Idea Napkin No. 1

1) Me: I am a junior at UF double-majoring in political science and history, with a minor in innovation. I think my talents lie mainly in talking to people and understanding the way people think and what they want and need. In short, I think my best and most useful quality is my empathy. Most of my skills and experiences lie outside of the realm of business, though I think they can easily be translated to the field. My main skills and experiences are writing, and interacting with strangers, both of which I've picked up from semesters of writing history papers as well as extensive experiences on local political campaigns in Tallahassee. My core aspirations lie outside of the realm of business as well, my ultimate goal is to become a diplomat or work in the field of foreign policy in some capacity. Despite that, I do see this potential business playing an important role in my life. If I were to start it I would most likely sell it to somebody more interested in carrying on the day-to-day operations, but I think it would be a useful opportunity to flex my lobbying muscles, so to speak, especially on an issue such as medical cannabis, which continues to occupy a gray area in American policy-making.

2) What am I offering to customers?: The products and services being offered through my business proposal are twofold. The first is that of all-natural, CBD-based medications for use on pets and other animals. The second part of my proposal is the service that I plan to offer. In order to best facilitate these medicines reaching the people and animals that need them, specialized pharmacies, drug stores, distribution methods, and online ordering systems would be set up as well, so as to get these medicines out to as many people and their pets as possible.

3) Who am I offering it to?: The customers I am offering these products and services to do not share any one defining demographic, per say, but rather they would all be pet-owners. Where these pet-owners differ, however, would vary. These medications would be most useful to those with aging and ill pets, with illnesses and pains that could be assuaged by CBD-based medicines. Veterinarians and other animal healthcare professionals might also find use in these products and services, though their ability to access them is constrained by the requirements of their professional organizations.

4) Why do they care?: These customers will pay money for these products and services because the vast majority view their animals as family members, not simply animals. Just like practically every person in the world would want the best, safest, and most effective medicine for their human family members, so too do most pet-owners want the same things for their pets, and recent studies of the veterinary industry have shown that pet-owners are willing to shell out billions for this.

5) What are my core competencies?: I think my core competencies lie in how I interact with people, throughout my work campaigning and canvassing I found that talking to complete strangers, imploring them to believe in the vision that my candidate had and I had as well, came naturally to me and is something I am very good at. More importantly, it is something I enjoy too! I think the thing that I bring to the table for this business more so than other people is my sense of empathy. I wouldn't be pursuing this for monetary gain or to make a name for myself, but because I want to do some good.

Evaluation: While I think all of these aspects of my proposal are strong on their own, there are definitely a couple that do not fit as well, leading to a weaker proposal overall. Unfortunately, I think most of the disconnect comes from my relative lack of experience in the fields of business and medicine, something that I think would hurt the possibility of a business like this being brought to fruition when I, the main mind behind it, am having to outsource numerous important positions to people because I lack the requisite knowledge. There are certainly ways to counter this, and even make it work to my advantage: many of the skills necessary for campaigning translate very well into business and entrepreneurship, but it would require practice and experimentation, something that might hurt an already experimental proposal like mine.