19A - Idea Napkin No. 2

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New Napkin:

I am a college student who has grown up with severe food allergies. I have traveled throughout the country and, while traveling, I have been exposed to countless restaurants and food types. Because I have been exposed to so many restaurants and because I have the perspective of an individual with food allergies, I am able to create a product which pleases the portion of a restaurant's customers that have food allergies. In addition, I am familiar with excel and I am well-versed in creating Powerpoints, so I am able to create clear, appealing allergy menus. If scaled right, I could provide services to restaurant businesses throughput central Florida.

2. I will provide easy-to-use, customer-facing allergy menus for restaurant businesses who do not have a method to accommodate guests with food allergies.

3. The things my customers have in common:
·        Restaurant business
·        Located in Gainesville
·        Does not have a method to accommodate customers with food allergies
·        Is interested in improving those costumers’ experiences

4. Because roughly 10% of the U.S. population has food allergies, restaurant business can expand their customer base and improve their average customer experience by accommodating individual with food allergies by establishing an allergy menu.

Adopting a customer facing allergy menu would provide an impressive ROI. If i offered the service for, say, $250, a restaurant with $10 meals would only need to attract five new customers 5 for five visits to break even (Not accounting for TVM).

5. I have the presentation skills and perspective (as someone with food allergies who has experience utilizing allergy menus) that make me unique. Few others with my perspective have thought to address this need in this fashion.

I think my concept is fairly strong and cohesive. The one element of my business idea that I would say is the weakest is number 5. I feel that my perspective and idea is unique, but I do not know exactly how to flesh out that potential customers could not find another person with the same characteristics that I have. Specifically, because many other Americans suffer from food allergies, that characteristic may not be considered "rare". 

Feedback Memo:

I received two main pieces of feedback: 

1. Suggestion to include persuasive information regarding the ROI for these small restaurant businesses.

2. Advice to stray away from my individualism as a weakness because I am a unqiue resource in that I have food allergies.


I decided to include information about ROI in the 4th point on the idea napkin in a new paragraph and I adjusted my assessment of my plan's biggest weakness. I do still believe that it's biggest weakness is the explanation of what sets me apart. Yes, my food allergies give me a fairly unique perspective, but not truly unique considering that (as quoted in my Elevator pitches) 35 million other Americans have food allergies.

Comments

  1. Ava DalyOctober 30, 2019 at 1:29 PM

    Hi Johnathan,
    I think your idea would be great for restaurants to incorporate into their menu, especially since food allergies and intolerants are increasing. I think you incorporated your feedback into your post very well and took the time to improve your post based on that feedback. Overall, I enjoyed reading your post and I hope this is found in restaurants everywhere someday!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nicholas A. LaheraNovember 2, 2019 at 3:24 PM

    Johnathan,

    I have really enjoyed learning new information about you with every new assignment that you put out. Noting that you have been all around the United States and have experienced all of the different cultures of the different areas is definitely something that you can use to your advantage. I am glad that you included it in this, and would even say that you try to fit it into your ethos section of your third elevator pitch. Another piece that I though really helped your argument was the addition of only having to attract 5 new customers 5 times. $250 sounds like a lot of money, but when put into perspective like that, it sounds entirely reasonable. Thank you for always adding to the blog discussion and providing insightful posts. Keep going!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Daryl SutherlandNovember 3, 2019 at 11:11 PM

    Jonathon,

    I never knew what it was like to not be able to just order something off the menu. People will food allergies on the other hand struggle to order food without a seperate menu. I also know many places that do not serve food for people with food allergies. Growing up we used to struggle to order my brothers friend food. Sometimes it was cool because the cook would come out and ask what he wanted to eat. There were also other times where he was offered a menu or told a few things to select between. It seems like you have been receiving great feedback from other restaurants.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Deasja PerrymanNovember 4, 2019 at 9:02 AM

    Hi Johnathan,
    I definitely agree that a business idea can be more impactful when it comes from someone who personally has a certain need because you have more of an awareness of how it truly can impact a life. I can definitely tell that you took the feedback that you received and went the next level to implement that into this napkin exercise especially with the ROI portion. Keep using your constructive feedback, your idea has been one of my favorites since the beginning! Well done

    ReplyDelete
  5. Remi TaylorNovember 4, 2019 at 10:12 AM

    Hey there Johnathan! Very nice job with this post. I have said this before, but I think your idea of allergy menu's is very unique as well as smart. It seems like something so small and obvious that all restaurants should have it, but they do not. I think it would help so many people out, more than one would think!

    ReplyDelete

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