The Mind of Babington

Here's the link to my venture concept:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B45NL5S9VRkFa2N2elpHV2htUkk

Unfortunately I did not get any feedback on my first venture concept because I did not do one, but I did use the feedback I received from my other assignments to develop this concept. In particular, determining the pricing model and the break-even analyses were a major aspect of the feedback I received. In determining the pricing model, I ended up changing part of the business. Originally I would rent out the printers for a time and charge that way, but now I decided it'd be better to offer a submission option.

The main argument of this book is that companies, particularly those selling online through e-commerce, should not solely focus on the most popular products in the market. There is a very large array of products that are not well-known, but can be easily and cheaply distributed and sold at higher margins due to fewer competitors. The author states that including the long tail of products in one’s sales catalog will increase revenues and margins. This is mainly possible for e-commerce sales because they do not have to pay for expensive physical locations to sell these products.

The points made in this book enhance the entrepreneurial skills I’ve obtained from this class because it allows me to see even more entrepreneurial opportunities in our society. This book has taught me to look more into the competition and margins of a product or industry rather than just the demand. This is very helpful because it is easy to fall into the trap of seeing an item that is very popular and has very high demand, then assuming it will be a great product to sell. However, there will be many other competitors trying to sell that product as well, causing prices and profit margins to drop. If I will be selling any products in the future, I will definitely research heavily into the competitive landscape before choosing a product.

I would design some form of survey asking people about their hobbies and unique interests. I would then use this information to see what kinds of niche markets are currently being exploited successfully, and which niches are displaying an unmet need.

One of the most fascinating parts of this book was the emphasis on niche markets. Niche markets are small subgroups of the economy or society whose needs can be very specific. Historically, providing products to niche markets was much more expensive because it’s easier and cheaper to have generic-type products rather than very specific products, but it has also been much more difficult and expensive to reach these subgroups, and these extra marketing and storage costs outweighed the extra sales. However, with the advent of e-commerce, these problems are solved because we can now easily reach these subgroups with very little cost, and we do not have to worry about the expensive cost of physical stores.