Friday, January 25, 2019

Assignment 6 - Economic and Regulatory Trends

Assignment 6 – Identifying Opportunities in Economic & Regulatory Trends

Why did you see this opportunity?

Economic Trend #1: Rapid growth among jobs requiring master’s degrees

Source: “US Economic Outlook for 2019 and Beyond” https://www.thebalance.com/us-economic-outlook-3305669

I believe there is an opportunity present with more and more jobs requiring a master’s degree. To me this means that more and more companies are getting more knowledgeable and hard working employees. To me this presents an opportunity for companies to be able to afford to make more innovative and tech related products and services. With more higher level thinking employees a company will have employees that know how to logistically communicate and conduct business, to me this means this allows a company to cut back on mid-level employees whose basic job requirements are to manage and conduct logistics. With the new incoming employees having higher education they will be able to a higher level of innovation and workable products that accurately pair with a company’s target market.

With this new opportunity I believe the typical benefactor and customer of this trend in higher education will be companies looking to get younger and more innovative.

I think this opportunity is going to be pretty easy to exploit as since the employee field is growing in numbers of those who have a masters. This means that soon it will become the norm to have a masters and as the field continues to grow, the easier it will be for companies to take advantage of this.

I feel like this is an opportunity that can be identified by more people than just me. I formed this belief because I saw that more jobs are looking for applicants with master’s degree. With this trend occurring I made the connection that more students would get their master’s degree.

Economic Trend #2: Minimum Wage Increasing

Source: “Four Economic Trends That Will Impact Your Wallet in 2019” https://www.thesimpledollar.com/four-economic-trends-that-will-impact-you-this-year/

I believe with minimum wage increasing this presents an opportunity for more businesses to go digital with its basic services that are currently being provided with minimum wage employees. As minimum wage increases this means employers are paying their employees more for the same services. These services like checkout and basic greeting can be done through digital responsive services.

The prototypical customer for this new opportunity would be businesses with a lot of minimum wage employees like fast-food restaurants and retail stores.

I think this would be a pretty difficult opportunity to exploit just because all the new implementation for businesses would be tough. A lot of the businesses that contain heavy amounts of minimum wage employees are big chains. These big chain businesses would have difficulty changing across all their stores a new policy of digital responsive services instead of employees. Also, I think the customers would have difficulty transitioning to this instead of more people employees.

I feel like this is an opportunity that can be identified by more people than just me. I formed this belief because in high school I worked for 3 years in a sporting goods retail store and found that most of the services done by minimum wage employees could be done by digital responsive systems.

Regulatory Trend #1: More states legalizing sports gambling

Source: “Here's What Will Change (and What Won't) Now That Sports Gambling Is Legal” https://www.complex.com/sports/2018/05/heres-what-will-change-and-what-wont-now-that-sports-gambling-is-legal

I see an opportunity with sports gambling becoming legal in more and more states. This is an opportunity for sport franchises and tv companies to make even more money as with people having a monetary investment on the game they are more likely to tune in on a game that would normally not interest them.

The prototypical consumer for this new opportunity would be the sports consumer.
I think this opportunity would be pretty easy to exploit because with people having monetary investments on games, it will be easier for consumers to become interested in the lesser known sports and sport leagues. These leagues can exploit this opportunity to gain interest and generate more revenue.

I feel like this is an opportunity that can be identified by more people than just me. I formed this belief because I saw how when the news broke, that sports gambling could become legal in more and more states, the whole sports world went insane saying how big this is for sports leagues.

Regulatory Trend #2: Regulation protecting privacy and security concerns

Source: “10 Top Regulatory Issues for Small Businesses in 2019” https://www.paychex.com/articles/compliance/top-regulatory-issues

With regulation shifting to protect consumers’ privacy and security, businesses have to adapt to these regulations. I see an opportunity to respect these regulations and promote themselves as a safe and secure company to garner more consumers that have these concerns with privacy issues.

The prototypical consumer for this opportunity would be those with concerns over privacy in today’s environment.

