24A – Venture Concept No. 1

Venture Concept No. 1: Neo Fix Aprons

Opportunity: 

The opportunity I identified is a renovated version of a dishwasher apron. My main target for my venture is small business owners who have their staff hand wash their restaurant's dishes. My product, Neo Fix Aprons, is meant to serve as an affordable option for business owners who simply do not have the budget to purchase a commercial dishwasher. The nature of the need stemmed from a personal pet peeve I would experience at work. I’ve been in the foodservice industry for over four years now and there has always been a major “bug” that has stuck with me. Most of the establishments that I’ve worked at hand washed all of the dishes. When you have to hand wash dishes, it is inevitable that water is going to get everywhere. This usually happens because of the strong pressure that is coming out of the sink hose. As one could imagine, the person that is stuck doing dishes usually ends up soaked from head to toe. Typically with small businesses, there are not specific dishwashers for the restaurant. Dishwashing is included in the duties of servers, cashiers, team members, etc.. Therefore, a crew member may be soaked in dishwater when doing other tasks at their work like taking customer’s orders. The market for a product like this would most likely be seen in suburban areas where most of the restaurants in town are family-owned. However, there are a few popular chain restaurants that hand wash their dishes. From the people that I’ve interviewed, my coworkers and my personal experiences, I would say that the majority of people are not satisfied with a standard plastic apron to get dishes done. I think there is a promising amount of opportunity. Initially, I did not think the segment I was targeting would be as hopeful as it turned out to be. 

Innovation:  

As I’ve mentioned before, the purpose of my product is to prevent any soakage that could happen from completing dishes at work. The main difference between a standard plastic dishwasher apron and the Neo Fix Apron is the material is it made out of. The biggest issue with plastic dishwasher aprons is that the water that falls on the apron is not absorbed so it ends up trickling down to the bottom of the apron and landing on one’s shoes or the floor. The easiest and most practical way of fixing this issue is creating aprons out of lightweight material that can hold any water that may fall on someone’s uniform. The material that came across that would work best in neoprene. Neoprene is a synthetic rubber that is water-resistant, exhibits good chemical stability, and maintains flexibility when subject to a wide range of temperatures. My reason behind choosing neoprene is due to the fact that it is used in activewear like wet suits. For extra precaution, the apron will be lined with a plastic material to further prevent potential soaking. In order to accommodate the variety of individuals that may make up a restaurant’s staff, my product will have adjustable straps on the neck and waist on the apron since that is something that I see is lacking in standard plastic ones. I’m not entirely sure yet if my product needs to be the full standard length of aprons or if it should be longer or shorter than most. I’m hoping to sell my product for about $40. Also, I was planning on creating shoe covers where the top part is neoprene and the bottom part is made out of silicone with grips to prevent any slipping. If that does end up becoming part of my venture then I would sell the shoe covers in a combo set with the apron for about $55.

Venture Concept: 

I believe customers would switch to this new product because it is an alternative that has not been presented before. When I spoke to the many managers throughout my interviews, their main reasoning as to why they continue to use plastic aprons was because they were not aware of another option that does not include purchasing a commercial dishwasher. I think the competitors that I would face are companies that may want to imitate my idea by creating similar aprons. However, at this moment, I do not think there are many businesses in this market besides those that produce standard plastic dishwasher aprons. My biggest issue I may have is reaching restaurant owners who are on a tight budget and may not see the point in spending more money on an apron.  For my venture, I do not see packaging, business location, distribution being something that defines my business concept. Most of our purchases will probably be made online; hence, why I think those roles are not as important. I think having excellent and reachable customer support and overall a great customer experience is important since the market is quite a niche space so keeping our customers pleased is necessary. I think having one major factory in the U.S. with about 25-40 employees would ideally be a great place to start. 

The Three Minor Elements: 

The most important resource will be genuine care and concern for the targeted segment since my venture is related to a very personal experience of mine. I’m assuming that the people who would be working on this venture all have a passion for individuals in the customer service and foodservice industries. 

Realistically, I think my new few steps would be solely dedicated to making this venture as successful and profitable as possible in my original target market. Later in the future, I would be interested to see if I could transition this product to the home goods market so anyone could have access to it. 

I would hope that in five years I see some impressive success with this venture. Having multiple brand lines would be something I aspire to do in those years. Also, I think being able to mostly provide for myself through my business would be very telling of my success.