24A Venture Concept No. 1

Opportunity: Every year thousands of people undergo oral surgery. It can be for something as minor as having their wisdom teeth removed or for something more serious that could result in getting dentures which could have been caused by dental caries, poor dental hygiene, or even cancer. As part as their post-surgery care, these patients usually get put on a soft-food diet for anywhere between a day to several weeks afterward depending on the seriousness of the surgery. For those that only have to be on a soft-food diet for a day or two, it may not be that bad of an experience since they can probably get away with eating ice cream and jello for the duration of those two days. However, for those that have to be on a soft food diet for much longer than that, it is not nutritionally feasible. For these people, they have to undergo the healing process for much longer and sometimes they don't have additional support in the form of a spouse or kids or some other relative or friend. These people, apart from working, have to come up with nutritious meals that are soft enough to eat all while in pain. This opportunity will continue to exist as long as people keep getting oral surgery. Demographically, this opportunity would probably be targeted to lower income to moderate- income households since one reason for oral surgery is due to poor oral hygiene and that can be a consequence of not going to the dentist until its too late. This tends to happen to those with no insurance or insurance that doesn't cover their needs.

Innovation: My food service is called Simple Delights and the menu would be made up entirely of soft foods. This menu would be accessible online and a paper copy would be available at select dental offices. All the customer would have to do is call the number to place the order or order online. My service only provides lunch and dinner with orders being placed anytime between 9AM and 5PM with business hours extending till 7PM in order to provide time for delivery or pickup. Each meal would include an entrée, one or two sides, and desert with drinks being optional for a charge of $1. Most meals are typically between $10-$15 and for that reason each meal at Simple Delights will be $13 (for one side), $15 (for two sides) or $25 (regardless of number of sides) if they order for both lunch and dinner. An additional charge of $3.99 will be added if the customer wishes to have the meal delivered to their home.

Venture Concept: Most people don't follow a soft-food based diet unless its following oral surgery. For that reason, these people often times don't know which foods to prepare in order to get a nutritious meal. Most people would hear about Simple Delights from their dental office and switching to my food service would not be hard since it would be similar to trying a new restaurant. My competitors would be anyplace that serves any kind of soft food, be it soup, jello, mashed potatoes, etc. The only weakness in that is that they would not have a full menu and often times would have a handful of options. At this point, my pricing is based on the average cost of a meal which as stated above, generally ranges from $10-$15. At the beginning I would not have any employees helping me cook. I would start my business at home with maybe the help of my sisters. This would save me start up costs. The only employee would be a delivery driver and if that is unfeasible, then I would try to get a friend or relative to do deliveries.

1. My most important resource would probably be my hard work ethic. Since I won't hire any outside help (at least in the beginning) the brunt of the work would fall on me. If I would like to see my venture succeed then I would have to make sure to work extra hard.

2. What's next for my venture: probably expanding my target market. I would eventually like to include others that are not necessarily on a soft-food diet. One of my main meals would be soups and that could be appealing to someone who is sick or someone who want a hot meal in the winter.

3. Assuming I launched I would like to see my venture expand throughout the state and neighboring states after the first five years. After ten years, I would like my venture to expand nationwide. With this, I would be able to cater to wider selection of people and would perhaps also increase some of the menu items. The first venture would help me achieve this because every business needs to start somewhere.