Venture Concept No. 1

Opportunity:

The opportunity I have identified is that in my home town Santa Cruz, Bolivia there isn’t a place where pet owners can buy ID tags for their animals. Specifically, with dogs we have a huge problem with strays here in Santa Cruz and the dog pound is not of much help. They only go around when there is a problem with rabies or a disease of that sort going around town. So, I have noticed the need because when you go around the city you see animal lost signs everywhere and you also see posts on social media like Facebook or Instagram of people who have lost their dogs or cats. I have a dog and my girlfriend has two of them, and we have looked everywhere for ID tags and we couldn’t find any, I interviewed 5 people on the matter and none of them had seen a place that sold the tags.

So, the opportunity is there and there is no type of competition what so ever, I have heard of people that tattoo their phone numbers in their pet’s ears which is certainly an option. On the other hand, I think that the ID tags are a better option because the animal doesn’t suffer that much and the tag is cheaper. Yes, the tag can easily be removed and it’ll be harder to recognize your dog. But if someone finds your dog and they want to keep him/her a tattoo wont stop them from it this is a big city and if a thief wants to keep your dog it’ll be almost impossible to find them even if the animal had a tattoo. I think this opportunity is pretty big due to the fact that this is a product you can’t find anywhere, so this means that customers aren’t loyal to any type of service or product being offered currently, and if they love their animals they will remain pretty loyal to keep on buying tags as their animal keeps growing or if their information changes and they need to get a new tag. The window of opportunity wont be open for that long because the costs of entry are very low and demand will be very high at least at the beginning, so I expect many people to enter the same market.

Innovation:

I wouldn’t call the solution I have come up with to the stray problem in my city as an innovation. Actually my solution is not something new in the US, but it is something that people can’t attain in Santa Cruz. There isn’t a place you can go to and get ID tags for your animals, and all of the people I have talked to encourage me to follow through with the plan so they can become customers eventually. The product I will be selling is an ID tag, in which I will engrave the animals’ owner info so in case of getting lost it can easily return home. To be able to engrave the customer’s info I will need a little machine which is not expensive at all and of course the actual tags of which I would like to offer different models, colors, and sizes.

Here in Bolivia the currency is called Boliviano and I would sell each tag for 20 Bolivianos or Bs. Which is the same thing only abbreviated, or two for 35 Bs. Currently 6.96 Bs trades for $1 which means that I’ll be selling one tag for around $3 or you can buy two for $5 or 35 Bs. As stated before. At first I would position myself in key areas, such as outside malls or in downtown there is a very crowded street, something like West University Ave here in Gainesville. So in places like those I would put up a sign that reads “Pet Tags for 20 Bs. Or take two for 35 Bs.” And just see how the market goes, and according to where I sell more tags over a week that will be the place that I’ll frequent more. I hope for the product to sell itself, due to the fact that the situation in the city with strays is pretty bad, many people would want to buy the product. When I have interviewed people they supported me and those who owned animals said that they would definitely buy the product. Furthermore, I don’t think I have invented or innovated something huge of sorts, I just saw an opportunity that has to do with something I like (animals) and so I decided to act upon it.

Venture Concept:

My solution to the problem which I don’t really think of as an innovation will solve some issues both for animal owners and for the city in general. As of right now, you are able to see dozens of pets mostly cats and dogs in the streets of Santa Cruz, Bolivia and no one does something about it. You are able to see animal lost signs everywhere and most people never find their lost pets. As stated before my product is an ID tag in which I will engrave the owners’ info so in case of getting lost, someone that finds the animal can easily contact the pet owner and return the animal home safely. So my product is key for every pet owner that actually cares for their animal because anything can happen and for as much as you can care for your animal it can always get lost.

Pet owners won’t have to switch from any other product to mine because as of right now there isn’t anyone offering an option to solve this problem. When I enter the business there will not be any competitors. Although, I expect other people to enter the market because entry costs are low, their weaknesses will be to get the product as cheap as I get it which will let me charge less than them, another weakness would be that I will cover the best locations as fast as I can. In a future I think of eliminating almost all human interaction with this business. Here in the US you can find machines at Walmart, Publix, or Pet Smart which can make this tags, I would like to run the business until I can afford a couple of those machines and place them at convenient locations so costs will eventually go down.

The Three Minor Elements: 

I think that the “secret sauce” of this opportunity is that no one offers this product currently in Santa Cruz. So by being the first one I will be able to position my selling points strategically and start with a good marketing mix that will allow me to get almost everyone’s attention, so all pet owners will come running for their dog/cats ID tag.

At some point I would like to offer pet collars, because it’s a great idea to offer a collar to which you can attach the ID tag, most people that need a tag will need a collar, or people that came in for a collar will now leave with a tag that matches that collar. Eventually I will be covering two needs and hopefully having a more lucrative business.

Here in the US you can find machines at Walmart, Publix, or Pet Smart which can engrave your info in the tags and you can pay using your debit/credit card, I would like to run the business until I can afford a couple of those machines and place them at convenient/strategic locations so costs will eventually go down. At that point, after I have covered all my costs I would like to donate the entire operation to animal shelters here in Santa Cruz, that would be my exit strategy. By doing so I would like to move on to the next thing as stated by Scott Adams in How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big, “You should never be content in the place you are, you should always keep looking for the next job or opportunity” I have decided to take this advice and always have my head up looking for the next opportunity and tackle it head on.