Opportunity: The business concept I am suggesting is creating protective headgear equipment for roofers that would protect them from potentially hazardous weather conditions, like lightning. Thus, the need that I am addressing is the need for safety and security for manual laborers that perform their daily tasks outside and on elevated surfaces. As briefly mentioned, this product would primarily pertain to roofers. Roofers are susceptible to lightning strikes and other lethal injuries because lightning tends to strike taller objects, such as roofs, as they provide upward streamers to connect with downward lightning streamers. There are currently over 50,000 corporations engaged in roofing work and installation work valued at a total of $31.4 billion. Further, the ted States has 75 million single-family homes and on average, about 7% re-roof each year. Demographically, the average male roofer in the industry is 36.8 years old and the average female roofer in the industry is 37.3 years old, with the most common race for roofers being white (non-Hispanic). Despite there being general guidelines as to the type of clothing a roofer should wear (depending on the type of roofing system he or she is working on), there exist no standard protective roofing equipment for these workers. Thus, customers are not adequately satisfying this need or are simply not aware of this need because it has become almost normalized to have no protective equipment for roofers. While other manual laborers, like general construction workers, wear hard-hats as a form of headgear, this would not be sufficient to protect against lightning strikes and hazardous weather conditions. With the market size of the roofing industry having grown 2.7% per year on average in the United States between 2015 and 2020, there is a clear market and opportunity for this product. Until someone else devises a form of protective headgear that is both functional and practical to the daily demands of a roofer, this "window of opportunity" will remain open.
Innovation: The product that I am offering would be considered radically innovative because there currently exists no standard protective equipment for roofers on the market. The product itself will be composed of durable metal material. Contrary to common thought, since metal is a strong conductor of electricity, metal provides lightning a low-resistance path. (Compare this with poor conductors of electricity have have more resistance: these material cause electrical energy to be converted into heat---making it conducive for fire or even explosions. This product would also remain relatively light-weight and practical in order to adhere to the working conditions of roofers. Roofers already often experience excruciating levels of heat, so the headgear could not be too intrusive or overbearing on their working conditions. By developing a product composed of durable metal material, I would be offering an innovative product that has the potential to alter safety protocols in the roofing industry. With around 188,000 individuals employed in roofing, if we priced this protective headgear at $35 a piece, we would generate at least $6 million in revenue on a yearly basis.
Venture Concept: This protective headgear composed of durable metal material would address the problem I identified by providing a tangible piece of equipment that offers both protection and safety. My targeted customers will be compelled to purchase this product simply due to the fact that there is no other product that is really similar in the functional purpose that it serves. By being composed of metal and still remaining light, this headgear may be similar in nature to other general helmets in that they serve the purpose of protecting one's head. However, the functionality of the helmet I am proposing is completely innovative and radical compared to, for example, a hard-hat worn by general construction workers. Since this would be a radically innovative product, I do not believe it would be hard to get my customers to "switch" to this product. The main thing would be to make roofers aware of this inherent need that they have that they may have suppressed and ignored for so long because the roofing industry has normalized a lack of safety standards. As mentioned, the main competitors to this product are other forms of general headgear equipment and helmets. These products' weaknesses and vulnerabilities lie in the fact that they cannot adequately withstand or protect against perilous weather conditions. In organizing a business to support the ongoing production of my new product, the team I would be working with would initially be rather small. The main components or roles in the venture would be research and development (in order to construct the product), and supply-chain management (in order to establish a strong relationship with a supplier that can provide the necessary materials for constructing the product), and marketing (in order to analyze the specifics of market demand).
Secret Sauce: In pursuing this business concept, my most important resource will be human capital---specifically my business administration degree that I am receiving through higher education, communication skills and ability to demonstrate emotional intelligence, experience and background in leading teams and collaborating with individuals, natural tendency to have an optimistic approach, creativity and desire for continuous innovation, and ability to provide constructive criticism and receptiveness to feedback. Having these human capital traits will allow me to facilitate a culture of passion, understanding, and withstanding success.
What's Next For Venture: The next action item for the venture would be to actually try to develop and construct the proposed product. This would require further research and development, and involve prototype testing of my protective headgear. I would have to ensure that the headgear is composed of the right specific materials so that it can achieve optimal performance and function.
What's Next for Me: Assuming I've launched, in five years, I would like to continue running this venture if successful. Depending on the profitability of this business, I would use it as my primary form of occupation. Based on the level of stability within the business, I would also seek to either expand the line of products within the product category of protective headgear or create a new business as an entrepreneur (to have multiple projects running at the same time). This would obviously create more responsibilities on my end, but I would properly address those by creating a larger network and expanding my team to support the different business functions.
Hi Michael,
ReplyDeleteYour opportunity is well researched and articulated statistically. It is evident that roofing is an industry that should be protected, as it drives $31.4B every year. Headgear seems to be the most feasible option to to protect these workers from harm in their conditions that you describe. Although this is a B2C distribution, interestingly there would likely be a surge in larger purchases at a time as foreman could purchase for their crew. Promotions or group rates may be enticing for your sales as well.
Hi Michael,
ReplyDeleteYour research for your opportunity is well in depth, and really shows you know your market well. As well as that, your description of your innovation explains the product well, and the price point, in my opinion suits the product. You could raise the price more depending on the production cost, because it is metal, however maybe having at 35 will produce a great demand. I would just be aware of material need for the product. However, everything sounds good for a start!