Wellness 360 (Round 2)

OPPORTUNITY 

In today’s society, there is a lack of knowledge about how to be healthy. Individuals know that being healthy would include participation in behaviors such as exercising regularly and eating nutritious meals, however, many individuals do not have the education and resources required to properly implement these behaviors. With all of the diverse diet and exercise information floating around the media, much of which is false or without evidence to back it, health has become confusing for those who have not studied it. Individuals are seeking out a healthy lifestyle, and are searching for the resources that can help them achieve it. This opportunity is created by the shift in society towards health, brought on by the younger generations that are thinking futuristically. Also, with America’s obesity issue, individuals are eager to take preventative measures or to turn their lives around if they are already experiencing health deficits. Customers are currently satisfying their lack of knowledge in the field of health by conducting personal research, hiring professionals, or joining fitness centers that have amenities such as fitness coaching. The opportunity to provide the resources and knowledge needed to live a healthy lifestyle is great because there is increasing awareness for the consequences of poor health and desire to live healthier lives. People who do not have an advanced understanding of fitness and nutrition have this unmet need, they are in need of a convenient and reliable way to improve their health.

INNOVATION

To address the unmeet needs of customers who are seeking a healthy lifestyle but don't know where or how to start, I am proposing a wellness center that focuses on providing the knowledge and resources necessary to embody an all encompassing health. This center will consist of the resources that can be found throughout a community, however they will be combined and made available under the same roof to provide convenience for customers. This center would mostly be a full sized gym where members could work on their physical health with the assistance of personal trainers, but would also have rooms for teaching sessions that would cover information regarding other elements of wellness such as nutrition, self-care, life improvement, etc. The center would also include an activity room primarily used for yoga classes. Because yoga relieves stress and increases positive energy, yoga is a beneficial amenity for mental health. Because fitness can be intimidating, and many don't know how to approach it: I will incorporate a class into the schedule that walks members through the resistance machines and helps them become familiar with them and feel more comfortable and confident when entering the gym. This wellness center would work by providing unlimited access based off of membership, although on day trials would be allowed for prospects. In summary, I am selling access to a gym, workout classes and consultations with personal trainers, various educational classes covering diverse topics in wellness, interactive activities/sessions between members of the center. In order to turn profit, I would start membership at a lower cost in order to spread awareness of my business and create a feeling of immediacy for potential customers.  This promotion would be for the first set number of members to join and would allow me to quickly accumulate paying customers. This early bird special would be around $40 a month, after which, prices for all-inclusive membership would increase to around $50 a month. In case customers really like the gym within this wellness center, I will offer a limited membership offer for $20 a month which allows them access to the gym alone. 

VENTURE CONCEPT

My innovation: a wellness center, will solve the opportunity I identified: lack of knowledge and resources needed to be healthy. My concept will be affective because it will provide resources such as a gym, a personal trainer, and a nutritionist along with brief classes that members can attend that will increase knowledge on fitness, nutrition, etc. to make individuals more independent in their fitness journeys. I believe customers will switch to this new service because it can take the place of all of their combined efforts towards healthy living, such as: a gym membership, personal training costs, visits to a nutritionist, workout and diet programs, etc. Because people are drawn to new ways to achieve and maintain a healthy lifestyle and ideal body image, it won’t be difficult to bring in customers. People are eager to find an innovative program or center that will help them achieve and sustain their health goals. Competitors are surrounding fitness centers, although they are already established with their members, they lack the well-rounded approach that my concept has; although people have memberships to these gyms, they are still walking around confused about how to approach fitness and wellness. My business will provide an all-inclusive membership with no additional costs for amenities. In order to get my wellness center running, I would need at least one full-time personal trainer, one nutritionist, and 10-15 part-time employees to work the front desk and monitor the center throughout it's hours of operation. 

Minor Elements 

1. My most important resource for this business will be exceptional customer service. Customer service will be of top priority in this company and will be engrained in the mind of all individuals taking part in the mission. Keeping customer service in mind, member interactions will always be handled with patience, respect, and empathy. The positive experience members have when they enter this facility, is what will set it apart from competitors. 
2. With the abundance of knowledge and experience that would be present in my wellness center, the next product that could expand our offerings would be a book or instructional guide which would include the most important information for living a healthy lifestyle. This book would be a summary of all the lessons we teach at the wellness center. Another possible expansion for my company would be opening an adjoining juice bar or restaurant that serves healthy and fulfilling meals; this would allow for a convenient and goal oriented post-workout meal for members, it could also draw in people who are then exposed to the facility. 
3. Assuming I launched this business, in five years I would want to see a profitable wellness center that has not only been successful in terms of membership and revenue, but also in terms of it's purpose: to improve the lives of others. As an entrepreneur, I would always want to pursue things I am passionate about. My vision is to positively impact the lives of as many people as I can in whatever ways I am able to. 

