Student X journey with start up MauritiusTHIS IS JUST A TEMPLATE TO HELP YOU REFLECT ON YOUR JOURNEY WITH US

Week 1 I arrive on a Monday. Suppose June 1st 2015

Monday:

Pick up from airport

See accommodation

Rest and shower

Person show me around in flic en flac

I discover my surrounding

I meet the people

Week 1 Tuesday

I go to the office.

I sign my house contract

I sign my internship contract

Here you will receive your training materials and expected to start your self learning journey:

Tuesday you will learn how to make a business plan

Week 1 Wednesday

Here I should have learnt the business plan

Today you can complete your business plan training and start your training on lean management

Week 1 Thursday

Review, here you have a test that you have to go through to check if you understood the basics of a business plan and lean management

Week 1 Friday,

Based on your test results, you will have to either go through a review with a mentor to go over the points which you did not understand.

If there are certain topics you did not understand, you only have to attend that specific topic.

Week 1 Saturday,

If you are a team leader, you have to start posting your ideas

If you are a team member, you have to wait for people to post their ideas and show interest.

Week 1 Sunday OFF

Week 2 I posted my idea and got a team of 5.

I am now a team leader and have a team.

I choose to make a business with social impact model, I make a profit to breakeven.

Week 2 Monday:

I sit down with my team and discuss the vision.

We find out that we are all passionate about the problem of short distance travel in Mauritius.

Our vision is to create a business that will help people in their short distance travel.

Impact vision: We run a business. We make a profit. We use profit to recover cost of investments.

The business mission is to: create a bicycle rental business to tourist in Flic en Flac.

Week 2 Monday:

I break my business vision into two:

Value hypothesis: The tourist in Flic en Flac are having a problem moving around?

Growth hypothesis: A lot of tourist have this problem and are looking for a solution?

Week 2 Tuesday:

Genchi Gembutsu

Morning

I create a survey form with questions that would say if people would be interested in my business.

I print the form.

Afternoon:

My team and I start talking to the tourist in flic en flac.

Week 2 Wednesday

Morning:

I talk to more people. I have a target of at least 50 people. So each person in my team has to talk to 10 people.

Afternoon:

I compile my data and see the results of the test.

At this point, I can decide if people really have a problem or not. We will assume here that tourist agree with us and would love to have bicycles to move around.

Week 2 Thursday:

I start writing my business plan. I fill out most of what I can.

Week 2 Friday: I keep writing my business plan

Saturday and Sunday : OFF

Week 3: Monday:

I design a smoke test.

I talk to some people about a service where we can rent bicycles in Flic en flac. I leave a business card and say call me if you need one. When people will call, I will tell them we are fully booked and to leave a number so that we can call back.

Monday :&Tuesday: I talk to people everywhere and spread the word

Wednesday and Thursday: I will see the results and see how many people actually called. The target here is to reach at least 10 calls.

Friday: Assuming I reached the 10 calls target, I know that people want the product. Now I move on to build my MVP.

Week 4: Monday:

They visit different bicycle shops in the area. They see the prices of different bicycles.

Now my team realizes here that we don’t know which type of bicycle our client wants. We also don’t know how much customers would like to pay to rent. We also don’t know what payment model to apply. Rent per day or per hour? Does colour affect.

Tuesday: I design an MVP

I create a poster with 3 main bicycle models. I set different prices for each. I print the posters and post it at different places. I offer both system. Rent per hour or per day. I also put a colour choice of Red, blue or Black. Again if people call, I am fully booked.

Wednesday and thursday:

I continue promotions by having flyers distributed. I also record the number of calls and which model they would like. Also how long they would like to rent for.

Week 4: Friday

Example of results:

I received 20 calls.

For choice of bicycle, 15 people choose model A, 3 people choose model B, and 2 model C

For price, it is attached to model of bicycle. So same result here.

For amount of time, 10 people wanted to rent for 2-5 hours, 5 people wanted to rent for 12 hours, 3 people wanted to rent for 1 day and 2 people wanted to rent for 3 days.

For color, 15 people wanted blue, 2 black and 3 red.

Based on results, I know people like Model A best. I know how much they are willing to pay for it. (I deduced the price based on market price and cost price of business and time I want to recover my money) . I saw people like blue best and wanted to rent per hour more than per day.

Week 5 Monday:

I invest in business to buy 1 blue bicycle of Model A.

I call back the people who called the first day and tell them we have one bicycle available.

Tuesday:

The person rents from morning to afternoon. We talk to the person afterwards and ask him how we could improve. We record the data.

Wednesday:

Someone else rents the bicycle BUT IT GETS STOLEN!!! The tourist never report and run away. They fly back.

Week 5 Thursday:

We realize that we should have bought locks along with bicycle. We also realize that we should include in the contract that the safety of the bicycle is on tourist. They have to leave a credit card number just in case they don’t return the bicycle. We also take a deposit money to make sure that if something is broken, the tourist has to pay for it.

Friday:

We buy a new bicycle but provide the other facilities mentioned above.

Week 6 Continue to run business as long as you are here.

Pass the torch to someone else

Write a report of the tests and business to pass on to next team.