Vote now for the best idea in the High School Utah Entrepreneur Challenge, a statewide business idea competition for students ages 14-18. Voting is open March 28 to April 14, 2017, at 5 p.m. The team with the most votes will receive a $500 prize at the HSUEC Awards and Showcase Event on April 15, 2017, at 4-6 p.m. at the University of Utah. All are welcome to attend! It’s a great opportunity to meet the best student entrepreneurs in the state and see who wins the $30,000 in cash and prizes, including three $5,000 grand prize winners. The competition is managed by the Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute at the University of Utah and sponsored by Zions Bank.
Mini Air Dancer Project:
14-18 year-olds can come up with some great ideas … and this certainly is one of them. The 22 page P-Point was very impressive … congratulations on documenting your field research (i.e., slide 9, etc.) … that is missing from so many pitches … congratulations as well on your field testing. I’ve been to a lot of b. plan competitions … and pitched myself … this stacks up well against college business plan pitches. Other comments:
• I liked the close (slide 22) tied back again to the project intro (slide 2).
• Cost of sales might be a better metric than COGS before calculating the gross profit … mfg. labor is a little hard to aggregate as a weighted-average variable cost in the business model (but slide 14 is pretty remarkable as a tool to plan operations).
• Sales commissions appear truly variable
• It’s important to separate all fixed costs from variable … especially since even the best of businesses do not cash flow right off the launching pad … of my many start-ups, the best one cash flowed at 15 months (i.e., a mfg. company) … the longest took six years (computer software), but still was a success. One “has to know” where the “breakeven point” is (i.e., where revenues cover all pre-tax costs)
• The ASK … sort of hard to find, but I think in your ‘humble’ approach you are seeking 160K (slide 21) for some share of a business that could position a price-competitive product (relatively simple to fabricate) … within a very large market that could easily scale by a factor (10) once you hit breakeven … with such attractive gross profit margins and fixed overhead costs … that downturn economic risks are minimal … and upside potential is favorably skewed … as it can be leveraged by a business model generating ‘repeat’ purchases of ‘all’ customers as they become aggregated (i.e., the razor / razor blade)… so that in the long run … customer acquisition costs occur primarily on the margin … and your (multiple-per-customer) product & associated accessories become a permanent part of each targeted airport’s annual wildlife control discretionary budget … in perpetuity
• Be less humble … Highlight the opportunity for the investor … Double the ASK!
WELL DONE
Clyde, thanks for your feedback. We’ll forward it to the team so they see it.