From Concept To Launch: How Market Intelligence Paved The Path
Nestworks needed help to validate the market and understand the ideal market segment, plan their operational and financial needs, and create a strategic plan for implementation. With the help from CTRS, Nestworks was able to launch a three-month pilot in Metro Vancouver.
The Situation
Nestworks is an organization with a vision of creating and providing a family-friendly coworking and childminding community, which they intend to build in Metro Vancouver, B.C. The concept for this business was based on enabling parents to bring their children to work with them. With optional on-site childminding offered to parents of children 12 months to 5 years of age, this organization gives parents the chance to complete remote work, while also having their child looked after nearby.
This service offering was predicted to be in high demand in the Vancouver area, due to an influx of remote workers as a result of the pandemic and a shifting hybrid workforce. At the time of the report, there was a childcare crisis due to the shortage of licensed childcare offerings.
Nestworks believes they can capitalize on the market with their unique offering of coworking and optional childminding in the Vancouver area.
The Challenge
Nestworks was passionate about the concept but lacked the operational steps and knowledge required to successfully launch. Nestworks needed help to validate the market and understand the ideal market segment, plan their operational and financial needs, and create a strategic plan for implementation. A critical step was to find financing options that they could leverage to launch their concept.
The coworking and childminding concept had been developed over a number of years, and it was overwhelming to work through the challenges of launching the business. Pressure was building to advance their organization from ideation to implementation, but finding where to start proved challenging.
The board of eight volunteer directors needed direction and clarification on the next steps required to execute the business plan and take advantage of the current opportunities, in order to launch successfully.
What Changed
CTRS produced a market assessment to gain valuable insights in a number of key areas. The market assessment included a market scan, a PESTLE analysis (Political, Environmental, Social, Technological, Legal, Economic), a competitive analysis, and financial modeling and primary research. For richer understanding into market viability and buyer behaviour, primary research was conducted in the form of a survey, designed to gauge interest and acceptable price range. In order to get more information about the market demand in Metro Vancouver for coworking services with a childminding component, we surveyed residents that were in the target demographic. Our response rate was successful enough to provide a statistically significant sample upon which to base our findings.
In addition, a market forecast was provided, with numbers for Total Available Market (TAM), Serviceable Obtainable Market (SOM) and Serviceable Available Market (SAM). By analyzing these numbers, Nestworks could understand the market potential for their business concept.
While not common, Nestworks wanted to leverage our expertise in coworking and our skills with putting together a financial model. CTRS provided operational analysis as part of the market assessment. This analysis provided detailed information on financial modeling options, fundraising strategies, suggested launch partners, and sales processes. This stage of the research relied heavily on open source intelligence, as well as deep industry knowledge and analysis from a subject matter expert.
Once the market assessment was complete, Nestworks wanted some practical expertise and facilitation to bring the market assessment to life for their organization. CTRS provided a strategic planning workshop with Nestworks’ Board of Directors. The purpose of this workshop was to:
Build team alignment across the board of directors and stakeholders regarding the future direction of the society.
Enable decision-making capacity for the board of directors.
Set up Nestworks to be ready for the future launch of a shared workspace and childminding community and to take advantage of opportunities, such as creating a pop-up version of their proposed service.
Once complete, CTRS assembled an 18-month strategic plan broken down month by month and categorized based on the market assessment topics. This served as the action plan, ready for implementation by the Nestworks board.
The Result
The Market Confirmed
Collectively, Nestworks was able to effectively validate the coworking and childminding market, with key insights and data on the target market. Through our comprehensive research, we were able to provide Nestworks with an estimated number of potential customers, as well as the overall size of the market available to pursue.
New Knowledge About Potential Customers
One of the biggest barriers discovered was that the target audience lacked knowledge of what coworking was. With the insights gathered, CTRS was able to provide Nestworks with key data on who the market is, where they are at now, what they are willing to pay, as well as other key factors in their decision making process. This allowed Nestworks to keep specific customer considerations in mind when making strategic decisions on pricing and locations. It also gave Nestworks a unique insight into customer knowledge and perception, so they could plan messaging accordingly.
Resources Required
The detailed operations assessment, which focused on financial modeling, fundraising sources, alternative business models to consider, and sales strategies, gave Nestworks a clear understanding of what size space to look for, which communities to focus on and how many staff would be needed to run the facility. This section of the report was designed to give clear numbers on what it would take to operate and how much capital it would take to get the concept off the ground.
Clear Next Steps
The strategic planning created a foundation of knowledge and understanding for Nestworks on the direction they needed to take. The workshops focused on creating team alignment across the board of directors and stakeholders regarding the desired future state of Nestworks. The strategic sessions enabled decision-making capacity for the board, so they could plan and take the first few steps forward to make progress towards achieving their goal.
“The strategic plan is perfect and exactly what we need to move forward,” said Madeleine Shaw, Nestworks Founder.
With the help from CTRS, Nestworks was able to launch a three month pilot in Metro Vancouver.