Whats Next?

Existing Market:

• In terms of my current market, I think what should come next is trying to infiltrate as many school systems as possible. I would like to cover multiple states not just Florida and the areas that are easy for me to reach. My expanding into more states I think we could create more of a name for ourselves and ultimately impact more people. 
• After talking to some parents who would already be included in my target market, they  gave me the feedback of trying to expand outside of just elementary and middle schools. They informed me that churches and maybe even big office companies would appreciate events like this. They thought it would be a good way to promote something beneficial to their employees or members who may be more secluded within their daily lies. One person in particular informed me that companies may specifically like the idea as they are always trying to promote diversity and not get pegged to secluding any types of ethnicities. Once I told them about my initial thought/plans for expansion, they agreed that more states would be good but it could not hurt to expand my target audience. 
• After taking into accountant the responses I got and thinking about my future I think the plan for my business should be to start off expanding into more states. Once I am able to measure the success had in different geographical climates I can then decide if expanding my target audience would be worth it. My first step to expand into another state would probably go to one where I already have connection, as an entrepreneur your own personal and business success is very close tied with who you know. Getting your foot in the door is typically the foot step to pursuing something great. I would most likely reach out to someone of my contacts in New York, my mom taught there for 10 years before moving down to Florida and has a lot of established relationships with school board members in the county she used to be employed. From there I would utilize her contacts and make my way ti the School Board Superintendent, pitch my idea and show her examples of the past success and the effects it has made n the community. Hopefully, this will be successful and the business can grow form there. I would continue to network and expand the business to other school counties in order to keep growing. The more connections I am able to make the better. After then impacting at least 5 states and measuring the overall success rates within each community, I would decide to open up the opportunity to other businesses and organizations that were interested. 

New Market: 

• As I mentioned earlier the new market I would consider targeting would be well established businesses looking to encourage, promote and celebrate diversity within their company through the my businesses culture festivals. This would target an extremely different group of people than my original market, by going directly to businesses there is a chance most of them will not be parents but young professionals who are extremely work focused. This is a stark comparison to the K-8th grade students I was originally trying to inform. 
• This entirely new market, I believe, will find value in the idea of food and culture festival mainly because it will be a well deserved break from their already hectic work day and honor some of the cultures that are possibly already displayed in their office. I think company executives will primarily value this opportunity because they are constantly under a microscope making sure they are taking appropriate measures to increase diversity. There are many laws regulating employment discrimination when it comes to race, gender and age. Because of this I think businesses executives will think providing their workers with an opportunity to be exposed too many cultures in a fun and discrete way will make their business look better as a whole. 
• For my first interview I decided to reach out to my uncle who is the CEO and runs his own company with over 100 employees. I explained to him the concept of my business and the service it would offer and asked if it was something that his company or one like his would be interested in partnering with a few times over the year. He immediately responded saying that while he thought it was a great opportunity to expose his employees to more cultural diversity and shed a positive light on his company within the community, I would have to change a few aspects of the service first. He did not want it to feel too gimmicky, I would be dealing with grown adult who would most likely not enjoy little games that were meant to be educational. He did however love the food aspect. The second person I interviewed was the VP of a success marketing firm here in Gainesville. After giving them the same run down I gave my Uncle their response was pretty similar. They loved the idea but definitely wanted it more catered to their adult employees. They also thought this would be a great event to run on their lunch hour not a whole separate event. 
• Reflecting on my interviews and original ideas, I think that this market would be a great one to get involved with. It makes sense to change the event slightly to cater more to the adult professional demographic, and the changes would not be hard to make. The idea of making it more food centered would also attract more people, especially if the event would go on at the business during their lunch hour because people who aren't necessarily interested in the event itself would be interested in getting lunch. I also learned that diversity and promoting various cultural groups is extremely important in employment today. Title X11 laws and employment discrimination groups are quick to attack business that seemingly are not complying with their laws. Business owners today are always looking for news ways to appear more culturally diverse to the community in order to avoid harassment claims, so by using my services they would be able to shed a positive light other business while also satisfying their employees and future prospects.