BUS357: You and your friend conceive a business idea to connect pet owners in Singapore such that pet owners can help: Starting and Managing a Business Assignment, SUSS, Singapore

You and your friend conceive a business idea to connect pet owners in Singapore such that pet owners can help to take care of each other’s pets for a fee, whenever the owners are not able to do so, during vacation, for example. Presently, there are various pet boarding facilities in Singapore.

However, both of you feel that the current pet boarding facilities may be insufficient to cater to the increasing demand from pet owners as post-pandemic overseas travel resumes. Therefore, an app-based platform business can better connect like-minded pet lovers, allowing pet owners to take care of each other’s pets, with peace of mind, when the pet owners are away.

Your friend is a software engineering student, and he will be able to design and develop the first version of the website and mobile app. And you, being a business student, would be looking into the commercial aspects of the business.

Each of you can commit up to $10,000 to the business, but without a business track record and experience, obtaining bank loans and equity financing to fund your business would be extremely difficult and out of the question during the start-up phase.

After a few rounds of discussion, both of you decide to appraise and test the business idea using a Validation Board before plunging into the new venture. After all, as both of you have yet to complete your tertiary education, you want to make sure that the business idea is viable before further committing time and money to it.