Promoting more women in position of leadership — Fementor
After the second class, my problem for my topic changed into “women want to be success need to know how to overcome being meek in a work place”. I think the problem happens to me, so I tried to think of solutions from my angle, and searched how to solve the problem on the internet. What I found was to attending more public events and social with others more through groups, organizations. I know I should push myself forward more, but just don’t have the motivations.
Thank to my dear classmate Dillon sent me a link about women at workplaces for helping me to dig deeper into my topic. T she link he sent to me is a six-episode podcasts that talks about the topic ”Women At Work.” After listening to those podcasts, I found out there are a lot of problems cause women are not reaching equal number to men. I wrote down all the problems I found and try to find ONE solution for each problem. And discussed with my friends for find a fun topic I really want to do. Some of the solutions are fun, but were rejected after I discussed with my friends. I list 5 problems I found below.
- Color women are less at high level of leadership
- Women don’t know how to speak up
- Women need a good job substitute in order to take care of their family
- Sexual assault at work
- Women need to be pushed and need to be supported
I also talked to one of my friends who is working in a company with all female managers. I asked her if she gets the chance to move up, will she be happy to move up? She said she is ok to try it, but 70% is not willing to do it unless she has a STRONG SUPPORT. I found it interesting because I was thinking her strong support might be one of my solutions. So I asked her what’s her strong support means. She said it’s a internal support form their own company. For example, if she got a trouble, there would be someone can help her to handle the situation. She doesn’t want to take responsibility for troubles that caused by other people. I agree with her that many women don’t want to go to a higher position because they don’t have enough confidence to handle those problems come from other people.
After had a nice chat with her, I started to read the UniversitySter newspaper I grabbed at a newsstand on campus. I was so surprised that I found that there is a student group called ”Women in leadership” meets biweekly Wednesday on our campus. I emailed the leader and asked her if I could interview her? She replied me the next day and we met on the Friday. I got some feedback from her, such as women need to know more opportunities that open to them. She told me that if she didn’t know the opportunity for being a leader for the organization, she would never be in this position. The next Wednesday, I joined the organization. I got more chance to talk with the girls in the organization.
After I gathered much information, I finally choose my problem— Women need to be pushed and to be supported for helping them reach higher. I started with think about many unrealistic ideas such as build a social media that brings positive impacts to your relations. However, after I listened to the homework podcasts and discussed with Thi. I have came with a thought — building a non-profit mentorship system.
After I decided what my business is, I targeted to a smaller group and I started to research on the field…
Customer segment
Costomer Job: Easy to find a good mentor for helping mentees to reach a higher position in their career.
Pains:
- Don’t know how to find a good mentor.
- Don’t know where to find a mentor.
- Where is the location?
- If the time I am available?
- Not sure about the cost
Gains:
- Not sure about the cost.
- Professional evaluator for evaluating mentors.
- Matching system.
- Online customer service.
- Find a near location.
Market opportunity
Texas population: 27,236,443 (2017)
Working-Age Women 15.9%
RANKED: 35th of America
Percentage of women ages 18 to 64 who fell below the poverty line in 2016
In women employed report 2017, there are organizations, and individuals who made a gift between July 1, 2016 and June 30, 2017 are up to 2,622,600$. Compare to 2016 income report, (2,222,774$) we can see the business for women is growing. But even though the businesses for promoting women are growing, they are still not reach the balance with men. In other words, there are potentials and rooms for us to grow our business.
Target User
The business targets to those women in Texas who need supports and mentors to help them moving to a higher position or achieve their career goals.
The volunteers are key resources to us, and vice versa, we helps the volunteers to gain self-actualization and creating their values. We create a win-win-win situation for the mentors, mentees, and us. But we need sponsors to support our finance export for developing the app, maintaining the app, and also hiring support team members.
Competitors
Pros: Clear calendar for users to know their plans, events, and activities.
Cons: High membership fee.
Pros: Have many programs that targets to different users.
Cons: Not clear instructions for steps.
Mentoring by talking on the phone.
Pros: With self-training videos.
Cons: high fee to pay for the program.
I didn’t find an app that offers women mentoring so far.
Porters 5 forces
Buyers: women in Texas that need mentors to help them reaching their career goals.
Suppliers: Local business for Sponsorship, Mentors.
Substitutes: Mentoring program, women organizations.
New Entrants: Women Mentor Association.(It’s a new women mentoring business but seems doesn’t have enough funds so far)
Existing Rivels: women organizations and groups such as National Association for Female Executives (NAFE) and National Organization for Women (NOW)
Business model
Value proposition
Fementor aims to provide women who need support in their career for matching appropriate mentors by using their mobile app easily.
It also provides mentors the chances to develop their potentials and to create their value.
Solution
Our business aims to provide women who need support in their career to match appropriate mentors by using their mobile app easily. It also provides mentors the chances to develop their potentials and to create their value.
Designed solution
Develop a mobile app for women to find their mentor easily, and also give those mentors the chance to achieve their professional practice experiences.
