Posted in MGT 5985 - Reflections

Interview with secondary expert

Posted on by j.ezeifeoma

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

  1. 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. 
  2. 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. 
  3. 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.
Posted in MGT 5985 Product

Failure in getting an interview with potential competitors.

Posted on by j.ezeifeoma

While this assignment was assigned almost three weeks ago, I was deceived to first reach out to the main five companies that were highly skilled in the business I am trying to get into. I reached out to five of these companies, which were:

  1. Chegg
  2. Tutor.com
  3. Skooli
  4. Cub Z
  5. Wyzant

I was more focused in speaking to someone from Wyzant because that was like my main competitor, I did everything I could possibly do to at least speak to someone on the inside, I searched up some of the people working at wyzant on linkedin, I sent out emails to their information centers, I found a number that I could call and I actually got to speak to someone but they didn’t have an inside connection to talk to one of the actual people who built/created wyzant, they only has access to tutors who are registered under the company. So Wyzant was a failure and I was sad about that because this is my first time hearing about them while I was doing research on this assignment. 

Although I was interested in speaking to a candidate from Wyzant, I really thought Chegg would at least answer me from their customer representative line or email because that is a company I am familiar with, but they did.

As none of the top five competitors got back to me I started reaching out to other secondary competitors and start up, I will list down all the companies I reached out to. 

  1. Varsity Tutors
  2. Babbette moore – this was a home private tutoring 
  3. Insta edu
  4. Kurslab
  5. Testive
  6. Toppr
  7. Tutting
  8. Turtee
  9. Ziizoo
  10. Moodle
  11. Tutor Vista
  12. Everly
  13. Flip Class

I believe these were all the companies I reached out to from my sent emails. 

Good News!!! I got to interview someone last Tuesday 23rd and I will make a new post about it. 

Posted in MGT 4952, MGT 4952 Product

TinkerCad Bookshelf

Posted on by j.ezeifeoma

My sister and I moved into a new apartment at the end of March 2020. It took us lots of time to get our things together for this new apartment because that was exactly when this pandemic began to hit everyone. She was sent out of her school dorm, leaving her to pack all her school belongings at a very short period of time.

It has been almost a year, since we put our apartment in order, I visit my sister’s room on almost a daily basis, and there is just this huge pile of textbooks stacked at the side of her room. She told me she placed three orders for a bookshelf but canceled it because that is not what she’s looking for, she has tried finding some alternative but it is either too big or too small or it is missing an important part she need in the bookshelf which is a joined table at the middle of bookshelf.

Honestly at first I thought she was just being annoying looking for her perfect bookshelf, when should just easily order something to remove the mess of books laying on the floor. But I actually understood where she was coming from, my sister is an electrical engineering major, she works a lot on the desktops and uses tons of books when she’s studying. She likes when her things are all put together in one lace and easily accessible to reach, she needed a table that was big enough for her desktops and also to contain her books, all in one.

I live with my sister and this is one of the problems she is currently facing, so I decided to design her perfect bookshelf using a tinker cad, a three layer bookshelf with a joined table and come with two extra spaces and the side of the bookshelf. I know she will appreciate this because it’s something she has been looking for years, I searched online to see what was really different from mine and most of them with tables where too small, didn’t have the wall layers or they were designed for much better space. I wish i could actually bring it to life and get it for her lol. I believe this is the kind of bookshelf she wants, solving her problems, a table to fit her desktops while she can easily access her book right in front of her.

Posted in MGT 4952, MGT 4952 Product

Personal Tinkercad

Posted on by j.ezeifeoma

I grew up in a family who loved to play chess. Although I wasn’t really a fan of it because my siblings had always beat me at the game. My dad made it like tradition, every Sunday we play chess as a family because he knew up learning it. I always enjoyed that time, everyone coming together bonding and we all play in the living room.

So I decided to go a Tinkercad drawing on creating a chess.

I was able to print this in 3D form on my PC, so decided to add a copy to my site.
Posted in MGT 5985 - Reflections

Interview Questions with Primary competitors.

Posted on by j.ezeifeoma

I will be reaching out to Wyzant (Key Competitor) through their support customer care email and hoping someone actually writes back. I am also going to Tutor.com on the website they have a session where you could make inquiry to speak to someone working with the company. 

