2008 Woodie Awards
Commercialize Your Business Ideas, Let YU Help
Larry Bellman
Issue date: 4/18/05 Section: Opinion
- Page 1 of 1
How many of you wake up one morning with a great idea to start a business? What do you with the idea? Talk to your friends? Your parents? Your professors? Pat yourself on the back and then do nothing?
In the last seven years of teaching at the Sy Syms School of Business, I have talked to at least two students per week who have business ideas and who need to explore their feasibility. Unfortunately, all they have is an idea - no experience with the product/service, no resources, no plan of attack, no management team, and no plan to move forward. So what happens - the idea dies.
Three years after graduation, you read the business columns one morning about a business that has started "with your idea." Your usual comment is "If only........?"
Let me give you an example: Two years ago, several students in my New Venture Planning class came up with an idea to offer discount cards for kosher restaurants and stores. They called the company "Chai" because they would offer cardholders an 18% discount. They wrote a business plan on the venture, including the marketing and functional approaches to the venture's start-up, a revenue model, and the management and operation of the venture. They received a grade for their efforts, and promptly forgot about it.
Along came a recent graduate from Wharton's undergraduate business school who thought of the same idea, formed a company called the Kosher Advantage Card, and now has over 900 clients and a couple hundred retail establishments who participate. He accomplished this effort without any help from outsiders.
Ideas are just that. They do not presume the availability of resources like capital, facilities, and a skilled management team. Several years ago, one student reasoned that an automobile safety belt with a built-in heart monitor would alarm the motorist if they started to doze off while driving. Unfortunately, their family does not produce cars nor do they have any contacts or personal experience in the automobile industry. Another student wanted to build a golf ball that had a microchip embedded that would enable the ball to be located by an EZ Pass-type device. Who's going to design the chip, manufacture the ball to sell for $15, and promote it against a $2-3 ball, both of which are lost if you drive it into a water trap?
Scotch bars, Internet directories, kosher Burger Kings, virtual car showrooms, distressed business asset sales, electronic patient records, personal shopping aids, financial keyboards, student travel services - the list is endless. However, the good news is that a few of these ideas can be commercialized; with the right resources and contacts. But how many students have the time to devote to structure a venture to market their idea and have access to needed capital and facilities?
Kaffeine, now Revaya, was started by three SSSB students only to see it fail after a year because they could not devote the time and effort necessary to sustain its growth and success.
Last year, SSSB initiated a business incubator for our students. An incubator is an organization that offers both space and managerial and clerical services to new businesses. The primary motivation in establishing incubators has been a desire to encourage entrepreneurship. The incubator recognizes that in many cases the entrepreneur needs practical guidance in marketing, record keeping, management, and preparation of business plans. Typical service offered include space, creditability, management counsel, access to conference rooms, fax and photocopying, computer services, and the Internet. Probably, the most important service an incubator can provide to a young entrepreneur is providing the opportunity to present their venture to potential investors or financial experts.
SSSB will consider becoming your business partner and offer some or all of these services to students with business ideas that, with some professional help, have a reasonable chance of success. Here are the steps you can follow to explore this assistance:
1. Write a 2-5 page summary of your business idea making a strong argument for its feasibility. Include a description of the venture, its value to the market to satisfy an unfulfilled need, market size and potential, competition, your knowledge of the product/service offered, start-up cost to launch, staffing and management needed, and who's going to operate the venture. Most importantly, what's the revenue potential?
2. Submit it to me for review.
3. Set up a private and confidential meeting to review the venture opportunity.
To-date, the University has incubated one business, which has earned some revenue. The Rennert Entrepreneurial Institute, endowed by Ira Leon Rennert, would like to encourage students to step forward with their business ideas. We look forward to helping more students explore entrepreneurial careers.
Dr. Larry Bellman is director of the Rennert Entrepreneurial Institute at the Sy Syms School of Business.
In the last seven years of teaching at the Sy Syms School of Business, I have talked to at least two students per week who have business ideas and who need to explore their feasibility. Unfortunately, all they have is an idea - no experience with the product/service, no resources, no plan of attack, no management team, and no plan to move forward. So what happens - the idea dies.
Three years after graduation, you read the business columns one morning about a business that has started "with your idea." Your usual comment is "If only........?"
Let me give you an example: Two years ago, several students in my New Venture Planning class came up with an idea to offer discount cards for kosher restaurants and stores. They called the company "Chai" because they would offer cardholders an 18% discount. They wrote a business plan on the venture, including the marketing and functional approaches to the venture's start-up, a revenue model, and the management and operation of the venture. They received a grade for their efforts, and promptly forgot about it.
Along came a recent graduate from Wharton's undergraduate business school who thought of the same idea, formed a company called the Kosher Advantage Card, and now has over 900 clients and a couple hundred retail establishments who participate. He accomplished this effort without any help from outsiders.
Ideas are just that. They do not presume the availability of resources like capital, facilities, and a skilled management team. Several years ago, one student reasoned that an automobile safety belt with a built-in heart monitor would alarm the motorist if they started to doze off while driving. Unfortunately, their family does not produce cars nor do they have any contacts or personal experience in the automobile industry. Another student wanted to build a golf ball that had a microchip embedded that would enable the ball to be located by an EZ Pass-type device. Who's going to design the chip, manufacture the ball to sell for $15, and promote it against a $2-3 ball, both of which are lost if you drive it into a water trap?
Scotch bars, Internet directories, kosher Burger Kings, virtual car showrooms, distressed business asset sales, electronic patient records, personal shopping aids, financial keyboards, student travel services - the list is endless. However, the good news is that a few of these ideas can be commercialized; with the right resources and contacts. But how many students have the time to devote to structure a venture to market their idea and have access to needed capital and facilities?
Kaffeine, now Revaya, was started by three SSSB students only to see it fail after a year because they could not devote the time and effort necessary to sustain its growth and success.
Last year, SSSB initiated a business incubator for our students. An incubator is an organization that offers both space and managerial and clerical services to new businesses. The primary motivation in establishing incubators has been a desire to encourage entrepreneurship. The incubator recognizes that in many cases the entrepreneur needs practical guidance in marketing, record keeping, management, and preparation of business plans. Typical service offered include space, creditability, management counsel, access to conference rooms, fax and photocopying, computer services, and the Internet. Probably, the most important service an incubator can provide to a young entrepreneur is providing the opportunity to present their venture to potential investors or financial experts.
SSSB will consider becoming your business partner and offer some or all of these services to students with business ideas that, with some professional help, have a reasonable chance of success. Here are the steps you can follow to explore this assistance:
1. Write a 2-5 page summary of your business idea making a strong argument for its feasibility. Include a description of the venture, its value to the market to satisfy an unfulfilled need, market size and potential, competition, your knowledge of the product/service offered, start-up cost to launch, staffing and management needed, and who's going to operate the venture. Most importantly, what's the revenue potential?
2. Submit it to me for review.
3. Set up a private and confidential meeting to review the venture opportunity.
To-date, the University has incubated one business, which has earned some revenue. The Rennert Entrepreneurial Institute, endowed by Ira Leon Rennert, would like to encourage students to step forward with their business ideas. We look forward to helping more students explore entrepreneurial careers.
Dr. Larry Bellman is director of the Rennert Entrepreneurial Institute at the Sy Syms School of Business.