Venture Concept No. 2

DRYlivery—Dry Cleaning delivery on your time…

Opportunity

            My opportunity comes from the need to be able to pick up my dry cleaning at a time that is convenient for myself. Upon thinking about this need further, I began to realize that there are many people who undergo the same experience of not being able to pick up their dry cleaning after work because their provider is closed. This is where the opportunity for DRYlivery comes into play.

            The need for DRYlivery is simple…utilize a mobile based app to schedule pick-up and delivery of your dry cleaning to you at your convenience. The additional need is also steams from local dry cleaning providers to offer additional amenities to their current customers without having to sacrifice more overhead expenses on their existing business. With the expansion of easier care fabrications to garments and the insurgence in washing/dryer technologies at home, dry cleaners have been seeing a slight decline as these two innovations continue to develop. According to IBISWorld, there is a decrease of 0.2% annual growth during 2011-2015 for professional dry cleaning services.

·         Who is the DRYlivery customer?

The DRYlivery customer actually two different customer bases. The first being the professional dry cleaners we partner with, and the second customer base being their customers we deliver to. The market is preexisting and already define geographically and demographically. This is one of the strong suits for DRYlivery because we do not have to establish a new customer bases entirely on our own.

·         How are we satisfying this need? How loyal are they now to their current service?

Current customers generally have this need being met by the dry cleaning provider. However, the provider is adding expenses to its business through labor cost for delivery drivers, maintenance/repairs for vehicles, and cannot always have deliveries being made at the customer’s convenience. Most customers may not take this current amenity as it normally cost the customer additionally per delivery. Also, customers trying to find time to make it to their provider while trying to fit everything into their day seems to be the current way they fill this void.

·         How big is this opportunity and how long will the “window” be open?

This opportunity can be pretty big. Seeing as how many cities do not have a specific national chain or franchise running most of the dry cleaners, local providers are always looking effective and cost conscious ways to expand their business and gain new customers. The window of opportunity I know could be pretty long standing considering that we are building upon existing businesses and customer bases. Through marketing and provider partnerships, we have the ability to continue market growth and expanding customer bases for providers with convenience for their customers.

Innovation

DRYlivery is a concept based off of Uber. A customer uses their regular dry cleaning provider, who partners with DRYlivery. The customer then uses a mobile application to schedule a pick-up and delivery of their garments to a location and at a time that is convenient for them. DRYliery’s purpose is to make the lives of their customers easier through taking a task off their list and making it easy for them. The pricing for these services are $300 to business partners per month and $25 per month to customers.

Venture Concept

            The concept for this venture is very straight forward. The opportunity we want to address is being able to provide more time to customers and lower overhead costs to dry cleaner providers through the use of DRYlivery. For both dry cleaning providers and their customers, switching to DRYlivery would be rather easy and convenient for them. There are no competitors at this moment and this service could be easily copied though. Through providing exceptional service that is consistent and world-class, we can set the expectations high for competitors to try to replicate…not easily though. The only organization we would need or production or package would be consistently updating and innovating our mobile application to provide more services to customers.

·         How does DRYlivery make it easier for dry cleaning providers and assist them in growing their business?

o   DRYlivery partners with dry cleaning providers to provide deliver services to the provider’s customers. How customers benefit is the ease of this amenity because the dry cleaner does not have to operate longer hours to make deliveries, keeps overhead cost at a fix cost per month with no surprises, and the ability to be marketed through DRYlivery’s application.

o   User Ratings also make it a great tool to gain more customers as well as define their business amongst the best by being able to focus on what they do best every day without having to worry about deliveries or other amenities outside the four walls of their business.

·         What are the costs involved for DRYlivery?

o   For business partners, the cost is only $300 a month. What this includes are: delivering to customers, storage for after business hour deliveries, and marketing. This cost is minimal compared to the upkeep for a delivery fleet, labor, and additional marketing that they may spend for their business.

o   For customers, the cost is only $25 a month. This service fee includes unlimited deliveries during the month and the ability to deliver on their schedule. The pricing of this service should be considered by estimating how much time one spends trying to pick up their dry cleaning times how much they make per hour. Most customers would pay for this in two deliveries alone.

Three Minor Elements

            For DRYlivery our secret sauce would be utilizing my experience in retail management to provide an exceptional customer experience. Many people can make an application or create a service that would be similar to DRYlivery, but at the end of the day it is the people that make the brand that customers want to stick with. Also, our philanthropy is what would set us apart from any competition. Our focus would be to collect gently worn business attire to help those in need who may not be able to afford newer clothing for job interviews or helping support their new job. Creating a brand that cares for others is very important to many customers these days.

            What would be next for DRYlivery would be to create a platform for creating job training and education to help develop those in need to acquire work experience, job related training, etc. The mission would be to build our workforce to potentially build their self-esteem and skills to be able to continue to develop a career path for a sustainable future for themselves and their families.

            Within five years of the venture, I would like to build the concept in order to sell it. As an entrepreneur I would like to be continuing onto the next challenge and be developing a new business. This venture would help me start by creating a solid foundation for me to be seen as a leader in innovation and expanding my partnership network for the next venture I choose.

Feedback on the Venture

Most of the feedback I received was positive. The one thing I did change was the tactic on the pricing schedule for customers and business partners. I needed to expand the selections for business partners to add in the marketing theme to assist in growing their businesses outside of the delivering service alone. Another person suggested that I rethink the cost per month for customers, but I feel like the price someone would pay for this service as a convenience would be perfect because they would be saving so much money by not having to shift their schedules.