What We Charge and Why

When deciding how to price the services my company offers, I mostly thought about two things. 1) How much is this service worth to them / how much benefit does it bring? 2) How much would these small business owners be willing to pay while not having to reach too deep into their pockets?

My business offers a complete front to back online management system and infrastructure for small in-home daycare owners to easily and efficiently run their business. Our technology will be making major improvements in how these owners operate their business, which will allow them more time to focus on other things besides administrative tasks, which will hopefully allow their businesses to thrive. For this reason, I think what we are offering them is huge, and we can charge according to that. This online management system could save dozens of hours every month, and many headaches. Currently, I am imagining our price point for our base service would range from $100-200 as a monthly fee. (We are also considering making this an annual surcharge as opposed to monthly. Need to do some more research on the two different approaches.)

After talking to some friends who have worked closely with a few small in-home daycares in the area, I was surprised to find out these tiny business actually generate a large income. This of course was good news for us, because it means they at least have the money to be able to afford our product. For this reason, I think our price point is very fair (if not too low). I don’t foresee too much trouble convincing a business owner to spend $100-200 a month to completely flip around their operation for the better.

Entrepreneur Of The Day: Brian Forth

This week we got to hear from Brian Forth, a local Tacoma entrepreneur. Brian owns and runs Sitecrafting, which is a company that creates custom built websites for businesses. When I learned that he started his company all by himself almost 20 years ago (and its still running), I knew I was listening to a successful entrepreneur speak.

Two points especially resonated with me about Brian’s talk. The first was when he said something along the lines of “the first time I had to fire someone it was the worst, and the last time I had to fire someone it was the worst”. Hearing this made me reflect upon myself, as I know I am somewhat “soft” when it comes to being hard on people. That is something I know have to overcome if I ever want to run a company.

The second point that I really liked was when he talked about how his company was “a company that you can retire at”. This aspect of their company culture sounds beautiful to me. Having interned at Boeing, where there are dozens of people that have been there for 30+ years, I have really grown to appreciate that long term employment at one company. When I hear about companies like Amazon, where new grads are hired and burnt out in 2 years or less, I know right off the bat that is not somewhere I want to be. Regardless of whatever salary you might be offered, your work environment and work culture is everything. If you think about how much time you spend at work, that place needs to be a place you're not only comfortable at, but can thrive at.

Entrepreneur Of The Day: Erik Hanberg

Last week we listened to Erik Hanberg, a local entrepreneur talk to us about his route to entrepreneurship and everything it entailed for him. One of the first things he talked about that I connected with was when he talked about his experience at The Grand Theater. When he realized the big difference between running a theater and owning a theater, that was huge for his future. I also think I have had recent experiences in my day to day life where I have realized that you will always be so limited if you are working for someone else. But, if you create a business and are able to be financially successful with it, then the sky is the limit.

On a related note, another huge takeaway for me was when he talked about breaking the tradeoff of time and money that holds most people to be so limited financially. When Erik finished writing that book in 2009,  he was (for the most part) done with putting any more of his time into that book. However, now while he sits at home or pursues other ventures, the book has been bringing him money every month. That jump to passive income I think is key to becoming free of financial
burden.

Lastly, the part that struck the closest with me is when he talked about what he thinks is the hardest part about being an entrepreneur, which is the fear that comes with it. This is especially true for me. Whether it comes to my parents, family, or friends, I would hate for them to know I tried to do something and completely failed at it. I think this is what has stopped me from pursuing business opportunities that I have thought of in the past, but hopefully going forward I can get the confidence to simply start a venture even knowing the chance of failure is there.

My Three Business Ideas

1) With drones becoming more popular, I have an idea to start leveraging the possibilities with drone footage in multiple different markets. The basic concept is to sell drone footage after being edited and formatted in a professional manner to anyone who would benefit from owning such footage. For example, one of our primary customers could be real estate agents. We would go out to their properties, film plenty of footage around the house as well as inside the house. This could be a huge selling point for real estate agents since sometimes pictures can't quite capture the essence of the property. We might also target this service to dealerships or private car owners looking to sell their vehicle. We would put together a high quality video of the car with the drone, showing all angles as well as some rolling shots. This could easily make a potential buyer fall in love with the car after seeing what it really looks like from the outside when driving.

2) My next idea ties virtual reality to the restaurant industry. In this one of a kind restaurant, customers put on a set of VR goggles upon arrival and are immersed in an experience that is much more than just food. For example, if the restaurant is one with a focus on sushi, the customer would be served by Japanese chefs while looking around downtown Tokyo. Every inch of what they see should be taken directly from the place we are attempting to imitate, therefore giving the customer the feeling of being taken to Japan and enjoying the food as if he were there himself.

3) Being someone who buys or sells cars on Craigslist often, I have an idea that would aid the average person in buying a used vehicle from a private owner. Whenever a lot of my friends go to check out a car, they will often take me or someone else that is at least fairly familiar with how cars work. This person will advise the buyer on the pros/cons of the car they are interested in when they go check it out in person. A more experienced person will know what type of questions to ask, what the answers they give you really mean in terms of financial cost, and other related information that is not only helpful when buying a used car, but sometime crucial. However, sometimes you might not have access to a friend with this type of knowledge/expertise or they just might not be available when you need them to be. My app would provide you with a list of people in your area that are available to come check out a car with you and provide their insight, for a small fee. Some mechanic shops offer this, but you would be paying $100-200 for that service, which might be much more than the average person is willing to pay (especially if they are checking out multiple cars). The "specialists" that you are provided within the app would probably range from $25-$75 depending on the car, location, and time needed. Our app would take a small fee (3%) per transaction.

Why I Took TINST 475

For a long time now, I have been interested in being an entrepreneur. But for the most part it was never anything more than just interest or curiosity. Over time though, I have become more and more inclined to pursue a career path of an entrepreneur. When I got the opportunity to intern for a large well-known company, it actually helped me realize that I definitely do not see myself working for someone else for the rest of my life.

Wealth potential is another huge factor. When you start working for a company, you start out making pretty decent money (kinda). Your pay will increase over years, but only so slowly. The ceiling for salary is very low. Being a business owner or entrepreneur, your ceiling is almost completely unlimited! Nothing restricts you from making twice as much money as you did last year. This sort of growth is simply not possible with traditional day jobs.

Now, being that I have decided that I want the life of a entrepreneur, going forwarded I needed a way to make that dream a reality. Every time I get a chance to talk to a business owner, I always bombard them with questions so I can try to piece together what it takes to create those types of opportunities for myself. The more I talk to people though, the more I realize how much I don't know. I am more than eager to learn as much as I can about this field, as I'm convinced you can never know it all (especially when it comes to technology entrepreneurship). From Day 1 of this class, after hearing Andrew speak about what the class would entail and his brief introduction to his past businesses, I became even more excited to listen and participate in this course.