25 - What's Next?

• set a course for growth for your business
• develop plans for how you will grow in both a new market and the market that you have already identified

Existing Market:

1. I plan to begin my business venture in The Villages, Florida and plan to expand to other parts of Florida with a higher percentage of older citizens such as Punta Gorda and Bradenton.
2. The three customers that I interviewed noted expansion to more cities as I had planned, but named some other cities where this need exists such as Naples and Vero Beach. They liked the two cities that I had mentioned, saying that those cities also have a higher percentage of older citizens. One of the people that I interviewed even lives in Punta Gorda and said that she would use the service if it was in her city.
3. Based on my thoughts and the input from the potential customers that I interviewed I would, after success in The Villages, expand to Punta Gorda first and then to Naples because of their location and higher percentage of potential customers.

New Market:

1. A radically different market that I would like to consider expanding to would be people with disabilities that prevent them from being able to drive.
2. I think that my venture concept might be able to create value for the people in this new market for some of the same reasons. People that are part of this new market might not have family that is always available to give them rides when they need one and public transportation may not be an option or may pose potential problems.
3. The customers that I interviewed in this new market believe that this business could possibly be able to meet the needs of customers like them. However, they offered some ideas for adaptations to the service that could help to make it more successful in this new market. Some ideas that they mentioned are improving the accessibility for these customers such as possessing cars that are wheelchair friendly, and possibly having staff that are specially trained to assist people with different disabilities.  
4. This exercise to adapt our existing venture into a new market was very eye opening and I learned that the problem I am focusing on solving could exist for more than just the segment of people that I am focusing on. The fact that my concept existed for this segment of people is what surprised me the most. I hadn't previously thought about my venture concept being suitable for this new market.
   Once I learned that my venture idea could be suitable for this new market, I began to think about the different adaptations that could be implemented to help suit this new market. Some of the adaptations that the customers I interviewed mentioned such as wheelchair friendly vehicles are similar to the ideas that I began to brainstorm. This new market does appear to be attractive, however I believe that my existing market has a higher chance of success.