Piecing It All Together

1) You. 

I have a passion for social justice and have shaped a lot of my experiences around this passion. I have a strong sense of communication, collaboration, and teamwork which greatly assists me in building strong relationships with others around me. I'd also like to think that I'm a pretty talented writer, which makes up for my very bad math and science skills. I have experience in different cultural backgrounds because my family lives in both Seattle and Japan. Because of this, I get to have different experiences in both places. I even went to boarding school in Japan for a summer! I've had experiences in different groups on campus that also discuss different social justice issue. My aspirations are to go to law school and work towards changing problems and faulty policies that I see appearing the world. I see my business playing a role in my life because the ban on plastic straws was a major policy change and I will be dealing with all sorts of policy changes in the future. There will always be people who are upset with a new policy, and it is important to accomodate those concerns--which is what my business aims to do.

2) What are you offering to customers?

I am offering an alternative to paper straws that is a straw made out of seaweed that is completely biodegradable and could even be used to feed sea creatures. It will be durable and not fall apart halfway through use. 

3) Who are you offering it to? 

My customer base will typically be people who have aspirations to help combat climate change and do things that do not hurt the environment. People with psychographic characteristics of caring about the environment and their natural surroundings will instantly be drawn to this product. The customer base is wide, however, because it also applies to anyone that uses paper straws and is unhappy with them (almost everyone that I have spoken to). This is what all my customers have in common. They want an alternative to paper straws that won't hurt the environment but is durable enough to not fall apart when they use it!

4) Why do they care? Your solution is only valuable insofar as customers believe its valuable to them. Here, explain why customers will actually pay you money to use your product or service. 

Customers care because paper straws can really ruin a drinking experience. They make it hard to even consume the beverage, and often fall apart before the drink is even over. The seaweed straws will also help animals, which customers will definitely think is valuable, and are good for the environment which is a double plus. 

5) What are your core competencies? 

I think that my drive sets me apart from everyone else, along with my communication skills. Through effective interpersonal communication, I am able to instantly relate with people I talk to and establish a friendly and trusting relationship with them. I am compassionate, empathetic, and can relate to anyone despite how different we may be and this makes me unique from other people. I genuinely care about others well-being. 

Evaluation:
I think that there may appear to be an out-of-joint relationship between my passions for social justice and this idea, but I don't think that one has to have a purely entrepreneurial mindset to be an entrepreneur. I think that plastic straws and paper straws directly relate to the concern of public policy, which I am very familiar with. I am creating a solution for a negative outcome that occurred because of a policy change. Some aspects of my business may be more difficult because I am not extremely familiar yet with business models and financial aspects of things, but anything can be learned with the right attitude!