So it seems that the semester is finally coming to an end, and with this SourceSpout too will soon die down. However, none of this is without a final bang!
The adventure begins: From the beginning of our venture we set out with hopes to create a product that would better our peers and a problem we see affecting many around us. Almost in a sense social entrepreneurs encouraging and pressuring responsibility from those in our community and to help endow accountable behavior. We wanted people of age (21+) to realize that they were past their limit, it not being safe to drive (by using our product), then identify an alternative source packaged on the product as well to give them a safe ride home. This in the end we hoped would secure safety for the individuals themselves, as well as the people in our community who could be affected by others irresponsible actions.
On the Ride: It became quite apparent that much of this was going to be much more difficult than we expected. Everything from determining the right device to initially purchase, to something we had so obliviously overlooked such as effective wrapping and packaging. This proved to be quite a venture as we tackled nearly every Harrisonburg store and conquered many internet sites till we finally settled on a small vile package from what seemed to be a reliable site. Next, we had to tackle the issue of getting JMU to let us sell on campus, amongst our peers, considering they first denied us this right. With much persistence and proof that our product was for safety, not a past time for people to see how high their B.A.C. was, we were able to get approval for sales on campus! After this it was merely a matter of getting the products in, actually assembling the goods, then adding the logo and local taxi numbers to the container for others to use. Furthermore, we were even able to team up with SafeRides, a local JMU affiliation supporting alcohol awareness and offered to donate 5% of our proceeds to their cause by allowing us to put their logo on our product.
Reaching the Final Destination and Lessons Learned: As the semester is now coming to the end, we have been highly satisfied with how our project has turned out. We have managed to make a product of actual use to our community…and not only of use, but with a good cause. After all, its not just the underage kids getting in trouble, but irresponsible people of age making poor decisions. One thing we had set out to do was to sell the product to local bars and restaurants which highly encourage happy hours and some people merely “having a drink or two” and being “ok” to drive. The only problem with this was that considering we are all college students, time is of the essence and there is not much to spare! With two of us having other jobs on the side in addition to being a full time student and one being injured part undergoing surgery halfway through our venture, we found that the dedication we needed to truly market and advertise for SourceSpout was not fully achieved. Perhaps if we had been part time students, not under the pressures of tests and projects in our many other classes as well we would have been able to achieve some of these goals which we had set out with. Along those lines, we had planned to make a twitter and a Facebook account to advertise for out product and safety awareness facts about drinking and driving. This, just as the marketing to the bars never came full circle. While we did make a page, we lacked the attention to keep up with it.
However, despite these setbacks, it was not a failure! We did indeed make sales over $400 and have fully covered our expenses to begin this project and extra cash along with that! We believe that if we had to redo this project we would start out with more enthusiasm and vigor right off the get go than we did now. To get the product assembled sooner, sales going faster, and that money coming in we should have shown more effort from the beginning instead of letting everything “fall into place.” For future entrepreneurs, we suggest to create your idea, and stick with it. After all, we weren’t sure we could get people to buy a onetime use breathalyzer for $10 at first, but what do you know, it worked. Our effort, persistence, and positive attitude when others told us it was pointless to buy a onetime use breathalyzer conquered all the obstacles in our way allowing us to actually have success on this venture. Maybe not as much as we had wanted, but when it comes down to it, SourceSpout was a success.
Without the many lessons from our entrepreneurship class, we aren’t sure it would have been quite as successful as it was. Whether it came down to the idea of failing forward (as we attempted to get MADD to support us as well, with no avail), following trends (happy hours in a college town), attacking a niche market, or the notion that an idea (SourceSpout) is an investment and needs to be progressed to be worthy of anything. It’s all true, the lessons have come together and we as a group have truly come to value the thought that an idea is nothing without the people behind it; ideas are constantly generated and formed, just as we at first blew off the idea to sell breathalyzers, but with our group behind it we have persisted to success.