I think it would be hard to exploit this opportunity because it could become a situation where almost every single business promotes themselves as a safe and secure business. This would cause consumers to place less value and have less faith in a company promoting themselves as safe.

I feel like this is an opportunity that can be identified by more people than just me. I formed this belief because I made the connection that with the consumers wanting more privacy, business should promote how secure they are and give the consumers what they want.

Assignment 5 - Local Opportunities

Assignment 5 Local Opportunities

Title: What shut the restaurants? Roaches in a wok, flies near the wine, sewage on the floor

https://infoweb-newsbank-com.lp.hscl.ufl.edu/apps/news/document-view?p=WORLDNEWS&t=pubname%3AMIHB%21Miami%2BHerald%252C%2BThe%2B%2528FL%2529/year%3A2019%212019/mody%3A0122%21January%2B22&f=advanced&action=browse&format=text&docref=news/1711DF184FE565A0 

This article describes a local problem among a few restaurants that have sanitation issues due to the excessive amount of roaches and lack of cooling and refrigeration of their inventory. Among the restaurants was a Bar Louie’s in Boynton beach, a Dunkin Donuts in Pembroke Pines, a Gyroville Really Fresh Really Greek in Ft. Lauderdale, a Nico’s Pizza in West Palm Beach, a Porterhouse Bar and Grill in Sunny Isles Beach, and a Sarku Japan in West Miami-Dade. There were numerous of violations with one business accumulating 33 violations itself. The violations included mold, non-working bathrooms, flies, roaches, no washed hands, excessive food grease, perishables being kept at high temps, and much more.

Problem: These businesses have an unmet need of sanitation and should develop a better strategy to keep them from violating sanitation procedures. The consumers have an unmet need as well for quality food that is free from sanitation violations.

Who: Both the restaurants and the consumer now have unmet needs.

Title: Workplace safety violations at UM dining hall add up to a proposed $134,000 in fines

https://infoweb-newsbank-com.lp.hscl.ufl.edu/apps/news/document-view?p=WORLDNEWS&t=pubname%3AMIHB%21Miami%2BHerald%252C%2BThe%2B%2528FL%2529/year%3A2019%212019/mody%3A0124%21January%2B24&f=advanced&action=browse&format=text&docref=news/1712A48D94B9AA00

The article illustrates the local news that the University of Miami is being fines $134,000 for safety violations among the dining hall. The violations were for hazardous working conditions as employees were exposed to hazardous smoke and chemicals without being given access to a quick eye draining station nor were they given proper information and training for working with hazardous chemicals.
Problem: The University employees have the need for safety while working with hazardous smoke and chemicals.

Who: The University and its employees.

Title: The next possible victims of the shutdown: Your food, flowers and toys

https://infoweb-newsbank-com.lp.hscl.ufl.edu/apps/news/document-view?p=WORLDNEWS&t=pubname%3AMIHB%21Miami%2BHerald%252C%2BThe%2B%2528FL%2529/year%3A2019%212019/mody%3A0120%21January%2B20&f=advanced&action=browse&format=text&docref=news/171121A936B566D0

The article highlights how with the government being shut down, inspectors are working without a paycheck causing the inspection for toys, food, and flowers are now delaying. Inspections for non-perishables have actually been sitting in warehouse waiting for inspection for 2 weeks now. The article communicates that consumers should now be aware that because of the shutdown the next to fall could be their food, flowers, and food that are still waiting inspection.

Problem: Consumers have the need for inspected food, flowers, and food.

Who: Local Consumers.

Title: More than 68,000 pounds of chicken recalled after wood was found by some customers

https://infoweb-newsbank-com.lp.hscl.ufl.edu/apps/news/document-view?p=WORLDNEWS&t=pubname%3AMIHB%21Miami%2BHerald%252C%2BThe%2B%2528FL%2529/year%3A2019%212019/mody%3A0119%21January%2B19&f=advanced&action=browse&format=text&docref=news/1710FDC49C6E2AF0

This article details the recent recall of Perdue chicken. After wood was found in some of the chicken nuggets by a few consumers, Perdue had to recall over 68,000 pounds of chicken. The article mentions that the recall occurred for the 22-ounce bag of chicken nuggets made by Perdue with the best by date set at “10/25/19.”

