Napkin Idea No. 2 : Week 9

My name is Maria Yarbough. I' m very skilled in analytical thinking and problem solving.I'm great with math skills as well as communication skills. i hold public speaking as one of my strong points as well. many of my aspirations include building myself a sturdy framework so that i can do the things i love such as travel, spend time with family, and live a healthy lifestyle. my plan to build my frame work is to succeed in the corporate world as an investment banker. this being said i would love to be able to help other students get their feet wet with investing and building their own framework. my hope is that "Invest the Rest" will help students become wiser with their money while making a stake in the current market.

Im offering a way for students to learn the ins and outs of investing. so they can understand the stock market, and learn how to move through it. the ultimate goal is to make money. the student investors will be given the tools to capitalize on small stocks and predict their trends. it'll come equipped with a user friendly app that will allow them to make purchases, track their earnings, and stocks just as if they were strolling down Instagram or Facebook.

Originally wanted my market to be pulled directly towards college students but not restricted to UF. and im going to stick to this market. i had received feedback to appeal to an older crowd for this idea because those are the people who know about the stock market and are willing to take the risk. however this defeats the purpose of my idea. which is to educate the youth about the market so they are more savoy when they get to that older age. the stock market is worldwide so there would great opportunities for expansion, we are targeting any student will to make some money while learning to be money smart. i also believe starting at colleges is a great trial basis before the product extends its hand to other age groups so we can see what works and what doesn't from the up coming leaders of our generation.

Its a know fact that college students struggle. especially financially. this would offer them a new way to create income. They will also gain a new skill that will put them a foot forward when entering the real world.

one thing that will set my business apart is the learning sector not only will you be provided the channel to do investments were going to teach you how. taking the blind fold off of the stock market. this would help us spread awareness about the importance of the stock market. the benefits of the knowledge and possible opportunities we can provide students. in addition were offering convenience by selectively targeting college students and having basically everything accessible from your phone.

one area that i think is a little weak is why should the students care. investing doesn't appeal to all students so it would be challenging getting student to try us out. also students are already pressured by school would they be able to handle another task that they would have to learn and maintain. and ultimately would some students loose money which is a volatile possibility. money seems to be the biggest concern about this project to students the idea of losing their money. in this program i want to start off by the learning sector so students aren't just throwing their money into a pool. second in order to practice we will work on minuscule stocks where you can start by investing a penny, nickle, dollar ect. Until they are comfortable to raise the stakes. it'll be at their own pace. i believe this will eliminate the chances of losing big with you learning to gradually escalate into the stock market. this is supposed to be a fun way to learn and make money and i feel that the learning process and app to monitor your moves ensures both.

FEEDBACK: A lot of the feedback i received was positive. they thought this idea could really work. and the fact that it incorporates an app makes it user friendly. this really helped me reinforce my idea and solidify that this is a valid need. second there was a concern that i was targeting the wrong age market which i disagreed with. i think its important to teach students after all we are all in college to learn anyway. so appealing to an older crowd with more knowledge would take away from what i originally set out to do which was educate. it was also brought to my attention that getting students to care would also be an issue so spreading awareness holding small info sessions doing brief YouTube video breakdowns, or host stock trading games certain days on campus are all ideas in which i feel i could attack this weakness. the fear of losing money was the biggest concern but stock trading is a risk i want to tress that this is to learn so we will start on small stocks first to build up the student investors we are not just giving students a door to the stock market and saying jump in its all about becoming more comfortable with how it works so that your qualified to make bigger  moves. i also thought the app could have check points in earnings practice and learning so that you cant immediately jump to a thousand dollar stock because you are being over confident. you could look at it as unlocking levels. reading the feedback really helped me look deeper into my idea to discover its weakness and develop a plan to make them strengths.