We made it! This final week's theme is entitled, "Ready, Set, Grow!", but I have found throughout my work this semester, my blog should more aptly be titled, "Know when to scale back!" After developing my business model, and discussing it's requirements with the company CEO, we've found that there would be less intensive and demanding ways of achieving the same mission goals. The company is not yet at the size to support the staffing and investment needed to launch the venture, but may reach that requirement in a few years. So the plans will sit on the proverbial shelves until the company can accommodate it. I believe they are still planning to launch a test/pilot run with a school in Brasil they have strong connections with in order to develop promotional material and encourage participation on their community website.
In the meantime, I met with the CEO to discuss other strategies that his company could implement now using the resources they currently have to achieve these same noble goals. His main goal when I first met with him at the start of the semester was "to get these kits into the schools and in front of students that would not otherwise have them." He identified specific schools in the area that he felt would be prime targets for this technology and wanted to raise the capital needed to subsidize the donation of the kits to these schools, in large enough quantities for teachers to actively engage them in their classrooms. We discussed his current purchasing procedures for customers and the extent of donations received from corporations and grants, but recognized the need to make whatever strategy applied self-sustaining over time; the company can not continually support what are often time and capital consuming fundraising efforts. My suggestions to him were as follows:
1. Currently, when schools (most often charter and magnet schools with flexible budgets) purchase kits, they receive a 10% discount off the retail price as an "educational discount". Allowing these schools to donate their 10% discount (they optionally select to waive their discount, knowing it will be deposited) to a savings account for underprivileged schools would create a self-sustaining source of funds to deploy kits to targeted schools.
2. Currently, many corporations make large donations to the company. Usually these lump sums of cash are used to deploy large batches of kits to schools that have not had the product before. However a problem arises in that the kits are often only used once, or sometimes never at all, because of school year constraints or staff turn-overs. Instead of soliciting a general donation from corporations, the company could offer a "Repair Pieces Sponsorship". This could be done on a more indirect level with the establishment of an endowment that all schools could apply for funding from; or a more direct venture could see the company matched with a specific school from which they receive a bill at the end of every school year for replacement pieces needed to use the kits again in the next school year.
3. Currently, obtaining sufficient arts and crafts supplies to use with the kits can be a deterrent for schools and teachers. Partnering with arts and crafts supply stores to provide a 10-20% discount to teachers/schools showing a company purchase receipt or voucher would help reduce this barrier to adoption and continuation of the program.
4 At present, soliciting participation from teachers in pre-training activities can be a big challenge. Partnering with a specific university or school district to provide continuing education credits to teachers undergoing company training sessions would significantly boost enrollment and participation among all ages and subjects of teachers.
These 4 strategies will allow the company to achieve it's goals of finding sustaining sources of funding to supply disadvantaged schools with kits. These steps will require some investment of time and presently held resources to be completed, but are not out of reach of current capabilities and will be significantly less demanding than launching the entire exchange venture. John Wooden once said, "Failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be." These options are the right choice for this company. While some may view this closure of the project as disappointing, I actually found it refreshing. Often times, entrepreneurs get carried away in the 'magic of the venture' , consuming significant resources for little output. I felt this project was an exercise in frugal engineering and design thinking, and built upon my experiences with education and innovative technologies in a unique way. Working for my client was very rewarding and I felt like we both received a lot out of our professional relationship. And there is not much more you can ask for out of a 'failed' venture than that!
In closing, I will reference a resource that has three tips that I think helped me develop this epilogue of options, and may prove useful to any other entrepreneurs reconsidering their path forward. It is entitled, "What Surviving a Failed Venture Taught me About Preparing for Abrupt Change"
(http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/241798). The advice is timely for the conclusion of this class and the stage that many of our classmates may be in and I hope they all heed this simple advice. Best of luck Everyone!
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