Forming an Opportunity Belief: A Twist on Opportunity Identification

My Beginning Point: My belief is that students who live off campus would prefer to drive their cars to class at the University of Florida than to take the bus.

My Belief Description: The unmet need in my belief is the desire the students who live off-campus withhold to park on campus. Their desire is not met due to lack of available space to accommodate parking for 55,000 students. Let's say half of the student body lives off campus, that is still 27,500 parking spaces to provide. The origin of this need sprung from being able to park wherever I wanted at Santa Fe College. Now that I attend UF I must take the bus to class and if I want to park on campus, I must wait until parking is lifted after 3:30pm. The University of Florida does have a commuter lot for off-campus students but it is still congested and there is a fee due every semester to obtain a parking pass. I am very confident that this opportunity exists because of the feedback I've had from fellow classmates.

My Prototypical Customer 1 (Step 3): Analia Arias

Iteration 1 (Step 4): The nature of Analia's need is that it takes too long for the bus to arrive, not convenient to her schedule, and she has to wake up early to catch the bus. Sleep is an important factor for her to operate at an optimal cognitive level. The lack of time due to worrying about catching the bus also cuts into her opportunity to eat breakfast in the morning. Analia experiences this need every time she catches the bus to go to school. The need sprung whenever she moved here from Bolivia to attend college. Analia said she became aware of this need ever since her first week of school in the States. She has not begun not address her need but she is intrigued by my belief and supports it. Out of a 1-10 scale, she said my idea is a 12. So, I would say she's highly infatuated.

Reflection 1 (Step 5): I learned that others are just as willing as me or more to take action on this parking epidemic. The most surprising of it all is that Analia is pro-creation of more parking on campus due to exact reasons I am.

My Prototypical Customer 2 (Step 3): Sina Abbaszadeh

Iteration 2 (Step 4): Sina said that the nature of this need came from the inconvenience of the bus as well. He would rather park on campus instead of going out of his way to catch the bus. He also mentioned that buses are not sanitary and have a lack of space. Yes, buses are claimed to be cleaned regularly but with large amounts of traffic walking in and out the buses, it is hard to keep the buses clean. Sina is in love with working out, so having a gym bag with workout essentials is a necessity for him. Instead of just leaving the gym bag in his car, he has to carry it on the bus. Two bags can be hard to keep track of and also a disturbance to others if the bus is packed. He also said that other drivers are not very cautious of buses or their passengers. Sina would like to begin to cultivate an idea of how to begin to raise funds to propose parking expansion for off-campus students to UF. On a scale of 1-10, he said my opportunity belief is a 10.

Reflection 2 (Step 5): I learned that people are not just worried about the shortage of time the bus creates but also the health concerns due to unsanitary conditions the bus unintentionally provides. The most surprising thing about this observation is that Sina brought to light that other users of the public roads in Gainesville are not cautious of city buses or their passengers. I have never really noticed this but he has made a valid point.

My Prototypical Customer 3 (Step 3): Matthew Mix

Iteration 3 (Step 4): Again, the nature of this need also sprung from inconvenience for Matt as well. Matt said he would rather park on campus over taking the bus any day. This was said before he moved closer to campus. Once Matt started studying at UF he immediately became aware of the parking scarcity on campus and the need for parking expansion. Every time he rides the bus his opinion is not altered, he would rather park his vehicle on-campus. Matt also mentioned that the bus can be extremely packed at times and people will step all over him during his 20-minute ride. Matt has recently moved closer to campus to partially solve his need for parking. He does not live on campus but his bus ride is shorter than it was before. One a 1-10 scale Matt said my solution was a solid 8.

Reflection 3 (Step 5): Matt has similar problems as the rest of my prototypical customers. Even though he has taken more action to fulfill his need, his need has not been completely fulfilled. I was surprised to hear that he rated my opportunity belief an 8 compared to the other ratings I received, but everybody is entitled to their opinion.

Summarization: My opportunity belief is still there and I have also now brought it to others attention. The opportunity is just as accurate if not more than when I started. I now have people standing behind this need with me. A petition may be in the making as we speak.

