18A – Create a Customer Avatar

When looking to create a Customer Avatar for my business I realized I will never have a set Customer Avatar like a 50 year old woman who loves yoga, so I will create an avatar for a Business that would be interested in my services.

The Business Avatar that I will be describing is going to always be a corporate customer, as all the businesses that I will be marketing my Title Services to will be corporate Title Insurance companies. Most if not every business that I will be marketing to will be very large in size compared to my business as I will not be considered a corporate business but more of a family business.

The business will have many clients to keep happy as there are a lot of banks that loan Mortgages out to people buying homes around the country. Each business will most likely have work all over the country and not just have a small area as Title Insurance is never really tied to location by company.

Most of the people at these businesses that I will be dealing with will be middle aged if not older as they will be the upper managers in the corporate world, climbing the corporate ladder in these large businesses to deal with my little business. All businesses will have some political preference as they know politics are heavily tied into the housing markets with the countries economy as a whole.

I think that in common we both have one goal, making sure buyers can have access to Title Insurance in a safe, quick, and affordable manner. I also think because we are both businesses we have a common goal of making money on every transaction that we can.

15A – Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 2

I was able to find three other people from some of the Title Companies that I had before interviewed but not any of the people were the same, as instructed. I was able to pick their brain on how they view the product they want to buy from me. First of all they determined a list of how they rate different vendors, on 1. Turn time, 2. Quality, and 3. Price. Turn time is the most important as they have SLAs that they need to meet with lenders, quality being second as they need a error free product to present to the lender before the SLA expires, and price being the last as they will pay for the other two before going cheaper and getting a cheap product.

In this industry it is understood that you really do get what you pay for and that is why some companies charge a premium as they have great reviews and track records. All of the product delivery will be done online either through portals or emails that give the Client a direct copy of the product quickly and easily. Payment is usually done through escrow accounts or overnight checks, this is true for each company that I spoke with.

All products will be reviewed by Title Examiners and their managers before being sent to their Lenders and that is where they can kick it back to me if my company missed something as everyone makes mistakes.

When reviewing the products, they are satisfied when there is no errors and the product was turned in by either the agreed time or a little after, just before the SLA expires so they are able to complete their task. Turn times that are not met or products with many errors cause them to not make money and they will take immediate action to prevent that person from getting any more orders or less volume until they improve.

All in all the three people from the three companies all had the same wants, needs, and requirements for their work. This is because the industry is very defined on what is acceptable and what is not. They all pay very well for products that are produced very well and very fast. This is why my business needs to be in tip top shape with employees and procedures even before the first order enters the database.

14A Halfway Reflection

1) In keeping up with this course I developed the art of marking everything on my calendar on my phone so I knew when I had to do assignments. Working 50-70 hours a week on the regular makes it quite hard to find time to dedicate to my 3 classes so I have to work diligently when I have free time for classwork. There have been weeks I had to skip as I just didnt have time with my schedule but for the most part, keeping up with this class isnt difficult.

2) I have felt that giving up feeling more often than not, but what pulled me through is the thought of completing the objectives, learning, and not having to take the class again. I feel like I already had a tenacious attitude due to having to work my long hours and do school for the past 2 years now, even if before it was high school and now college, they are both comparable.

3) My three tips for an incoming student to this class would be:

• Do as I say not as I do: Make a calendar for this class like I said, do not do the assignments at 11:46PM on Friday, as I do.
• Go into the class with an open mind, I did not have an open mind, now that I have one, I am enjoying this class more and more!
• In times of having a feeling of giving up, picture life goals, goals that are attainable, but unattainable without an education and career/entrepreneurial venture. Picture entrepreneurial goals as well, those help as well.

12A Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 1

Interviewing the 3 people I chose, told me a lot about who my customers would be in this whole process. I found 3 workers for Title Insurance companies that were all struggling to connect with Title Searchers across the nation and they all showed excitement when I revealed my business idea to them. They immediately expressed that they had tried to google something along those lines but never had great success when trying to find a company that had service available.

Following up with them googling trying to find companies such as mine, I also learned how they tried to find Title Searchers. Its also not always about connecting well with a Title Searcher its hard to find them period. They also call around the nation to county offices, but legally the offices are not allowed to recommend any searchers anyway. 

What I learned from my interviews is that I really do have a market for my business and I have the ability to appeal to many customers. But this is just the beginning as I am still really taking in how much work needs to be done to reach out to the Title Searchers and Title Insurance companies.

11A Idea Napkin No. 1

I've always wanted to be an entrepreneur since I was able to think about what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I loved the idea of working for myself and providing for myself, and employees, I was very fascinated from a young age by it. I've been around entrepreneurs my entire life, and more recently my everyday life I interact with veteran serial entrepreneurs all day. This has lead me to form that mindset that an entrepreneur needs, and allowed me to be prepared to become my own one day. I see this business starting very small and growing overtime to become one of the largest if not the largest in the nation of its kind. I see the business really taking up my entire life, until I was able to delegate everyday tasks to trusted employees.

I'm selling a middleman service essentially, as I am connecting Title Insurance companies to Title Searchers. This will allow the two to work together like never before as my company being the middleman, drama is entirely eliminated. Past relationships are no more, and the other does not know who they are working with besides my company.

They care about this product because they are throwing money away to pay to send their own people to counties across the United States to perform title searches. On the other side, the Title Searchers are hurting for business as their is no connection to the Title Insurance companies to provide them with work.