Questions I’d like to ask is:

  1. What motivated them to start this company?
  2. Where there competitors that made it difficult for them when they started and how did they handle it?
  3. What are the constant challenges you can be facing in the business? Have you faced any yet?
  4. Could you give an estimate of how much it cost you or your team to start this business?

I am hoping to get more insight about entrepreneurs and their business. I know it’s very difficult to start a business and be successful at it, I want motivate ideas that they had to come up with. The challenges that they faced while working, did they have a partner that almost sabotaged the business and how did they handle their competitors. I will like to gain more knowledge on how to be an entrepreneur, the gains and pains companies go through to succeed. I am looking for real life problems and accomplishments. 

Posted in MGT 5985 - Reflections

Competitive Analysis

Posted on by j.ezeifeoma
How to Sell Your Business to a Competitor | Steve Sprindis - Waypoint Private Capital

I did a competitive analysis on a tutoring company called Wyzant. It is also a professional private tutoring platform that connects students with professional teachers who have a Bachelor’s degree, teaching certificate to provide solutions to students’ needs. This company had features I plan on implementing into my business idea such as having in person tutoring and not just online through the website or app, having multiple ways to pay tutors, no upfront payments or subscriptions to making sure students get the full satisfaction before they pay. Those are some common features that both my company and wyzant will be having.

Although this is similar to my idea, during my research I found some cons about wyzant that make their customers quit using their planform and I could use those cons and apply them into my own idea in a good way, for example wyzant allows tutors to pick the prices they want to charge their students which is a good thing but then 25% of the money goes to the company which tutors find that really challenging and difficult to give because they aren’t making much profit on their ends. Wyzant does not supply previous exam past questions to students who need them for practice and wyzant in person meetings with tutors are based on locations that either tutor or a student pick, which is not safe for both parties. For my idea the in person meeting has to be within a school’s premises to keep both the tutor and the students in a safe environment. I won’t want to be taking 25% off tutors payment, instead I let the students pay in cash to tutors after their services or give the tutors the options to pick their mode of payment.

Our value proposition is almost the same goal, being flexible, efficient and effective to serve both tutors and students from different colleges because we are both carrying out the same kind of services. I think I’d still go on with this business idea, I will probably still have to do more research on how to stand out because Wyzant currently has tons of users at different colleges, they are flexible, have multiple slots available for students, over 300 subjects available to all students not just college students. If I am coming into the market I have to make that big/important change to attract customers and make profit. 

Posted in MGT 4952 Reflections

Design Thinking.

Posted on by j.ezeifeoma

Design thinking is the act of empathizing with users, interacting, doing research, having valuable conversations that can make you creative, giving meaningful insights to figure/picture out the actual problem and the right solution to build in order to meet the end-users requirements and their satisfaction. It is another way of approaching challenges users are facing, coming up with the best problem-solution ideas to help users. It helps with providing the right data, providing options to play around with and find the best possible solution. 

What can the world of banking learn from design thinking? | BBVA

Design thinking has made a positive impact on various companies within the last years, before there was a thing of “design thinking” most companies had difficulty finding the right problems and without figuring the right problem you can’t really build the right solutions. There was more of large information without inadequate research or opinions from users so it was hard for business to picture or form possible solutions for users. I think design thinking is actually useful, businesses are more creative, create rooms for more ideas, people’s opinions, improved communication with owners and users, it has helped shape business owners’ behaviors. But also I don’t think everything has to be done through design thinking, I feel like nowadays people make it seem like your company can’t progress without design thinking, I mean it helps with innovation and managing your business but it is not the only right way to ahead in making a big difference or positive impact in your business.

Posted in MGT 5985 Product

Lean Canvas and Justifications.

Posted on by j.ezeifeoma

JUSTIFICATIONS:

Problem.

These problems I have stated are what I go through personally when working in group tutoring and it is not just a personal problem for me but for other college students. People complain how they aren’t able to get quality time with tutors or professors at office hours because they are busy attending to three or four other students within a two hours time frame and that isn’t enough time to solve or explain questions that a student is having difficulty with. People get intimidated by other students in group tutoring, they find it hard to ask questions because it is easy for other students to answer and they think it’s a shame for them not to know it.

Solution.

