New Club Option in North Carolina
1)
Your
beginning point.
I fully
believe there is an opportunity to expand and grow USA Swimming in local areas,
such as Davidson, North Carolina.
2)
Describe
your belief.
Currently there are two large swim club in Davidson that
are roughly an hour apart from each other. This leave a large gap in distance
between the two clubs, meaning athletes and parents will have to travel a minimum
of 30 minutes if located between the two clubs. Not including the distance if a
parent and athlete want to travel to a certain team. Teams have always existed
and been fully functional in North Carolina due to the many opportunities for
collegiate swimming. Currently, for this exact opportunity I believe there is
roughly a 60% chance of need. Is it highly needed? Not exactly because there
are other options, but would it be an option that would be highly favored in the
eyes of the public, especially if there are options for younger athletes under the
age of 10 to swim.
3)
Identify
the prototypical customer.
A - Currently the need would be
between the ages of 11-18.
B – Middle to Upper Class
C – Ages 5-10,
4)
Iteration
No. 1:
A - When addressed with a 17 year old athlete,
I was told that they need would be great, but greater if there were time
standards that would eliminated slower athletes from holding faster athletes
back from training. They feel the need has been present for the past few years
and an opportunity they wish they had. They are currently settling for a swim
club team that is 45 minutes away. They believe that placing a training
facility between the two clubs would make a world of difference for the athlete’s
academics by lessening travel time.
B – The team
we are imagining to create would be an elite team that would charge higher
costs and fees, thus needing a higher class or more scholarship opportunities.
I spoke to another one of our older athletes (18) about the charges and was
told how little elite teams there are. There are so many teams that are focused
only on income and influx of athletes, that there are rarely younger
specializations clubs that would allow national level athletes to compete and
train with those who are on the same level. This particular athlete became
aware of this need when they became the fastest in their club and no longer had
enough competition to continue to push his training. Currently they are meeting
their need by being privately trained and training with two different clubs to
gain more exposure. Currently they are unsatisfied with the travel time and
options that are limiting his abilities.
C – The nature
of the need for younger athletes in an elite program is based on recruiting a
pool of athletes to continuously feed into a larger program. Recruiting athletes
from other programs can become sticky and can leave a bad taste in other clubs
opinions, leading ultimately to less competition between local clubs. When speaking
to younger athletes parents about producing an elite team with the option for
younger athletes, the parents were incredibly in desperate need for a more
professional approach to how their children would be trained. Primarily focused
on investing into the sport and removing long term injury opportunities. Currently,
they are simply doing private lessons, much like the 18 year old athlete, due
to the increased awareness of the amount of kids under one coach’s supervision.
The parents feel as if they cannot trust the program if the coach has too many
athletes. We revert back to the amount of travel for the younger age groups
from the parents, lastly. At a younger age, if they are truly invested in the
sport then travel time will take away opportunities for them to expand their
athlete abilities to other sports. This helps eliminate these issues between parents
and athletes.
5)
Reflect.
A - My
opportunity was so focused on just producing a team that I was not aware of how
desperately the kids would like more time to focus on school and less on
traveling. I didn’t account for the lack of ability to do more activities
outside of the sport due to excess travel
B - Although
we were aware of a need for a stronger and faster training group, we didn’t
realize that it was so desperately sought after that they were going to private
lessons and multiple facilities to obtain more opportunities. This simply
fueled our want to expand our swim community even more.
C – I was
made aware of how many people were concerned with injuries starting at a
younger age. I didn’t realize until prompted by the parents to research that
injuries can start as early as 9 years old, if trained improperly.
6) Repeat twice more steps 3,
4, and 5. Please be explicit with each step in your blog post.
7) Summarize.
How
much of your original opportunity is still there?
My original opportunity seemed to really grow and prove that there is
a need for the team to be between the two current teams. More so than I
initially believed it would be.
Do you believe that your new opportunity is more accurate
than when you started?
YES! After listening to multiple sources tell me their wishes and
concerns with current programs, I find that by amplifying their request we can
ensure that the consumers can get exactly what they are wanting to acquire.
How
much do you think entrepreneurs should 'adapt' their opportunities based on
customer feedback? (In other words, is there a trade-off between adapting and
staying firm?)
I believe that entrepreneurs should be flexible, especially when
creating something completely new for a community. The sole focus should be
what does the COMMUNITY need, versus what the entrepreneur believes it needs.
Although there are some instances I believe should stay intact, flexibility is
a must to alter what can become the best option. There may even be opportunity
to expand in another mannerism (city funding, parental board funding) that may
prove to be a better solution to start up the business. It all truly depends on
if there is a true need, how to eliminate that need, and the proper options
that would be the best solution.
