BikeBuddy (name is a work in progress!)

[EK1]

I am a final year degree student studying Business Management. For my innovation and entrepreneur module, I have to come up with a business idea. This is where I need your help.

As a mum, I often found myself in the town with my toddler who could not possibly leave the house without her bike. Fast forward 15 mins, and just far enough away from the house said bike was no longer required. Now I was faced with the changing bag full of snacks, the balance bike and the toddler who couldn't possibly walk because of tired legs from all the cycling..It should be noted here, I am not an octopus! It was at that point I thought it would be very helpful if I had a back pack type strap I could attach to the bike and sling it on my back over my backpack(or attached to my backpack - finer details are yet to be ironed out) to leave my hands free to carrying my daughter and/or shopping bags.

What I would like is thoughts on this, as parents have you found yourself in this situation? would this be useful to you? what would you be willing to pay for this? would you care if it was made from sustainable materials or is that not important to you?

I reiterate, this is HYPOTHETICAL purely so I can add some "market research" into my presentation.

Thanks!

Doesn’t something similar already exist? Not sure if that’s a problem. And no I never bought one!

if you search for ‘over the shoulder ski carrier strap’, you’ll find umpteen devices for less than a fiver that would work with a balance bike.

This is a fair point but also if you market anything specifically to parents people would probably buy it. For example, nappy bags, a regular backpack does the same job. Or those coolers specifically for breast milk, I can't see much difference to a regular cooler.

My baby isn't old enough for me to have had this problem but I've definitely seen other parents carrying their kids bikes/scooters so there's possibly a market, OP

I think it's a half decent idea but I'd explore greater innovation in the bike design instead. More money in it. Partially foldable balance bike? Inbuilt carrying mechanism?

There are similar things already for adult bikes, e.g.: https://restrap.com/products/hike-a-bike-harness
"hike a bike" is the term to use to search for the concept. When my kids were little and doing as you describe, I used to occasionally use an ordinary shoulder strap with carabiner-type fastenings at each end. But mostly I'd bungee it to the pram or just shoulder it as I would for my adult bike. Doing the same with a pedal bike was more annoying, I occasionally wondered about replacing a pedal with a Brompton folding pedal.
I guess maybe a version of the Restrap product above but scaled down might be what you're thinking of? You could always drop Restrap a line, if your project is all hypothetical then maybe they'd help you out.