"Idea Napkin No. 2"

Since I started community college back in 2012, I found a safe place by working with my community and getting involved Palm Beach State College. From that moment I also found my interest in Finance, this interest also allowed me to become aware on the lack of financial literacy in my community. To be more specific, college students and minorities are the least financially literate. Students graduate high school without the proper knowledge of personal finances. They were not given the proper resources to succeed in the real world. On the other hand, low income minorities are facing the harshest time. They do not have an idea on how to properly succeed in the American economy. For example, the immigrant community has a distrust in the American Banking System, which leads them to save their money in their homes, instead of banks. Also, they do not properly save for retirement, and they do not consider the option of buying a home.

            This business venture will allow me to get closer to my community, as well as educate them on how to be successful in the American economy. Not only will it make me a better professional, but it will give meaning to my life in a way that a corporation will not. The community that I will be giving back to is the reason I am able to be at UF. They led me to this path, and I want to give back as well.

            People who lack the proper financial literacy suffer through every stage in their lives. Those who have a strong knowledge, are more likely to plan for retirement, and I want to be able to give my consumer a strong background on financial literacy.

            My business opportunity is a program that will teach financial literacy to minorities, college students (this will have a large focus on the younger population of students), and low-income families in Palm Beach County. The goal of this program is to target those who lack financial literacy knowledge regardless of their age and race.

The program will have two components, workshops and blogging. Workshops will be directed to the community as a whole, and based on the community demographics they will be conducted in three different languages, English, Spanish and Creole. The blog page will be marketed to a younger audience, who may not be attracted to the community workshops, and may want to have their resources at the time that is most convenient to them.

            My program is not intended to bring in monetary profit. Instead, it is intended to be a program that will work very closely with non-profits throughout Palm Beach County. The program will teach the target market how to succeed in the America economy, in a way that they have the control of their finances. They will be able to understand taxes, budgeting, and retirement planning.

            What sets us apart from everyone else, is that the program will be implemented in different community organizations that work with the segments chosen for this program. It will not be exclusive to just one organization, and the community will have that access to the resources.

            All components of the program will be able to flow properly. In the interviews, I only targeted the college population, since I have done research on the minority population. Both segments will be benefitted properly from this program. There is an aspect that hasn’t been properly planned out, which is targeting the proper organizations that will allow me to utilize their resources to implement the Florida Financial Literacy Program.

Feedback Memo: In my feedback I received positive comments. There were five points that I took from my fellow peers:

·      Immigration is growing at a fast pace, and it is important to understand the monetary system of the United States.

·      Including not only minorities, but low in-come families into the workshops.

·      Students as a whole struggle with personal finances.

·      Some students have never held a job, and they lack the understanding of “the value of money”

·      Broadening my range of people

The feedback was allowed me to expand my target market to not only include only minorities and college students, but also low income families that would be interested in becoming financially literate.