What’s Next?

Existing Market

1. I think for my venture, the next step would be heavy advertising and partnering between animal shelters and hotels. Another step to look into could be a sort of adoption program after the motel pets. For example, if a businessperson really felt a connection with a pet that was in their motel room, they would have the option to adopt the pet and take it home with them, freeing up space in the motel for another pet to be taken from the shelter.

1. Three customers
1. The first is a friend of mine named Molly. Molly works at an animal shelter and while she is not in charge of it, she’s there a lot and knows most all the employees. After I told her about my venture concept, she suggested that maybe I start with only small towns to begin with. In one of my previous assignments I mentioned how smaller towns need a “wow factor” thing to draw people in, and Molly made this point as well, so I think that may be a good suggestion to start with.
2. The second person’s name was Hector. Hector is the front desk clerk at the local motel in my hometown. I’ve had family stay in the motel for graduation or weddings over the years, so I felt comfortable enough walking in and talking with him about my idea. He smiled and said that if I had pets then and there he would home one in each of the rooms. He suggested that I should maybe start looking into certain gadgets. For example, partner with companies that make automated water bowls and things like that to not only gain income and sponsors, but to make the process of caring for the hotel pets even easier for the room occupants. 
3. My third interviewee was a worker at PetSmart named Jenna. I went in with a friend to get stuff for a fishtank and she helped us, so I explained a little bit of my idea to her. Her thoughts were to definitely go with partnering with bigger companies, and to find a way of maybe matching a specific pet to a type of person. Like roommate matching in apartment complexes. I hadn’t even thought of this idea, but once she suggested it I really like it and would absolutely implement it. 
2. The path for my venture’s future would start of with more research and planning before I was ready to start putting it into practice. I feel like what makes the most sense for this current market is personalization of the service itself, and starting small. I think this is a good idea because while thinking big initially might be a good way to get the word out and start a ton of businesses, just in my interviews I’ve already found a lot of things to improve upon in my idea that I would want to get out of the way before launching the project on a larger scale. I feel like the next probable step is setting up websites or channels for the adoption process, so it could be relatively easy for all parties involved and not have to rely on older paper adoption methods. 

New Market

1. My new market would be clothing retailer stores. So for this market, the retailer company could adopt a pet to keep in each of its stores.

1. The reason behind this new market was because a few months ago, I was shopping with my sister and we went into this cute little boutique place and there was a cat in a bed by the cash register that my sister fell in love with. I’ve been in a couple other small clothing stores that had pets, and they were always more memorable to me, so that could be part of the pitch to include when trying to get into this new market. Not only would the animal be an attention-getter to bring more customers in the door initially, but after the owner were to tell them about the cause that they’re helping, the business might gain more lasting support in the community and have repeat customers. 
2. New market interviews
1. My first interviewee was with the owner of a boutique called Ella Blu. I’ve gone to this shop a few times over the years, and it has that little but stylish shop feel to it. The owner wasn’t there, but I spoke to the manager about the idea. She loved it and thought it would be a great thing for business. The only suggestion she made was to maybe have the pets basic trained to be in the shops, which is something I agree with. 
2. The second person I interviewed was for a shop in downtown Pensacola that sold clothes, but also had souvenirs and household items, so there was a wider spectrum of customers in the store. The owner/manager of this shop liked the idea to begin with, but he suggested that since there was a good bit of traffic in his store, to maybe have it be a smaller animal like a cat or bird for that particular store. I feel like this is a good point to consider too and it kind of goes back to the idea I had before about matching the pet to the client/room occupant. 
3. The thing that surprised me most about this new market was how accepting and on board my interviewees were to the idea. Also, I feel like this market is similar to the hotel one in the aspect that it would probably be good to start off in privately owned stored rather than huge department stores, and then grow my idea from there if it goes well. I still think that my first market is a little more appealing, but only by a little bit. After my second round of interviews I found out that having a “store mascot” if you will was an idea that actually appealed to certain business owners because it would bring in not only more customers, but would probably boost the morale of their employees.