24A – Venture Concept No. 1

Opportunity. The opportunity exists in people who are too busy or shy. People who live a busy life are sometimes unable to take care of their mental health due to the odd times they may be able to seek help. Others are just too shy or intimidated to show friend and family they are seeking help. I believe this need is urgent considering what is being presented in the media and what I have observed in my mental health club (Club Will To Live at UF).

It is important to put out something easy and positive in the universe for people to use and make changes. This will be most beneficial to young adults 16 to 30. Then sparingly to the older adults as they also can be shy and busy, but they are more willing to seek out help. The customers I would have are currently doing nothing about their mental health or are just thinking of what they should do. At this point and with all that is happening in the world, my service is a huge opportunity.

Innovation. The service will be an application on a smartphone. This application takes a customer through some start-off steps before introducing them to the psychologist assigned to help them. The customer will provide their name and contact information, along with a payment method. Then they will take a “quiz” that asks them some confidential questions about how they are feeling and what they think they need. Once this is received, the service team will assign them a psychologist based on urgency, symptoms, and what the client believes they need. When a session with a psychologist starts is when the customer will start getting charged. Since the target market is younger we will charge $50 per 45 minutes of phone calls and $60 per 45 minutes of video chat. A texting session will be priced at $30 per 20 texts from the psychologist. These are low prices compared to what an in-person psychologist would charge so we can better target the younger market and make the service more attainable.

Venture Concept. Customers will want to use this service because of the availability and pricing. I think that it will be easy to get customers to use this service because they were not using anything else. I would be competing with in-person psychologists and a service similar to mine. My workers can work from home, so a large facility is not needed to run the business. Therefore, service fees can be lower for the consumer. There will be teams of employees for each step in the process like payment processing, organizing the psychologists, psychologists, and outgoing client services. Employee base will likely start at 50.

Minor Elements.

1. My knowledge in the service I am providing. Even though I am not a psychologist, I feel I know a lot to start the business and am able to use experts for help.

2. I want to integrate a way for people to get treatments through essential oils and have this as an entity of the business.

3.  I want this venture to develop into a multi-million dollar company and provide for those in need. I want to be able to reach people in the most remote areas of the world. Most people need some kind of help when it comes to their mental health. This first venture will likely be handed off to someone else and I will move onto my next venture.