Class Collective: A Business Plan
By Margot Herman and Devin McNulty
Hi again!
It’s Class Collective, your go-to platform for fun local classes! (some day, we hope!)
After a revaluation of our pricing strategy and audience, we’re back to present a business plan. We explored the idea of marketing our platform to RSOs, for communication and recruitment of new members. Ultimately, we decided to focus our initial product on students, and seek sponsorships from local businesses to keep the price low or free. What follows is our plan to provide low-cost, interesting classes to our community.
Opportunity
Students at the University of Chicago are eager to learn, but lack access to classes and communities centered around practical skills, like cooking, professional skills and other life skills. Current educational platforms fail to offer low-cost, collective learning at the community level. Additionally, students lack an effective way to find others with the same interests. At the same time, local businesses would benefit from a way to reach more students.
Market
Our initial market will consist of UChicago students, where we have personal connections and knowledge of the market. Classes will be offered in Chicago, primarily on or near campus to fit the busy schedules of students here. Our initial market research showed that there is significant interest in more casual and practical classes and communities. If this learning style is successful, we would look to extend the service to other college campuses in Chicago.
Pricing & Sales
Most respondents to our initial survey were willing to pay a small fee (~$5) to attend classes. With a reasonable amount of participants, we should be able to cover venue, resource and teaching costs. We are contacting a range of local businesses (financial, restaurants, etc.) for possible sponsorships, to help cover costs and offer the class to more students. We will also try to provide something tangible to leave the class with, to establish a clear value of the class to potential participants. With a limited amount of initial classes, pricing will be per class, but we plan to introduce a credit system. Selling class credits will help increase participation (don’t want to waste your credits!) and allow people to gift classes.
Operations
Our main operations to start will consist of event-planning and marketing. We will need to coordinate with businesses, book venues, purchase necessary class materials and hire teachers. These operations will be labor-intensive and require significant planning and coordination. In addition, we will operate a website to display the classes being offered and gauge interest in new classes. At a minimum, our site will direct users to event information.
Next Steps
- Connect with local business about possible sponsorship opportunities
- Complete the development of minimum viable website
- Plan and market a class!
Thanks for taking the time to read about our progress!
