The Business Of Planning The Perfect Night Out

As a budding entrepreneur looking to develop a new product for market, tapping into my own career and life experiences definitely made a lot of sense.

For me, those experiences came courtesy of three-years spent working in Canadian hospitality as well as an extensive history of family involvement in the local industry. No matter where I’ve worked, one of the questions most asked by patrons has been, “where’s a good place to go out tonight?” I thought it would be great to develop a product that took their individual preferences into account (whether that be light music in a local bar or the best Spanish Tapas this side of Barcelona) and provided them with an answer. That’s where I got the idea for my new phone app www.goodtonight.com. It was launched four-weeks ago after 16-months of planning and development.

The good thing is that I’m also currently enrolled in a business degree at The University of Sydney. That meant I was able to sign up for the Business School’s IBUS3103 Global Entrepreneurship and Enterprise course earlier this year. I thought it might be a great opportunity to get some expert insights and tips to help me develop my business. Course leader Massimo Garbuio was kind enough to let me run with my app idea as a simulation exercise throughout the course, and I definitely got a lot out of it.

Of real interest was the solid focus on research and the importance of understanding the needs of your target market. The other thing that really helped was the work we did around the breakdown of the planning stages. I had a pretty clear idea about the product I wanted to put out there, but this knowledge really helped me fine-tune my strategy. But perhaps the most valuable course aspect was the focus on teamwork. I worked with three other guys throughout the course, and having the chance to bounce ideas around was really handy.

Although it’s early days, I’m hopeful the project will turn out to be a hit. There are still numerous challenges to overcome (such as striking upon the perfect marketing strategy for maximising downloads and developing plans to monestise the app), but I think it’s something I’ll push through and succeed with.


Author: Sam Levy – Bachelor of Commerce student and CEO of www.goodtonight.com