Next phase: developing our BMC & VPC

Business Model Canvas

For the development of Student Connect, the Business Model Canvas (BMC) will be used as a tool to develop this business opportunity properly. The segments of the BMC will be discussed below. If you don't feel like reading all the tekst, just scroll down and have a look at the image of the BMC ;-).

Customer segments

Student Connect strives to match students with corporations on its multi-sided platform. The students of vocational schools, applied science universities and academic universities throughout The Netherlands are one of the target customer segments. All corporations that are seeking for project-based employees are the other customer segment.

Revenue streams

Student Connect aims to generate revenues from multiple sources. First of all, Student Connect will charge a fixed subscription fee to corporations per month. This allows the corporations to show vacancies on the platform. Second, Student Connect will charge a fixed percentage from students on every transaction that is made through the platform. Finally, for a later stage, Student Connect will generate extra revenue through the sales of advertisement space on the website.

Value Propositions

Student Connect aims to match students with corporations for temporary projects. These students will be working within the corporation for as long as the project runs and once the project is completed, employment will automatically end. Since we are only working with students, corporations will pay a reduced fee compared to regular employment. For students, temporary employment will serve as a paid substitute to internships. It will be an easy and convenient way to gain experience and build a network while making money.

Customer Relationships

In order to retain customers, Student Connect will take a few customer relationship measures. First of all, Student Connect will incorporate a review and recommendation system, which allows corporations to write a review about students they hired. This way, students will get a rating based on the reviews written by prior employers. Students will have the ability to respond on these reviews given by the corporations. Furthermore, Student Connect will support the process of matching students with corporations.

Channels

Our platform will serve as the main channel to reach our target customers. Besides the platform, Student Connect will make use of Social Media in order to get in touch with potential customers. In a later stage, Student Connect is planning to organize events that have the purpose of enhancing their brand awareness. Finally, Student Connect aims to start partner programs with universities and other educational institutions.

Key activities

Student Connect will have to continue develop and maintain its platform on which the matchmaking of students and corporations takes place. Besides, acquiring corporations and students through online marketing activities as well as organizing events on universities and other venues where the target groups are concentrated. Another opportunity is to develop partnerships with universities, schools and corporations to develop projects of mutual benefits.

Key Resources

The main resource is the platform. The second resource, the network of the managing team, where leads are generated from corporations and all the organizations that students are acquired from. This network is strengthened by the marketing team that targets the segments narrowly by organizing events and targeted advertising.

Key Partners

Our key partners will include educational institutions, corporations, study associations and web developers. Educational institutions and study associations will serve as a way to get in touch with students and therefore potential customers. Corporations will serve as a partner as well as a customer, since they will have to put vacancies on the platform. Finally, web developers are partners since they are developing our platform.

After developing our BMC ,we had a look at the Value Propisition Canvas (VPC).

Let’s have a deeper look into our Value Proposition. Through the Value Proposition Canvas we will explain how our business model contributes to the way current businesses are executing their business models, and how companies and students can connect more efficiently. Since our products is a multi-sided online platform, we will distinguish two types of customer segments: (1) Students; (2) Corporations.

Students

Let's start with the value proposition for the students. For this customer segment we have identified the following customer jobs: temporary employment and earnings, gaining work experience, working in teams, finding job opportunities and creating your own professional network. However, these jobs are correlated with several pains. With the current solutions it is hard to find work for student that can easily be combined with their study, is also interesting and well-paid. It is difficult to find a specific side-job that is temporary, project based and flexible for this specific group. Next to that, most of the current side-jobs are for the long-term, which means that the student is obliged to commit to that work for a longer period of time. Some of the students decide on doing an internship. Though, these internships are often poorly paid and next to that full-time and therefore also difficult to combine with the student's study simultaneously. Another pain is that students cannot easily find work, even after graduation, which makes it hard to gain experience and earn money. We have also experienced some difficulties ourselves. For example, the lack of possibilities to carry out projects in teams. With our model we are, of course, trying to solve these difficulties. In the value proposition canvas these difficulties are referred to as ‘pains’. Pain relievers are necessary to relieve these pains. First, with our product, a ‘project based employment - matching platform for students and corporations’, the pain reliever is the fact that students can screen an easy-to-use database with potential interesting projects. Besides, they can decide on their own if they either prefer to work individually or alone and also decide for themselves when to work on a project. Another pain reliever is that our product gives students the opportunity to earn money at the time that they are available to work on a project, rather than obliged commitment to a long-term side-job which requires a lot of efficient planning to successfully combine it with their study. Next to that this platform creates a paid substitute to the unpaid internships as well. Finally, they can easily check whether the project requirements can be assigned besides study obligations. The gain creators in this VPC are time saving, increased chance of employment, the possibility to make a solid income besides the study, and, last, the possibility to get in contact with corporations and their recruiters. This could be really valuable towards the end of the study when students mostly start applying for their desired dream jobs. For students who have completed that study but are not able to find a job, this platform also can be a temporary solution.

Corporations

Our next customer segment consists the corporations. By corporations we mean start-ups, SME’s and multinationals. Which segment we could serve the best should be tested within the first stage of the business. Nevertheless, these corporations also struggle with the fulfilment of temporary projects. Finding the right people for the projects and scouting the best talent are ‘customer jobs’ of the corporations. The pains here lie in the time and costs that it takes to find these students and to train and develop them towards real employees. Sometimes its just a temporary job that can be done without training and huge investment from the company, in that case, the pain lies in the difficulty to find a trustable short-term intern that is able to carry out the work efficiently. So how do we solve these problems for the corporations’ side of the business model? Well, by connecting students that are looking for project based employment to companies that actually have these needs. The pain relievers here are again the database, where companies can easily upload their work vacancies and temporary projects while saving time, saving costs and get access to lots of talented, ambitious and affordable students.

So, after our core values are discussed, lets see our assumptions for this business model:

1. Corporations are willing to engage students on Firms’s projects through SC platform by paying a subscription fee

2. Students are willing to conduct projects within corporations (found on SC-platform) either for experience & career developement and experience & earning a fee (percentage goes to SC platform)

3. Corporates are willing to pay a fixed fee to have their projects/vacancies added on the platform

4. Students pay a comission to the platform, which is a fixed percentage of the transaction fee

5. Corporates are willing to write reviews about students they hired through our platform

The aforementioned assumptions will be tested through interviews with both students and corporations.