My Entrepreneurship Story

I have been exposed to entrepreneurship frequently throughout my life. Most of my friend's parents have started their own businesses. Also, I have family members that own their own businesses and dabble in entrepreneurial endeavors, such as my mom, uncle, and grandpa. My uncle owns Gold Mountain Records in Nashville, TN, and I will never forget the piece of advice he gave me. This may sound cliche but he told me to follow my heart, to do whatever my heart pulled me to. I have always kept this quote in mind since it was given. Sometimes you have to hear things from a respectable source to seriously consider it. My mom, who is a freelance graphic designer, has always encouraged me to study what I liked as well. Last but not least, my grandpa was a career salesman but has dabbled in real estate all throughout his professional life and still does to this day. My grandpa is more financially driven. With him, it is all by the books and the numbers don't lie. In a way, I have the best of both worlds. My mom and uncle are in sense, both telling me to follow my heart and my grandpa only makes calculated risks. So, what I have learned to do is to extract a healthy balance of entrepreneurial characteristics from my immediate sources to form my own insight.

Why did I enroll in ENT3003? Honestly, I enrolled in this class because it was one of the only classes available in my curriculum that worked with my schedule this summer. Out of the electives I had to choose from, ENT3003 was one of my top picks, so this worked out great. My career goal for my life is to own my import/export firm. So, what I hope to take away from this course is a better understanding of what entrepreneurship truly is and how to apply the concepts learned here to my professional pursuits.

This picture describes how I will be doing my coursework for ENT3003 during the second half of the summer.

Bug List

1. People who go slow in the fast lane.
   WHY? I speed because I generally run late.
2. 8am classes.
   WHY? I usually stay up late, so therefore getting up early is hard for me at times.
3. Waiting in long lines to grab lunch.
    WHY? I skip breakfast a lot so by the time lunch comes around I'm hangry.
4. When my dog goes to the bathroom inside.
    WHY? I am not home enough to let him out as much as he needs, apparently.
5. When the gym is packed.
    WHY? I have a specific order I like to do my exercises in the gym.
6. When people are talking while I'm studying,
    WHY? Because I am sitting next to the wrong people.
7. When my car is dirty.
    WHY? I love the feeling of getting into a fresh and clean vehicle.
8. When a restaurant doesn't bring out as much food as I thought.
    WHY? I should order extra more often.
9. To see homeless people.
    WHY? I have worked at a homeless shelter, which gave me empathy for the homeless.
10. Grocery shopping.
     WHY? I don't like running into people I went to high school with.
11. Not getting 8 hours of sleep.
      WHY? I need an adequate amount of sleep to function at optimal level.
12. Being inside on a gorgeous day.
      WHY? I choose to study inside due to my dislike of being sweaty. while studying.
13. When I have to work and my friends are the pool.
      WHY? Because I made a commitment to be employed.
14. Waiting in line at a gas station behind someone with a lot of lotto tickets to check.
      WHY? Because I'm impatient.
15. When talks too much about an irrelevant topic.
      WHY? I don't have time for that.
16. Not having enough to complete my tasks throughout the day.
      WHY? I procrastinate sometimes.
17. When my phone battery dies quickly.
      WHY? Because it is time to upgrade my phone.
18. When traffic is backed up.
      WHY? Because I am impatient at times.
19. When my workout is cut short.
      WHY? I procrastinated at some point in time throughout my day when I couldn't afford to.
20. Washing the dishes.
      WHY? I do not like the task of washing dishes at all.

My Reflection: I'd say the assignment was moderately difficult. I didn't really take an empathetic approach as you did when you were in Russia. I focused mainly on pet peeves of mine. I did have one empathetic bug for the homeless, which as explained, this was obtained due to working at a homeless shelter. Even though I don't focus on these "bugs" on a consistent basis, it still was not hard to bring to light when necessary. This assignment brought notification to how many things actually do bother me. I wouldn't say it is good to be able to point things of this nature out at a moderately difficult level, or maybe I'm just abnormally observant. This assignment has given me an opportunity to lay out my annoyances right in front of me with the solutions right under them. I can see there is a lot of power in this. I look forward to implementing my solutions to my "bugs".

Test Blog Post for ENT3003 at UF

This is a test blog post to become acclimated with google blogger.