24A

Opportunity:

I have an unmet consumer need regarding having a go-to place for college-aged kids to both drink and get away from the typical bar scene at the same time. All too often in college, I hear all of my buddies complaining, “I’m so sick of Midtown, all of the bars there suck.” “The beer is too expensive, and there’s nothing to do besides stand in a small cramped space with one hundred other people.” I’m sure that this demand is also met nationally, and not just here in Gainesville. Demographics do not matter here either, boy or girl, black or white, it does not matter. Everyone seems to run into this same problem. (Maybe unless you live in one of the massive metropolitan cities of the world like New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago) Customers are responding to this need by forcing themselves to the same old places weekend after weekend. This makes this opportunity huge. If I could reinvent the college American bar scene, who knows how much money this could make me. With that being said, this opportunity is not going anywhere either. There will always be a plethora of college kids in America, and they will always be a high demand for drinking and night life, especially in college towns.

Innovation:

I must get very creative in order to come up with an idea that will get people to try out a new place. I must come up with ideas that most other places do not have. For my bar, I will employ a variety of different night life aspects. For example, in order to attract people to come to my bar, I will hire five drivers every night to cab people back and forth from my bar. (As long as they are going somewhere on campus) This will be free of charge. I will also incorporate many bar games into my bar, so it is not just a regular old bar with the bar and maybe a pool table. Instead I will bring in classic arcade machines such as pinball, Ms. Pac Man, Super Smash Bros, etc. On top of this I will add air hockey, foosball, dart boards, and of course a room dedicated for beer pong. I will make my money primarily from alcohol sales, but also from these arcade games. The arcade games are a fixed cost, in other words I pay for them one time, and then I don’t incur any more costs on them. I will also devise a plan to offer alcohol at a cheaper price to attempt to attract more people to my bar. Who doesn’t like cheap beer and liquor? On top of lower prices, I will offer deals for all people, not just deals for women. How does Masculine Monday, half off all drinks sound for guys? The ideas I have discussed I realize are not conventional for bars, but I believe I can attract enough people to achieve a healthy profit.

Venture Concept:

My innovation would solve the opportunity I previously mentioned by giving college kids a reliable place to go week after week, and not feel like a boring old bar is a hassle anymore. Customers will buy into my innovation for a few reasons: I will offer cheaper alcohol, I will provide many bar games to keep you occupied for hours, and I will provide a free ride home as well. All of these I believe will contribute to this bar being a huge hit. With all of that being said, I do not foresee it being extremely hard to get people to switch over to my bar. If someone offered me a cheaper place to drink, including a multitude of games to stay occupied with, I would say “Send me the addy.” The competitors will be the preexisting bars that already have an established reputation and loyal customers. However, as previously stated I firmly believe my cheaper alcohol prices will be able to drive these customers to me. Customer support, customer experience, and pricing points will be the biggest facets of whether or not my bar can be profitable as well if I can get enough people inside every night. I would realistically need only 10-15 employees total for this business venture of mine. I will need the five drivers, seven or eight bartenders, and a couple cooks for food. With this many employees, my payroll will not be high month to month.

My secret Sauce:

Taking four years of economics courses have taught me all sorts of things that will prove useful for this business venture. From simple economics like supply and demand, from pricing decisions in a competitive market versus a monopolistic market, or inelastic versus elastic products, I have an abundance of knowledge in this field. I feel extremely confident that it will come in handy along this journey for me. Competitors of mine without this same knowledge, I believe I can blow them out of the water.

The next step:

My next step in this process will be coming up with the capital to actually get this venture started up. On top of that, I will need to find a business partner to cut costs, and also seek out investors to further cut costs. From there, I will have the knowledge and then the capital to actually get this bar started up. The final step in the process would be picking out the right location to maximize my profits.

Future:

I would love to open up a multitude of bars in the future. Assuming this idea worked out, I would keep expanding to new locations to accumulate even more profit.