Problem: Consumers have a unmet need of clean chicken, and the company has an unmet need to sell clean chicken to its consumers.

Who: Both the company and the consumer have an unmet need.

Title: Most CEOs say their companies are trying hard to attract ‘Gen Z'

https://infoweb-newsbank-com.lp.hscl.ufl.edu/apps/news/document-view?p=WORLDNEWS&t=pubname%3AMIHB%21Miami%2BHerald%252C%2BThe%2B%2528FL%2529/year%3A2019%212019/mody%3A0118%21January%2B18&f=advanced&action=browse&format=text&docref=news/171078E9625CE3E8

This article highlights a growing trend for most big businesses and that is to attract the sales from “Gen Z” consumers. Because of this push for more of a younger target market companies are adapting by becoming more digital. The article explains that there has been a greater push for services to become faster and rely around convenience and responsiveness. Another push the article mentions is for more companies to do more work that is “purposeful” as this is another attraction for the “Gen-Z” consumer.

Problem: Companies are trying to bring in a younger consumer base.

Who: Businesses that have typically relied on less technology are in danger of pushed out.

Friday, January 18, 2019

Assignment 4 Forming An Opportunity Belief

My beginning point is that I have a belief that there is an unmet need for more parking spaces for off campus students. This need comes from off campus students that live far off from campus and cannot walk to class and have trouble relying on the buses that only come once every 30 minutes. This is not a new problem, it is one that has existed for some time now, and the university has started to try and do something about it by adding more parking spaces around campus. Although this need is trying to be fixed by the university, it is still a problem has there are currently people that will even go as far as to uber to class so they do not miss there class. Often times people will have friends drive them to class or just skip out all together. At this point I am 90% sure this is a problem and that the opportunity exists.

The prototypical customer for this unmet need are those college students at the University of Florida that live off campus. I interviewed 3 college students at the University of Florida that happen to live off campus:
Q: What is the exact nature of this need for more parking spaces for off campus students?
Person 1: I think it comes from the limited housing that is available on campus.
Person 2: I think it is because most of the parking spaces are for on campus students or even graduate students.
Person 3: I believe it stems from the many people that go to UF, and that UF can't accommodate for every sector of students, so the off campus students are left without on campus parking.
Q: When do you become aware of this need? Is it all the time or just sometimes?
Person 1: It just becomes a problem when I go to class, it is not all the time, just when I need to go to class.
Person 2: Every time I need to go on campus and parking is not lifted it is a problem.
Person 3: I become aware of this problem whenever I have to go to class or the library or really anytime I have to be somewhere on campus.
Q: How long have you had this need?
Person 1: Since I moved off campus
Person 2: Person 2 provided same reasoning as Person 1
Person 3: Person 3 provided same reasoning as Person 1
Q: When did you first become aware of this need?
Person 1: At the beginning of the semester when classes started
Person 2: Person 2 provided same reasoning as Person 1
Person 3: I mean I have been aware that this was an issue since I became a student here, but it really has only been an issue since I moved off campus.
Q: How do you currently address this need?
Person 1: I usually have to wait for the bus to come.
Person 2: I have to ride the bus, but often I miss the bus and my friend drives me.
Person 3: Person 3 provided the same answer as Person 1
Q: How satisfied are you with the parking spaces on campus
Person 1: Not really satisfied.
Person 2: I'm not that satisfied, but I don't really care that much.
Person 3: Not at all satisfied.

Reflection:
What I learned about this opportunity is that is an ongoing issue at UF as many students off campus cannot park on campus to get to class. The most surprising thing I learned about this unmet need is that I got the sense from the people I interviewed that they did not really care much for this need, they had the belief that there was nothing that could be done about this unmet need.

