bite kit that'll enable individuals to make the product themselves if they wanted to. In this kit, I would include a to-go container that would be designed like unique objects such as a dragon ball or a poki ball. 
3. For the future, I want to have a steady "side income" for this venture because I'll be dedicating most of my time to firefighting in the future.