Venture Concept No. 2

OPPORTUNITY

I imagine the group of customers for my concept to have these qualities:

·      The desire to learn more about skincare

·      A lack of dermatologist-approved skincare knowledge

·      The money to spend on my service 

The list of qualities is small because this service is inclusive. Anyone of any age, gender, race, and background can and should want to take care of their skin. A big force in creating this opportunity is the Internet. By way of blogs, Youtube channels, and the multitudes of social media platforms, everyone has been given a voice. This has given everyone the opportunity to spread any kind of skincare information they want, and a lot of it is not supported by dermatologists. The Internet is also where my service would be based, so anyone with Internet access and a device could use my service. The subscription is fairly inexpensive, so I think it would be accessible to a lot of people, especially because I would offer some free services and occasional discounts to the subscription price. Customers find their information on the Internet, and I think their loyalty to whatever source they are using depends on the individual and their relationship to the source.  I think this opportunity isn’t that big in the grand scheme of things. Not everyone cares about their skin, and you can’t make anyone care. Not everyone uses the Internet frequently enough to benefit from this product. However, I think there are a lot of people who do care, and the want solutions. I think the opportunity will exist until someone creates a service like this.

INNOVATION

My innovation is a website that offers an extensive database with information on skincare products and their ingredients along with online consultations with skincare professionals. The database is basically a skincare search engine. When you look up a skincare product, you are given a breakdown of each ingredient and why or why not dermatologists find them really suitable for your skin. Your first 10 searches would be free, and I would make information available to everyone on some very basic skincare products, like a good cleanser, moisturizer, and mask that pretty much anyone could benefit from. Consultations with skincare specialists (who would be trained by dermatologists) would happen over online chat, and the first consultation with a skincare specialist is free. They would offer simple advice and solutions for general problems. For example, if you told the specialist your problem was clogged pores and acne on your forehead, they would be able to recommend different products with ingredients that targeted those problems. The actual thing that people would pay for is the subscription. The subscription would include unlimited database access, a monthly consultation with an esthetician/dermatologist, and free samples of and discounts on dermatologist-approved skincare products. The price of the subscription is $8.99 per month, and customers can choose when to skip a month or cancel without penalties. I consider this price to be pretty reasonable for all the benefits that customers receive.

VENTURE CONCEPT

My innovation would be the perfect solution to the opportunity of people who want skincare solutions. My service is completely customizable and would be able to serve almost anyone’s skincare needs. People would want to use my service because (aside from the fact that it is a unique innovation) I would make the site very visually appealing and accessible. I don’t think it would be hard to get them to switch because there isn’t really anything like my service. Of course, people will be loyal to their own solutions, but people who are already happy with their skincare routine are not part of my target audience. However, I also want to target people who aren’t interested in skincare as best as I can. I think using very simple solutions and advice while making the site feel very clinical will help with this. The competitors are influencers on Youtube and social media, and similar websites to mine. There isn’t a website out there that offers the exact same services as mine, at least not that I know of. Influencers are competitors because many of them get paid to promote products, and a lot of those products aren’t dermatologist-approved. This is the weakness of influencers- a lack of credibility. The weakness of sites that offer similar things is that they don’t have the full experience that my site does. I think that the appearance and design of my website will have a big role in its appeal. My goal is a modern and simple design with a welcoming and fun experience. I also want the people in the advertisements to be extremely diverse in terms of age, race, and personality. I want to prove that everyone, even those who weren’t always interested in skincare, can benefit from my service. I would honestly need to learn a lot more about running a website in order to make a solid business plan. I would need to hire a team of skincare specialists, my own team to handle finances, advertisements, and customer service, someone to actually make the website, and a graphic designer. These people would all be hired over time. I expect to hire enough skincare specialists to meet the demands of my consumers, so I would have a few at the very beginning and more as the amount of customers increased.

Most important resource? I think our most important resource will be the core value of helping people. This will be the driving force behind our company and it will be apparent to anyone who interacts with our website. I think that this welcoming and personal attitude will be really helpful in making us stand out, along with our particular focus on skincare and wellness.

What’s next for the venture? I would start with a referral system where I would offer people that sign up for the membership a discount code to share with their friends, and when people use their code, the first customer would receive discounts. This would be especially helpful during the beginning of my company’s growth where advertisement depends on customers. Next, I want to actually collaborate with some influencers, who have the potential to be our biggest competition. My team would reach out to them to form a sponsorship deal where they promote us in a video or post and we pay them to do so, and even offer a special discount code to their audience.

What’s next for you? I want this service to be well known and used by many in the next 5 years. The goal is exposure, which leads to customers and hopefully some really meaningful customer relationships. I also want to have a really good team who I can trust with a healthy and focused dynamic.

I was so fortunate to get some great feedback from Eugene and Justin. I was so thankful for Eugene's insight as someone who hasn't really ever cared much about skincare. People like this are going to be vital in growing my company, and Eugene's advice, which was basically to make sure my site has simple and straightforward suggestions, was so helpful. I totally understand how being straightforward in my recommendations would invite those who are less interested to consider my service. Justin had some really great specific ideas for advertisement that I immediately knew I wanted to incorporate. His first idea related to Eugene's comment, and it was to use an ad campaign with people who previously didn't care about skincare using my service and showing how it helped them. The next suggestion Justin had was to implement a referral system. I am so so thankful to both of them for the great ideas!

I added a sentence in covering Eugene's suggestion of simplicity in my Venture Concept section. I also want to put an emphasis on simplicity as one of the pillars of my service. I think it's so important to make this service as accessible as possible to anyone. I also added a sentence in inspired by Justin's idea of the advertisement. Diversity in my site's advertisements has always been important to me, and it would be so cool to show someone, like maybe an elderly man, taking care of their skin to show people that skinacre is for everyone! I also added in the explanation of the referral code in my "What’s next for the venture?" section.