Venture Concept No. 2

The opportunity for my smoothie and healthy food cafe emerges from the change in society that is happening where people want healthier, more organic, gluten free, and vegan food readily available. This opportunity is also due to the fact that there are very few healthy food options in midtown, especially that are open late at night. Geographically this location is convenient to the students at the University of Florida and to young adults who live near or drive by on their way to work. Demographically we are trying to reach 18-26 year olds who are passionate about eating clean food. I think customers are having a hard time satisfying this need due to lack of healthy options, but Grill Fresh just opened so they do have a new healthy option available now. I think this opportunity is fairly large because I know many people would jump at the opportunity to have a smoothie that isn't filled with added sugars and syrup soaked fruit. I think the trend toward eating healthy is only just beginning so this window of opportunity will be around for a long time.
My product is a healthy food and smoothie cafe that uses only organic ingredients. We will serve sandwiches, pizza, salads, smoothies, and juice. Our sandwiches, salads, and pizza are $5.50 a piece, and our smoothies are $4.99. We will also have a gluten free bread and pizza crust for a $1.00 up charge.
Customers will value our product because we are selling healthy food at a really low price. I think college students avoid healthy options because they are often too expensive for them, but we will become their first choice food because they will feel great after eating it and it won't cost them much. People will also come in because we will be one of few healthy options in midtown and the only healthy option open late night. We will attract people coming from the library and coming back from the bars. Our biggest competitor is Grill Fresh but they will be serving a different kind of food than us and they are way more expensive. Our location defines our venture plan because our business is built for the students of UF. I would hire on 3-4 employees as we started out and do a lot of the work myself to save money until we began turning a profit. My employees would prepare the food and smoothies and clean the cafe.
Our secret sauce will be our only organic food. No one is doing this in Gainesville so it will draw a lot of people to us. We will also have an app that will allow you to order ahead and pick up your food already prepared for you. Customers love convenience.
The next step for the cafe would be to offer baked goods and coffee and create a great study environment for students to come study at.
The goal is to be working minimum hours at the midtown store and be opening a new location in downtown Gainesville.

My peers gave me wonderful feedback about my venture idea. They thought my cafe fit really well in Gainesville because of how much Gainesville prefers local eating. Some great ideas they gave me were to offer gluten free and vegan options at my store because those people would probably already be drawn to my cafe. I also loved the piece of advice to create an app that allows people to order ahead so that my customers could just drop in and pick it up. I love when things are convenient to me so I thought this would be a great addition to my business plan. I incorporated all the feedback I received into my venture concept because I agreed with every criticism and idea I got back.