Reply To: Exercise 8: Details, Sustainability, and Financials
Method Initiative Exercise 8 – Details, Sustainability, Financials
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16JAmnYVaV4rvUKzmoloRTKnbFr9V9aP7VbWdFZ2z2e4/edit?usp=sharing
Main Assumptions
– Participants: Find two willing participants per month, ask each participant to find a buddy to do the exercise with them
– Fee for participating: $100/round, or $50/month/person
– Each ‘cohort’ or ‘round’ lasts two months
– Meeting frequency – at least once per month, support provided as needed
– First month – sharing and SMART goals + execution of goals
– Second month – sharing of observations and reflections, asking if they want to continue and/or who else could benefit from said program
– Office Rental: I can repurpose/utilize one of the offices that I cowork at
– Refreshments: Overestimate to make participation a little more fun
– Participant Sharing: inviting others to share their experiences – $25 incentive for individual to come share
– Initial investment needed: affordable office space/meeting space. Could potentially use my home and save on the office rent portion of the model. Not sure if I would include a portion of the mortgage as cost for the space though.
– I am not paid as part of the costs, I’d be paid by the profit
– Participant quantity: based on the office space size, I think I could accommodate 16 people max and still have it be relatively efficient. I could divide the group into two of 8 at the max.
Checklist
– I documented all of the assumptions
– If all the assumptions are met, we could be profitable early on. Sustainability would be determined when a volunteer or a member could run it without me being there.
– My rough investment needs are relatively low since I already have an established possible meeting space and a backup space to meet. In case I do this virtually, I can even save on that cost as well.
Reflection:
• Do you feel you understand your project’s operations better now?
Yes, I feel like the financials force us to get out of our head and put things on paper. It makes us confront our assumptions
• How much did you revise your project during the exercise?
I don’t think I revised it as much as I had to walk through fleshing out the project. However, the time spent on the project and the time spent preparing and doing pre-work is not necessarily accounted for.
• Did you find potentially problematic areas? If so, what did you do about them?
The only majorly problematic area that I’m seeing is that there is an unlimited amount of time spent on executing or preparing for the project that is not necessarily accounted for. I guess this is something that needs to be fleshed out that I’m still pondering. I kind of pulled the participation fee out of thin air, but I’m not sure what people might pay for the accountability and assistance that I would be providing.
• How did the exercise change your motivation to talk to others about your project?
This exercise gives me a new framework through which to ask people more specific questions. i.e. what would someone be willing to pay? What frequency would be reasonable to meet? How motivated would someone who participated before be willing to share for free vs. for a small fee?