Moving forward, I still not yet 100% sure on the next tinker cad innovation design that I will be going for. The problem solution design I created for my sister was both a success and a failure, that went well but now I have to design something that I like or an innovation of my interest. I have some idea I could design, such as car, house, a technical pen but I am still thinking of other ideas too. By this week I should know what I am doing, so I can start working on that.
Month: April 2021
Updating Prototype
My customers problem and design was a success for me. After I spoke to my sister she validated the idea and the solution that I made for her. The only negative thing was the size which wasn’t that much of a big deal. We decided to build the product actually and because I designed it, I was able to explain what parts or kind of pieces we needed to buy from ikea, in order to bring this to life. We are still yet to get all the parts but it is looking like it can happen.
Just attached the designs I made from tinkercad earlier, she wants it a bit smaller, this is too big for her room but everything else is good for her.
MVP Testing
I created a website that includes most information about my business. I made a URL that links to what my business is all about. In the website we have different categories that explain what the product is and how it delivers to the targeted customers. I included a call to action section where customers can subscribe to the company mailing list with their emails, keeping them updated with every information they need to know about the company.
Here is the website link https://collegeivy.wixsite.com/collegeivy
For MVP Ad I decided to go with Facebook because facebook is like a family social media app with a huge amount of users from different ethnicity, country, diversity, religion etc. Creating a tutoring center anyone will be able to come across it, even if they don’t need it, they can send it to their children, cousins, friends who are in the targeted area. I think facebook is the best option I have to try this out.
Validating the problem.
Before I showed her my design, I decided to speak to her and just make sure I picked out the right problem that she was actually facing. I live with my sister, I want to believe I literally know everything that is up to her. So I spoke to her to know if this is really a problem she is facing or she is just being very picky with finding a bookshelf. She laughed and said “I am actually so frustrated with this because normally I am a picky person but this time if I can find something closest to this bookshelf I had go for it, I just don’t want my money to go to waste”. While I was designing the solution, I had these questions and thought in my head about if this is what she really need and not just want, I thought about why she needed this exact type of design, the decisions she has made of not wanting to waste her money on any other kind of bookshelf if it’s not the exact type of bookshelf that will satisfy her need so she doesn’t have to keep changing and I am happy I thought of this because she had actually tried other options that was available to her.
she needs this exact type of bookshelf because she is killing two birds with one stone. At her school she’s giving weekly engineering projects, where she will be using her desktop, laptop and some books to help her with her given projects. A bookshelf that can contain all three with a large table space will be perfect for her to do her projects without interruptions or distractions from moving to a table to another. I totally understood her, she was also concerned with wasting her money because bookshelves like that aren’t so cheap as she ended up returning the bookshelf she tried earlier. She needs a bookshelf that will be for the long term and not just short while.
Because she was pleased with the design I made for her, we visited home improvement stores, home depot, home goods, ikea and target. We didn’t want to buy from ikea because their items don’t last for long time, so we were bit skeptical from buying their products, I spoke to an employee and they didn’t have the designed we needed, although the employee actually saved us the stress and told us what we could do to solve this problem. In Ikea there is how you can buy parts of a bookshelf and table and because I was the one that personally designed the bookshelf, I knew exactly the kind of pieces we needed in order to build this. Ikea sold to us the individual parts we need in order to bring this bookshelf to live and this is actually going to work. She was really happy and thankful for this, a problem that had been troubling her for a year one is about to be solved.
Key Takeaways from competitors.
The key takeaways I took from both my primary and secondary competitors were that some companies who are involved in tutoring business mostly take care of your major customer which shouldn’t be. A tutoring business is made of both the tutors and students but for some reasons the tutors are never fully compensated for the service that they give to this business, when truly it is really the tutors that are the body of this products, without the tutors they can face their main customers, the students.
Another thing I took was that in general it is really difficult to start a business all on your own, I mean we all know that but really when the business is in motion, you start facing real life issues, you can’t handle the competitors, it is extremely difficult all on your own. The interviewer I spoke to made this sink in my head, because that is really the reality. I know people who do it all alone and they are doing extremely well but it is advisable as an entrepreneur to have open minds on building trust with other individuals who you believe will add value to the company and will be a great business partner.
Competitive Landscape
I created a company analysis based on important key characteristics that college students and tutors will be looking for, before joining the company or working through the company app. I used three primary competitors and two second competitors in order to have different points of direction and know if my business is still of relevance in the market.
I did some research online for the characteristics for each competitor and the company that almost matched with mine is Wyzant and tutors.com. The one significant factor I think that really stood out was price and price is a huge factor.Tutor.com makes students pay over $60 per hour for Private tutoring sessions, which is really expensive especially if students are the ones paying for out of their pocket, they have other important bills to worry about too. My company will be willing to give these students the same quality of tutoring they get from these other expensive competitors with their own choice of payment, meaning there isn’t a fixed price of payment on the website. Tutors and students will come to an arrangement of how they each know what to pay or the price the students are willing to give before they start the session. One of our weaknesses will be competing with Wyzant, Wyzant is already a developed tutor, although they have no upfront payments or subscriptions that are known to be taking 25% off tutors pay which will make the tutors increase their price for each of their sessions. This competitive analysis has helped learn more about this type of business, it has helped me analyses my business further and ways I could build it to stand out. I believe my company still has a chance here and I want to see how it goes.
Interview with secondary expert
After three weeks of not hearing from anyone, I decided to make use of my social media platforms to reach out to some start up business, I honestly thought it wasn’t going to work out because I felt it was more appropriate to email companies or use professor social platform to reach out to people for interviews but this time it actual worked out.
I message the owner of Tutting, a start up company. Andres Sanabrai, he is from Guatemala and it is a different time zone from New York, he still agreed to meet up with me for 30 minutes to asers the questions I had for him. Andres was extremely grateful that I asked him to do this and he was happy to search his experience with me.
Andres started his Tutting business started recently in 2020. The platforms used in hiring face- to- face and online tutors via mobile.
Questions asked during the interview
- What Motivated him to start the company?: Before I thought about starting the company I worked in universities, I had my own students that I will tutor. I made a lot of friends while I was working, I had some personal problems that people were dealing with as I was tutoring but I really couldn’t do anything about it, it wasn’t in my place. Then he did some surveys and reached out to people about his idea, quit his job and decided to start his own business.
- Where their competitors made it difficult for you to start, how did he handle it?: He said, I have just started, I am still at a point where I am trying to validate the customer bracket. It is difficult for me to directly compete with other established businesses, it is pretty difficult for a one man team, compared to already established companies that have all sizes of business customers. The most difficult part is building up something that will be entirely different and people will like so much and will prefer to use your application than the other established companies.
- What constant challenges he is facing right?: The most difficult thing is to have enough people on your platform. There are tutors, students and you need to have a good amount of tutors for these students. If students come online and search for the type of tutors they are looking for and they don’t find them, they will end up leaving his platform and going to another tutoring site, which is bad for him. This is the type of challenge he is facing right now. Balancing tutors with students.