What's Next?

Existing Market

Step 1: I believe the next logical moves for my company would include two steps. In the first, I would expand the amount of sports available. Right now I have trainers for football, soccer, field hockey, and men's and women's lacrosse. I would like to expand into baseball, softball, and basketball. The second step would be expanding geographically. I'd first like to expand my services from South Jersey to all of New Jersey and eventually into the entire tri-state area.

Step 2:

Step 3: 

My interviewees suggested that I get feedback from trainers and customers to focus on improving my current service, that I include recently graduated college players in my trainer hiring pool in order to increase the quantity and quality of my trainers, and that I take over other business to expand. Compounded with my ideas of expanding the sports offered and increasing the geographic location of customers I am targeting, I believe I have several ideas that could increase the success of my business greatly.

The take-over idea is the only one that does not seem at least feasible to me so I won't focus on that. I like the idea of allowing recent graduates into the trainer pool but currently do not have the need for more trainers so I will hold off on that one until I expand. I really like the idea of focusing my attention inward and polling customers and trainers about what I can improve on so that will become part of my plan from now on. I believe that improving my service even more is key to achieving some of my more ambitious goals. I got pretty good feedback of my idea about expanding the amount of sports offered but was also warned that some sports are not as popular in certain areas. Therefore, I will have to do some market research on the areas I am targeting to determine which sports will be the most popular for customers. Finally, my interviewees also thought eventually expanding my market would help my business succeed. However, some warned to be cautious about how quickly I want to expand and to take it slowly.

In conclusion, the only idea I will immediately act on is the self-reflection to improve my service. However, I do plan to enact most of these ideas in the future as my success grows.

New Market

Step 1: I will be targeting a market that almost no athletic training service focuses on. This market is non-athletes. While my company is sport-specific, I still think targeting this market could lead to future success. 

Step 2: Some non-athletes may be looking to get involved with a sport but are too nervous to try out for a team because they have not developed sport-specific skills. This service will allow them to learn at a faster rate from atheletes who know the ins and outs of the game. This service will also have a greater focus on athletic training in order to get non-athletes in playing shape. 

Step 3: I tried out audio recording here.

Step 4: 

What surprised me the most is the non-athletes I interviewed seemed more interested in this service than I thought. They were interested in getting and shape and thought that this business was a great avenue to do so. I assumed that this would have to be a more casual training, focused less on sports and more on getting in shape while having some fun. I also learned that people who hadn't played sports were more interested in one-on-one training and would not like to work out with a group. However, I wonder if they wouldn't mind a group if it was their friends who are at similar athletic levels.

I was surprised that the interviewees reacted as positively to this idea as they did. I thought that non-athletes may not have been this interested in training. Still, this market is not as attractive as my original ones. Atheletes are more interested in and committed to athletic training than non-athletes. Also, this service will be more valuable to athletes, who in turn will be willing to pay more. While I was pleasantly surprised by the responses I received, I should stick with my original target market.