I came up with the solution of developing a Private tutor app to find a quality professor that can have a one on one with students in the United States. There will be tutors available both on weekdays and weekends, with multiple time slots that work with students’ time schedules. This will help students to worry less about finding the right time. The mode of teaching will both be online and in person to bring comfort for students or tutors who can’t make it in person or tutoring late hours. 

        Unfair Advantage. 

As we are targeting college students we already have the existing customers that will be in need or this app. Students will want to also interact with other students, so we have it possible for students to also connect with one another and share the problems they can be having too. We will build our website to be user friendly and easy to use for our customers.

Key Metrics. 

In order to monitor our performance, I will be reaching out to students to complete surveys on the tutoring app to know exactly what we can be doing wrong and how to fix the problems they are facing for them to have a better experience with the app. I will be watching the amount of active users on the app or count the number of downloaders we get within each month, to know if we are at an increase in customers or decrease. 

      Customer Segment.

The Private tutor app is focused on Undergraduate and graduate students or people who are done with university but preparing for external exams such as CPS, CFA, COMPTIA. I believe these are the people that need it the most because they need every little help they can get to understand what is being taught in their classes and to pass their exams with the help of private tutors. 

Unique Value Proposition.

For our optional users, we have to have unique features that are different from other tutoring apps. We want an efficient and effective app that will be able to serve both tutors and students from different colleges. I came up with a new mode of payment, instead of paying a monthly fee like every other tutoring app, students and tutor can pick their mode of payment, either by paying cash, buying the tutor breakfast, lunch or dinner and avoid paying taxes. The app will be a session where tutors are allowed to share previous exams for various classes, this will help students be more prepared for their exams and have an idea of what to expect. 

Channels.

For our channels we want to focus on reaching out to our potential customers through school website newsletters, sending out emails to students, creating blog posts on schools websites. As we get new customers, they can refer other students in exchange for a free tutoring session. I will be showing ads on educational youtube videos and social media posts through instagram, twitter, facebook and tikok. These will help make our business known and grow with more valuable customers.

Two assumption that must be true to make the idea succeed;

  1. To find a tutor that will be able to fit student schedule.
  2. Tutors that will be well trained to meet students needs. 
Posted in MGT 5985 Product

Updated Problem-Solution Concept.

Posted on by j.ezeifeoma

I believe we all like when we can do things on our own time schedule, in our own space without any distraction. As a college student I have had problems with meeting up with professors during their office hours or staying after class to meet with them to explain something I might have not understood because their office hours doesn’t fit with my work or school schedule, it difficult for me to stay behind because I have another in ten minutes and the professor takes attendance early so I can afford to be late. These problems are why we get to have tutors who are capable of explaining and finding solutions to the problems you are struggling with at school providing different time slots that can work for you on both weekdays and weekends.

Group tutoring is very common in college, you book an appointment through the school website to meet up with a certain tutor that qualifies in the class you are having difficulty with. Tutors attend to you and about three other students with only two hours availability, personally I don’t think that is sufficient or convenient enough for students who are struggling or lagging behind class especially when they have midterms or final to prepare for. With all these problems we are facing, I have decided to come with an idea that will work better for a good amount of college students who are in this boat. In order to find the right time, the best tutor, one on one meet-ups without distractions and at your own conveniences, building a digital private tutor App will be the best solution.

A private tutor app will be available for all college students in multiple schools, it will allow students to search for a tutor that teaches the class they need help with, it could either be a tutor from their school or from a different college, giving students the flexibility to choose what works best for them. There will be multiple time slots available everyday, both online and in person, giving the student options. Online Tutoring will have the option for students to record the session in case they need to reference back to what their tutor taught. Students can drop reviews on the tutor to give other students an idea what it is like working with that tutor. The private teaching will help students who aren’t confident enough to ask more questions and be comfortable expressing themselves without any interruptions or side comments. The app can be designed to let you know if the tutor ones took the same professor as you and can teach you the way the professor teaches in order to pass exams. All tutors must be registered under a school and any in person meet ups will be strictly held within school premises for safety purposes. 

Image result for private tutor college students

Private tutor apps give students more room to have assistants in solving their academic problems, creating a safe space between the student and tutor. Students can pick the tutors that work with the time schedule, have enough time to meet with the tutor and go through their class difficulties.