FEEDBACK

Overall, the feedback on my venture concept was very positive and supportive. My peers liked the idea of making an all-encompassing and non-intimidating wellness center where members could gain the necessary knowledge and have access to the necessary equipment needed to cultivate a healthy lifestyle. During the "What's Next" activity, there were some ideas and emphasis on certain aspects that should be included in my facility. Participants reacted very positively to the idea of incorporating an orientation class that walks members through all the equipment and explains how to use each machine. The younger generation loved the idea or potentially including a juice bar or some sort of cafe that served healthy and fresh meals, they also emphasized the importance of incorporating yoga. 

CHANGES

In response to this feedback, I added some small sections to my venture concept. Because my peers' reactions were positive for my first venture concept, I didn't remove anything, I simply incorporated new recommendations that I acquired through the "What's Next" exercise. I explained my class that would be incorporated to introduce new members to the resistance machines and cardio equipment. I also added in the idea of an multi-purpose activity room that would be used by the facility for yoga classes and open at other times for members to workout in. For a possible expansion idea in the future, I added in my idea of opening an adjoining, healthy cafe, so that members not only learn about making nutritious decisions at my wellness center, but can actually partake in that decision making conveniently. 

Final Reflection

Reflecting on the assignments from this course and all that I have learned from them, the most formative experience I had throughout the duration of the semester was practicing my elevator pitch. This task really intimidated me at first which is the main reason I didn't complete the first two, however, once I had finally tackled it on round 3, I realized I learned a lot. Public speaking is certainly not easy, and although this assignment was conducted with video, it was intimidating and put a lot of pressure on presenting an idea smoothly, without hitting mental blocks. This elevator pitch was also the assignment I am most proud of completing, that is because I don't do well recording myself talking and oftentimes lose my train of thought when performing under pressure. The assignments I most enjoyed completing were definitely the book reflections, I love reading in general but I found the books that I read throughout this semester both informative and inspiring.

Although this class has taught me many things about entrepreneurship, I don't necessarily see myself as an entrepreneur. I think that I lack the creative mindset and willingness to take risks necessary for entrepreneurship. With that being said, I have moved a lot closer to an entrepreneurial mindset. When I see problems now, I evaluate them as opportunities and think of how businesses may solve them in the future. I now have a much better understanding of what goes into entrepreneurship and see it as the complex field that it is.

For future students, I recommend persistence. Like in entrepreneurship, there will be many times throughout this course that you simply want to give up. Even when you want to cut corners or skip out on assignments, it's crucial that you stay dedicated. In order to foster this mindset, I would recommend students keep themselves motivated by reflecting on how this class is helping them get to where they are trying to go in life and keep an open mind about the vast amount of knowledge and experience that they will gain throughout this course; although it is a lot of work, it is extremely rewarding.

Free $$$

Strategy
For this exercise, I wanted to try out a few different locations so that I didn't look too strange or suspicious in one certain area. Because I wanted to catch someone walking and carrying on with their day, I waited in my neighborhood back home until I saw individuals heading to their house from their parking spot or walking their dog. I also went to the corner store for this activity in order to interrupt people while they were shopping. Before venturing out to complete this assignment, I decided that I would approach people who looked approachable/friendly so that the encounter would not be too invasive or awkward. My plan was to start the conversation by stating that I was sorry to bother them followed by asking them how they were, I would then explain that someone had passed the dollar on to me as an act of kindness so I decided to keep the chain going by passing it on to them, and that they could do what they pleased with the dollar. While reading the instructions for this assignment, I was confident that I would be able to give away all five dollar bills.

Reflections 
I approached a variety of people, mainly women because I felt that I could relate to them without being too awkward. A lot of my interactions went the same, I introduced myself and told them I was sorry to bother them and then explained that I was giving away this dollar that had been passed on to me as an act of kindness. The interactions were a little more uncomfortable for me than I had anticipated but everyone I interacted with was very friendly even though I had interrupted them while they were in the middle of doing something such as walking/talking on the phone/shopping. Like I had predicted, no one that I encountered was rude or unpleasant, some people just seemed confused. My prediction was correct because I was able to give away my dollars on every attempt, I think this is because people felt that it would be strange to question my reason for doing it. I was nervous to approach random people so the conversations ended up being much shorter than expected. Overall, I think this exercise was a bit intimidating but very relatable to the business world and how you oftentimes do have to interrupt people to sell your ideas/products.