11A: Idea Napkin

1. I'm Federico Psevoznik, a third-year telecommunication student at the University of Florida. I have experience in graphic design, PR, social media, music production, and management. I aspire to work in the music industry, as an A&R, or as a manager. I can see this business as a side project, in where I help students save money on their textbooks.

 2. I am offering a subscription service for all of their course textbooks. Many students spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars on textbooks, on top of tuition, and an all-in-one subscription service can save them a lot of money. At the beginning of the semester, students would receive a notification asking if they would like to subscribe to the service, along with a list of the courses they are taking, and what books are required.

 3. I am offering it to students in select colleges and courses that require expensive textbooks, specifically to lower-income students who would otherwise be unable to afford the textbooks. 

 4. Being able to have all of your textbooks online, on-demand, for a low price would be very attractive to students.

 5. There are no other digital rental services out there that can partner with the University. Our competitors would include rental services, like Amazon and the UF Bookstore, but they do not offer a subscription-style service where students can find all of their books.

 I think this idea can work, but there are some hoops the University and I would have to jump through. Publishing companies are notoriously greedy, so there would have to be a lot of negotiations to be able to have their textbooks available as part of the subscription service. Also, it would be important to incentivize teachers to accept books that are part of the subscription service.

Comments

  1. laityn russellFebruary 13, 2019 at 3:33 PM

    Hi Federico,
    I too aspire to work in the music industry, specifically as a band manager! I think that a book service subscription is a good idea in terms of saving students money and promoting the recycling of textbooks. As there are no other digital rental services, you have a strong entrance into a niche market and have a higher chance of success. My only question is if there would be a tier system. Not all students need the same amount or as expensive textbooks so I think that is important to consider in the prices.

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  2. VictoriaFebruary 13, 2019 at 7:13 PM

    I think you have a really promising idea with this. I think you could expand on how your skills could benefit the business. I think your experience with graphic design and PR would help you design the subscription service and promote it as well. You may want to think of some previous experiences you have had and think how these may tie into what you are building with your brand. Working in the music industry would give you lots of connection and I could actually see how putting together a music based advertisement to promote your service could tie together and help build the brand.

    ReplyDelete
  3. ChrisFebruary 15, 2019 at 12:49 PM

    You have a great idea here that I believe many people would take advantage of. Your experience with PR and social media will certainly help you develop your idea and market it to colleges. There is still more to develop here like cost, is it based on major? Some majors have much more expensive books than others.

    ReplyDelete

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