What sets my company apart from everyone else, is no one has offered to be the middleman between the two, they have only offered to cut each other out as it is a very competitive market. This business will revolutionize how Title Searching is done for years to come.

I believe all of these concepts mesh together quite well. I believe that none of these listed concepts make my company weak or will cause it to miss out on any opportunities moving forward. Going through the list above, I see no red flags that will cause hiccups in the moving forward of my business.

9A Testing the Hypothesis Part 2

9A Part 2

When I was interviewing people from businesses that could be potential customers for my business, I ran into people that already had found their answer for this niche market. I had found at least 10 or so people that had already found a business much like my idea, where they were connected to multiple searchers but not directly.

This sparked my interest to see how many businesses existed that were like mine, to my curiosity, I found more than a few that existed already. But whenever I would contact them or go to their websites, I would see that they were very outdated, or doing very little work at the time. Many of them were mom and pop businesses that only serviced one or two clients, with very small volume, because they didn't have the need or want to expand.

This showed me even more how much the need for a countrywide business like my idea existed, as there was no one who would do big volume. The people that had already found the answer to the problem I was addressing, wanted nothing to do with me, as they preferred dealing with the small businesses, as they were generally cheaper. This also shined light for me to see how tight the profit margin would be in this area of business. It helped me determine a lot of answers on pricing, and how much volume to expect over time.

Going into this idea, I thought a lot of people would really need my services, as I saw a lot of Title Insurance companies struggling to connect with searchers, but in my interviewing process, it showed that there isn't as many opportunities as I once thought there was. It showed me how I had to set my goals accordingly, in line with the market and its demands as well.

Inside the boundary	Outside the Boundary
Title Insurance Companies who need the communication gap to be filled.	Title Insurance Companies who do not need the communication gap to be filled.
The gap to be filled between Title Searchers and Title Insurance companies.	A Title Search company, that Searches directly for Title Insurance companies.
There is a need because of past communication between the two entities going sour.	The need is still there, for people outside the boundary, but they have already solved their problem.

8A Solving the Problem

8A

After identifying the problem at hand, Title Insurance companies not being able to interact with the large amount of Title Searchers, I have come up with the idea of creating a middle man so to speak to handle the communications between the two. What I intend to sell to the companies is, a guarantee that if they turn in a requested search to me, they will have that search completed as quickly as possible, with less than 1% error rate according to their search requirements. 

I also will guarantee that, the Title Insurance companies will not know who the Title Searcher is, and vice versa, so that past working relationships will not matter, as either side will only be reporting to me. This is also done so pricing for providing this service cannot be undercut if one part decides to withdraw from the agreement of me being the middle man of the two.

I will also strive to offer competitive pricing while maintaining a profit, so that these transactions can keep happening with a great stability. Pricing agreements will have to be made before any orders are transcribed. 

This is all in effort to make both parties lives easier, and make a profit for myself, everyone is happy.

7A Testing the Hypothesis Part 1

7A

Title Insurance companies in the United States are unable to reliably keep in contact with Title Searchers in all 50 states, because of the inability to establish key professional relationships and hammer out the monetary boundaries on each side.

Testing the who: there are many Insurance Companies who need access to Title Searchers who can reliably turn in work in a short amount of time.

Testing the what: Not all states have a need for manual Title Searchers as there is a lot of online public records, eliminating the need for someone to go to the Court House. 

Testing the why: Most companies have a hard time maintaining the relationships because they have so many clients they have to please. The manpower needed to call, email, fax, the Title Searchers regularly just is not worth it for the Title Insurance companies.

Interviewing workers at multiple Title Insurance companies, (confidentially) they have expressed that the solution to this problem is very simple, and is easily reached. They have all agreed that a middle man is needed to keep track of all of the Title Searchers in the United States, and be the segue between the Searchers and the Companies. The service provided needs to be prompt as the lenders often require turn around times that are a bit ridiculous, (24-48 hours). From the interviews I did find out some tips and tricks on how to go about contacting all of the Title Searchers in all 50 states, as there is going to be a lot to handle. What I took from the interviews the most, was the sheer amount of positive reviews for this idea of creating the service for the Title Insurance companies.

My Entrepreneurship Story

Working with Veteran Entrepreneurs

For almost two years now I have worked at the same company that is a small local business run by two excellent entrepreneurs. Over the course of these two years I have been an informational sponge, collecting all the information I can like it is dire for me to survive. 

When I first met the owners of the company, a husband and wife, in their mid 60's, I knew they were all business. I knew that they had been around this business a very long time and knew exactly how to make it run in tip top shape. They have had their own business for 25 years now and there is a great knowledge that comes a long with those years. 

I believe I saw life differently before I met them and now I can see it in a business like mindset because of them, they have instilled in me the idea that every minute of the work day is money. They have showed that no minute shall be wasted as that could have been a wasted opportunity. 

They have taken me under their wing as they know when I joined the company I did not really have an idea of what career I wanted. They saw in my that I have what it takes to be an entrepreneur and ever since then, I have not stopped working towards that goal.

This brings me to why I have enrolled in this class, as I do want to learn as much as I can before I do open my first business. They have encouraged me to take courses like these that have an ever lasting effect on the business mind. I had others telling me not to take this course but I knew I wanted to take it no matter what they said. I want to leave this class knowing a lot more than I already did know about being an entrepreneur or even a serial entrepreneur. 

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