Summary:
I still believe the opportunity exists, but I am less sure that this is a problem that can be fixed, and that people actually care about this problem. I believe this exercise gave a more accurate depiction of this opportunity. I think Entrepreneurs should absolutely adapt their opportunities toward customer feedback as they are the ones that buy a product and how a company makes their money.

Assignment 3 Entrepreneurship Story

My entrepreneurship story is a little bit of an odd, but unique one. I started becoming interested in entrepreneurial ventures my junior year of high school when I took an entrepreneurship class. As part of the class we were required to come up with a business idea and write a business plan for it. Wanting to be different I used an idea that I thought of while sitting at a table in Panera Bread. The idea was for a table that had a built in toaster in it that popped the bread up and onto your plate when the toast was finished, the product was called a "Toasta Table" and was under the fictional company of "Toastas Inc." As a part of the assignment I created a company logo and slogan and even a line of a bunch of other products the company could sell such as a "Toasta Chandelier" and a shirt called "Pocka Nugget" that in theory would heat up a select amount of frozen chicken nuggets in the front shirt pocket. After presenting my ideas and company to my classmates, my creativity became a huge hit, so I decided to create a few different shirt designs of my ideas that I sold to my classmates. This experience in my life really sparked an interest in the entrepreneurship world for me. This interest in entrepreneurship led me to take this class as I hope to gain more knowledge on the entrepreneurship field and continue to gain interest and passion for it as well.

Assignment 2 Bug List

My many Bugs:
1. The people who take too long at a green light
-this bug exists because often times people are looking at their phones at a stop light and do not realize that the light has turned green
2. The people who do not use their turn signal
-this bug exists because people are either too lazy to do it or their turn light is broken
3. The waiters/waitresses that linger too long at the table
-this bug occurs often when the waiter/waitress is new and not well trained
4. The waiters/waitresses that don’t refill water/are not very attentive
-this bug exists because the waiter/waitress has not been trained to be attentive enough
5. Football coaches with terrible clock management skills, especially late in games
-this bug exists because coaches often overthink the situation
6. Referees that make wrong calls
-this bug exists when replay is not used because a call is non-reviewable
7. Forced small talk
-this bug occurs when there are brief awkward interactions with other people
8. Commercials on tv/radio/podcasts
-this bug exists because of pauses in scheduled content leading for sponsorship and exposure opportunities for companies
9. Pop up ads on phones/computers
-this bug exists because companies pay to get exposure on websites you visit
10.  Buffering or loading screens
-this bug exists due to decaying phones or slower generations
11. Outside commotion and noise early in the morning
-this bug exists because many people have different schedules in their lives and houses are spaced very close to each other
12. The people that go the wrong way in parking lot
-this bug exists when maybe a road sign is not all that clear of what is what
13. The people that double park
-this bug exists when there is limited parking available
14. The bikers that think they own the road
-this bug exists because some bikers are not knowledgeable enough that they have to stop and obey the normal rules of the road if they choose to bike on the road 
15. The groups of people that walk slowly on sidewalk/take up all of sidewalk
-this bug occurs when perhaps a sidewalk is too narrow and people are not aware enough of when/how to move and get out of the way
16. The people that hover over your shoulder
-this bug exists because some people are very curious of what is going on around them
17. The people that cut lines
-this bug exists because perhaps a sign for the line is not very clear
18. The people that are noisy eaters
-this bug exists because people exaggerate their sounds/are not aware enough of what they are doing
19. When a bag of chips only has a few chips and the rest is all air
-this bug exists because companies try to cut back and save money on the product by lessening the chips and not displaying it on bag
20. The people that do not put things back into place at stores
-this bug exists because people forget where they got something or how it was supposed to be displayed
Reflection:
I had a very challenging time thinking of what bugs me after about 6 or so bugs. This assignment really forced me to start paying attention of what is going on around me and forced me to become critical of my observations.

Saturday, January 12, 2019