My Passion to be an Entrepreneur

The business that I have had a passion to start up was one in the food industry. I always thought that the best way to provide for the needs of the next generation was to make getting them what they wanted as easy as possible. Thanks to the Internet and companies like Amazon, people no longer want to go out and shop. They want to have their goods shipped right to them. However, people still want that human experience at the end of the day: they want to go somewhere whey they do not have to deal with computers or technology. People need people after all. So I wanted my business to be people-oriented—not something online. I began to think of the types of services that people need and that is when I talked to a friend, who was a new mother of two young children. Like most moms she appreciated time away from the kids and she loved going to day spas for a massage, a facial or a foot scrub. Yet because she always carting around kids, she felt like she never had the chance to go to a spa anymore. The idea came to me: a Mom Spa—a place where moms could go, drop off the kids for an hour or two while she treats herself right. Mom Spa became the name of the franchise I envisioned, and ever since I have been passionate about pursuing this project and thinking up all the ways I could deliver a unique spa experience to people today.

One of the ways in which I imagine I can redefine the spa treatment is by taking a page out of Amazon’s book. While I want to have the traditional brick and mortar location, I also think it would be a great idea to have Mom Spa’s on the go—so that Mom’s do not actually have to leave their homes to get their desired manicure or pedicure or facial. The Mom Spa would have a team of professionals whose sole job is to deliver the spa treatment at one’s home. Each member of the team would have his or her own van, own supplies and would set each day making the requisite house calls. It would be like Grub Hub for spa customers: a Mom Spa on wheels.
My passion to be an entrepreneur basically came from seeing others do what I thought I could always do: branch out on their own and succeed for themselves with a great idea, a great pitch, and a vision. For example, one of the biggest motivators for me was Michael Dubin. Ziobro (2016) describes how entrepreneur Michael Dubin “turned a funny video into $1 billion”—a reference to the start-up Dubin founded called Dollar Shave Club for Men. The video that Dubin created was one that he shot with the help of some friends while trying to get funding for his company: he was not getting any love from venture capitalists or investors whenever he would make his board room pitch—investors were not picking up on his vision or the possibilities Dubin himself saw so plainly. Then he began showing them the video he had made (the video was posted on YouTube six years ago and went completely viral with over 25 million views). The video conveyed Dubin’s vision excellently, and Dubin got his seed money—and the video once it went viral got him clients who were ready to pitch their Gilette razors in favor of the funny Dubin’s kitschy shave club.
Dubin thus became one of the world’s great entrepreneurs by showing how an original idea communicated in a fun, light-hearted way that appealed to the core audience of consumers could take on a giant in the industry (Gilette, which has since turned off even more of its own consumers by accusing them of spreading toxic masculinity in a now notorious ad campaign that backfired badly recently). Dubin recognized that if other guys were anything like him, there was a market for a razor blade subscription service, which would allow men to avoid having to deal with the annoying shelves at the market with the sliding glass doors behind which the razors were kept. All Dubin had to do was gain traction—and the video helped to do that: it was unlike any ad ever seen before: self-aware, self-deprecating, silly and yet completely serious. Before Dubin knew it he had more customers than he could handle—and Dollar Shave Club was a scintillating hit. For entrepreneurs out there, the lesson is this: be creative, be real, and don’t be afraid to look silly: if you have a product you would buy in a heartbeat, there are probably millions of others who would do the same.
This has been one of the most important lessons for me as an entrepreneur with an idea and a business model. Dubin showed exactly what one must do to become a hit: market oneself in a way that connects one’s product or service with what people want and did not even realize they were looking for. My Mom Spa is a service that I think many moms would love to have and yet have not even thought of before. For me this is one of the most compelling reasons I have such a passion to be an entrepreneur.
Another part of that passion comes from the idea that I simply love making a business model and making it work. I love seeing how the project will make money, who the target population will be, and how I can market the company to that target. I understand that a business model is important because for a very good reason: it explains how the business itself will actually make money—which is the most important thing in business, after all. Without a business model, there is no plan of action, no indication of what the business will do to achieve a profit. Investors can look at a business model to assess whether it makes sense, is logical, whether it will work, and to see if everything has been considered. The business model should explain what is being sold or what service is being provided, how that product or service will be used to achieve a profit, and what distinguishes the business from others already in the market (Fenell, 2019). For example, a great idea for a business is insufficient: that great idea must be applied in a business model. The model shows how the great idea will work in the market. It shows how the great idea translates into great profit.
