19A- Idea Napkin #2

1) You. Who you are. What your talents are. What your skills and experiences are. Also: what are your aspirations? Specifically regarding your business concept, how do you see this business (if you were to start it) playing a role in your life?

I am Myles Finn! I am a hard worker and when I set my mind on something it will get done. My skills that I have acquired so far are a great work ethic, positive attitude, and adaptability. My aspirations for this business idea is to make a huge impact on our ever growing plastic crisis. That may mean finding a better way to recycle plastic, bringing great attention and action to this crisis or even just cleaning out the ocean of all the plastic. If I were to actually start this business I would just recycle a lot of peoples plastic while bringing attention to the crisis and eventually making a real impact. This business idea is just the stepping stone to what could come out of this. Some disagree with me and think that my service is a waste of time because most garbage disposal places will let you recycle. But you have to pay to try and make the world a little less plasticy? That is absolutely absurd to me! 

2) What are you offering to customers? Describe the product or service (in other words, how you'll solve customers' unmet needs). 

I am offering an easy way to recycle for my customers. I provide the bins and even pick up their plastic weekly free of charge. If the customer would like information, I could start informing them on this ever growing problem, showing them how big of a difference they are making, and hopefully have them tell even one person about me and my goals. I just want everyone to open their eyes and see that if every one pitches in and does their part we still have time to fix this issue.

3) Who are you offering it to? Describe, in as much detail as possible, the demographic and psychographic characteristics of your customers. Think especially of this question: what do your customers all have in common?

Demographically I would offer my service in my home town. Psycographic characteristics would be either laziness or lack of knowledge about our plastic crisis. All of my customers have the urge to recycle but do not have the means to and that is where I would come in with a personal impact on all my customers. My ideal prototypical customer would be large busy families that do not know how to recycle and do not want to pay to recycle.

4) Why do they care? Your solution is only valuable insofar as customers believe its valuable to them. Here, explain why customers will actually pay you money to use your product or service. 

Aha! That is just it. I do not require any service fee since they are already paying me with their unwanted plastic! They care because once I talk to them a couple of times and they read the pamphlets that I leave for them they will get the same urge to recycle that I have. It is already bad enough that we have so many land fills just taking up some of our earth while harming it at the same time. If we all do our best to recycle we can fix this issue.

5) What are your core competencies? What sets you apart from everyone else? Also: what do you have that nobody else has? 

What sets me apart is my drive and knowledge of the crisis. A lot of people are aware of this issue and nobody takes advantage of the opportunity that I have identified. I want to see change in the world. If that requires a small time trash service that hopefully starts a movement then I would be very pleased.

I personally think that these elements do fit together quite well. My service is free with no requirements at all. I feel that I would be able to spread the positive message of recycling to a large group of people this way who would  hopefully tell other people . While spreading the word of recycling I will be making money off of other peoples plastic that they were just going to throw away. Impacting the planet and making a profit go together quite well to me.

Some people do not agree that this is solving a customers unmet need. Not having to pay to recycle makes a lot of sense and incentives more people to go with my service! It will be a lot of work but it is for a great cause! I just want everyone to pitch in and recycle. If that means I have to spread the news and get the ball rolling then so be it! I updated each question based on the great feedback I got from my fellow students.