4A – Forming An Opportunity Belief

Assignment 4- Forming and Opportunity Belief

The Beginning Point: Every great business or idea starts with a thought, what can I do better, or what do people need. Look at sliced bread that really took off. But there are some untapped markets and unthought of ideas. Golf is one of those sports that every guy, especially in the business world wants to become good at or at least decent at so they don’t embarrass themselves out on the links in front of their boss. My idea is an app that caters golf instruction with the help of PGA Certified pros to each user’s golfer swing and tendencies, for a fraction of what traditional golf lessons cost.

Describe your Belief: The unmet need is there is no Certified Teaching App for the golf swing on the Google Play Store or the App Store. There are many people that fall into needing something like this. Every golfer I have ever met wants to get better, but not many are willing to pay the high prices for lessons. So many take matters into their own hands and then ultimately end up hurting their game more by getting into bad habits. This need is new because of the emergence of smart phone technology over the past 5-7 years. The approximately 30 million golfers now are currently either doing one of two things paying high prices (up to $300 an hour) for a golf lesson or trying to figure out the complicated golf swing on their own by watching YouTube videos and other online content. This opportunity has about an 85% of existing in the current market place.

Prototypical Customer: The ideal customer for the app service would be a recreational (plays once a month) to avid (1+ times a week) golfer of beginning to advanced level who wants to get better without having to pay a lot of money for golf lessons. 

Iteration No. 1: When talking to a close friend of mine who I grew up playing golf with since I was 7, he thought that this idea had a large place in the golf instruction market.  Me and him have both paid a lot of money for golf lessons over the years. My friend says the need once he moved to Gainesville from his town and was not able to play golf as often as before due to school time commitments. The need is only when he is thinking about playing golf or when he is about to play golf for the first time in a while. He said this app is a way to have drills and exercises that cater to him and will help him keep his game sharp even if he does not play/practice as much as he likes. Currently he is addressing his need of golf instruction by watching YouTube content and the like, he said it is not currently working for him.

Iteration No. 2: I was talking with my dad who is the one who is the one who got me started playing the game of golf. I introduced the idea to him and he seemed interested.  He still works so the only real free time he has in on the weekends. We used to spend either Saturday or Sunday together on the course and play a couple rounds of golf. But, he said he never really had time to work on or practice or take lessons like he would have wanted to if he had the time. He saw this app as a time saver. Instead of taking an hour-long lesson you can take a few videos of your current golf swing and in a few minutes, get drills and tips catered to you, which saves time. Currently he is not doing anything to satisfy his golf instruction need. And is not satisfied with it.

Iteration No. 3: I talked with a family friend of mine, who we would play golf with regularly to get his view. He said the need for golf instruction on how to get better is always there no matter who you are “Tiger Woods and my 4-year-old grandson they both need golf lessons.” He mentioned that you become aware of the need as soon as you hit your first golf ball and the need doesn’t stop till you are flat in the ground. He is currently not doing anything to fulfill his need. HE said he’s had the need for easy and cheaper golf instruction for “probably around 30 years now.” Now he said he’s going to start taking a one-hour lesson about once a month to try to satisfy his need, he’s unsure if that would end up working or not.

Reflection: The interviews that I conducted were quite interesting. It made me realize that there were opportunities within the application to market it and uses that I had not thought of. I never thought of it as a time saving tool when it come s to instruction I mean after all, we are all trying to save time nowadays in any way we can. I did not think that It would be this popular when I first brought up the idea to these people, I initially thought that only my friend who I grew up with would have interest in it. I was very surprised that 2/3 people are not doing anything to help themselves solve this need that they have.

Summarize: I believe that much of the original opportunity is still out there and if anything, you can expand the idea to other sports besides golf such as Baseball. I think that is more accurate than when I started because I now have some direction into where people would like this to go towards, and what they expect out of it. Working with your customers is key if you want to stay in business for a long time. After all, the customer is always right. If you don’t satisfy your customers then you won’t be in business much longer. But an entrepreneur should only work with them to an extent, if you change too much you can lose you your identity and original business vision.