My Idea: My idea is a ride sharing venture that assists
working parents with getting their children to and from their activities,
events, etc. Mom-Assist is a one of a kind business that is specifically
developed to help working parents.
Opportunity
As my daughter continues to build her activities and social
life, I realized it’s almost impossible to get her to everywhere she needs to
be when she needs to be there. As I talk to other moms about my hardships (and
my gratefulness for the help I receive from family), I learned that I am not
the only one struggling with this. In fact, I learned some of my mom friends do
not have any help at all. Some of my mom friends risk losing their jobs to get
their children where they need to be. Some of my mom friends pay people to
drive their kids to where they need to go. Some of my mom friends beg friends
to help them. It’s not easy, and we all need help. The saying is true…it’s take
a village to raise a child. We live in a society where it is almost a necessity
for family to have two incomes. With both parents working, it’s hard for
parents to meet the needs of their children. Working parents need help, and
it’s not always so easy to get it. As long as homes require two incomes, the need
for help will always be there.
Innovation
Light bulb! What if there was a ride sharing type business
specifically to help children get to and from their destinations? What if there
was a company parents could trust to transport their children to all of their
activities? My idea is a ride sharing business specifically for helping working
parents. It’s an innovative service that will provide much needed assistance to
parents. Parents would no longer have to juggle a schedule to get their
children where they need to go. They can now rely on a safe, ride sharing
service to help them. Safety and security are the priority, and because of
this, parents will; be able to watch the entire ride to ensure 1) the child is
behaving; 2) the driver is behaving; and 3) the child arrives safely (and on
time) to their destination. At less than $1.00/mile, parents would be able to
afford a service that allows them to ensure their child(ren) are able to get to
their activities, events, etc. It’s a winning service for both the parents and
the children.
Venture Concept
As a mom who needs this service, I believe parents would use
this service to help alleviate the stress of having to get their child(ren) to
different places. It would also be beneficial to parents who have more than one
child that need to be at different places at the same time. It will also allow
parents to give their children more opportunities to participate in activities
to find their path in life. At this time, the only competitors I can pinpoint
are nannies and other ride sharing services. It will be hard to persuade a
family that has a nanny to try this service as they have found someone they
trust to care for their children, but for the parent who does not like using
Uber to get their child to their activity, this service would allow them to
have a safe and reliable method of transportation for their child(ren).
Employees will need to go through rigorous background and driving checks before
they are accepted as a driver. Each driver will set their own schedule at a
minimum of one week in advance to allow parents the opportunity to plan
transportation needs at least one week in advance. Ideally, we would have up to
50 drivers per day to support the needs of working parents.
Three Minor Elements
The most important resource I have are my mom friends. They
are the ones giving me honest feedback, suggestions and recommendations to
ensure this service is safe, secure and desired.
After Mom-Assist is up and running in Palm Beach County, it
is my desire to have this service up and running in Broward and Miami-Dade
Counties as well. If the service is successful in this tri-county area, I would
look into expanding in other metropolitan areas of Florida, and surrounding
states. If the service continues to gain momentum, I would look to expanding it
to all major metropolitan areas nationwide and monitor the need for the service
in surrounding areas.
In five years, I would like to see happy parents and
children enjoying their best lives because this service provided more
opportunities for them to succeed. If the service is doing as well as I believe
it will, in two to three years I would look to add more services like Driving
School for new drivers, tutoring services, and a secure online video conferencing
platform for children to interact with friends.
Being an entrepreneur was never my intention, but if this
idea does work, it would be my one and only entrepreneurial adventure.
After reviewing this with my husband, I decided to add the
additional services by year two or three. Being that I would sell the business
by year five, I should have all benefits of this service up and running before I
sell it.
No comments:
Post a Comment