My Mom Spa business model is important for me because it allows me to see how I can create new ideas from the basic idea and turn those ideas into profitable ones. For instance, I started off with just the basic concept for the brick and mortar business that would be both a spa for mothers and a daycare for kids: the kids would go to the play pen on the other side of the spa where they would be watched and monitored by a certified care provider, and the moms could relax with kids out of sight, knowing that the little ones are safe and secure.
Then I thought about ways I could expand on the idea and make the idea even better. Why make moms come to my place of business? Why not take my place of business to the moms? This was what really got me excited about the idea and made me want to draw up a business plan even more.
What I like about business models is that they are concrete. They do not exist in bubbles but represent a business out there in the world. They let you see how the company could sink or swim based on a variety of factors. Business models are influenced by internal and external factors in numerous ways. Internal factors can include anything from employee morale to leadership to mission statement to ethics to workplace culture. External factors can be anything from the economy to political issues that affect business to competition in the marketplace to supply chains and resource abundance. Both can impact how effectively the business model is applied. The model after all is just a model—the challenge is to put it into action and make it work. Internal and external factors will impact whether or not putting the model into action actually works. Thus, while the model is essential to have, consideration also must be given to internal and external factors that could make or break the model.
Then another point that makes me passionate about being an entrepreneur is the concept of marketing the business. I want my business to succeed and, like Dubin, I want to be the one marketing it. Dubin succeeded because he got people to buy in to him as a person. I want that same thing: I want to be my own brand and I want people to buy in to the Mom Spa idea because they see me delivering it and like the way I deliver it and like the concept that I am selling.
For me the difference between the product model and the marketing model is that product model focuses on whether the product is any good and if it is priced right: if both are the case then the product should sell all on its own as consumers will realize it is a quality product at a good price. The marketing model looks at what consumers need and want. It markets the product to appeal to the consumer’s needs and wants. I want to combine these two—and basically that is what my understanding of the marketing mix is all about.
For example, the 4 P’s or 7 P’s of the marketing mix represent one sort of marketing model. The P’s are: product, place, price, and promotion plus packaging, positioning and people (Tracy, 2004). These P’s all tell something about how the business will market itself: it is oriented towards appealing to the market rather than simply trusting that the product by itself will be enough to drive sales.
While the product model puts a lot of trust in the rationality of the consumer, the marketing model is a better one because it is far more well-rounded, particularly when one uses the 7 P’s of marketing. I believe, however, that the product and the marketing must both be stellar in order for the business to succeed. The product model trusts that consumers will always be motivated to buy the superior product so long as they feel it is priced appropriately—but the marketing mix implies that there are other factors that play a part in the consumer’s decision to buy. These factors include convenience, the type of customer service one has, where the product is located for purchase (is it only available online or must it be purchased in stores exclusively?—these things are what matter in the marketing model). The marketing model looks also at price and product, so it does include the two main aspects of the product model—it just expands on that model and includes a number of other aspects—five of them to be exact if one is using the 7 P’s marketing mix. Simply by the fact that the marketing model includes these additional aspects or considerations, it is typically recognized as the superior model and anyone in business should use it when considering how to move its products. Place, packaging, positioning, promotion—these things do matter and do help to drive sales; it is not all just a matter of product and price at the end of the day.
I become passionate about being an entrepreneur when I think about all these factors and all the ways they can go into making my business successful. I define success for myself and my actions are what will determine whether my business succeeds. Thinking over the various strategies, paying attention to the needs of people, looking at the community and identifying what is missing—this is all part of what I want to do and why I love doing it.
References
Fenell, Z. (2019). The importance of a business model. Retrieved from
https://bizfluent.com/facts-6818615-importance-business-model.html
Tracy, B. (2004). The 7 P’s of marketing. Retrieved from
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/70824
Ziobro, P. (2016). How Michael Dubin turned a funny video into $1 billion. Retrieved
from https://www.wsj.com/articles/funny-video-led-to-1-billion-deal-for-dollar-shave-club-1469055206