5A - Identifying Local Opportunities
1. UF Health monitors rumors of coronavirus spreading to Gainesville
https://www.alligator.org/news/uf-health-monitors-rumors-of-coronavirus-spreading-to-gainesville/article_69a9b1a0-426c-11ea-86b2-87354e5a2a4e.html
The story is about the possibility of the coronavirus being in Gainesville. The problem is that as of right now it's just a rumor and no one has actually been diagnosed with the coronavirus yet. The Gainesville community has the problem of unnecessary fear of catching the coronavirus at this time.
2. Future of Gainesville Lucky's Market remains unclear
https://www.alligator.org/news/future-of-gainesville-lucky-s-market-remains-unclear/article_158d3cc4-426f-11ea-9004-cffc3a103c6e.html
The article is about Aldi's Discount Grocers potentially purchasing Lucky's Market in Gainesville. Lucky's is a popular store that will be missed by many. All locals who frequent Lucky's will be affected by this problem.
3. Local vape shops lose profits due to recent tobacco law
https://www.alligator.org/news/local-vape-shops-lose-profits-due-to-recent-tobacco-law/article_6033000a-42d4-11ea-bd9f-4f3ed2b963e4.html
The article is about the law changing the legal age to buy tobacco and electronic cigarette products from 18 to 21. This causes vape shops to lose a lot of business. One store reported that 30% of their customers were between the ages of 18 and 21.
4. Lack of parking causing problems for students at apartment complex near UF
https://mycbs4.com/news/local/students-complain-about-lack-of-parking-at-apartment-complex
This article is about the issues students face with finding parking near Varsity House apartments. It also touches on the fact that this isn't a problem just in that area, but all around UF. All students face issues with trying to find parking on campus and off.
5. Gainesville ranks among top cities in country for cases of STDS
https://www.alligator.org/news/gainesville-ranks-among-top-cities-in-country-for-cases-of/article_a9329c42-3ce5-11ea-8273-ab9d4cbb9e51.html
The article is about Gainesville being in the top 50 cities for cases of STDs. This of course is a problem especially in a college town. This can potentially affect any sexually active person in Gainesville who isn't using protection. It could be true that this number has risen because people are putting more emphasis on getting regularly checked for STDs.
Thursday, January 30, 2020
4A - Forming an Opportunity Belief
4A - Forming an Opportunity Belief: A Twist on Opportunity Identification
1. Everyone goes to advising at least once, but usually many more times, during their college career. Usually students go during drop/add week to fix their schedules or ask any questions they have, but with so many people trying to go at the same time they end up waiting hours for a 5 minute meeting.
2. Students need to have access to advising without having to wait multiple hours. This has been a problem for me since I started at UF. They will have more advisors working during these specific times throughout the year, but I still feel that it needs to be expanded even more. Some things are very time sensitive, like being able to choose certain classes before they fill up, and the wait times for advising can negatively impact some students. I am 100% sure this opportunity exists.
Iteration No. 1:
The first prototypical customer I interviewed was my roommate Brittany. She is a Health Science major and takes classes that are in very high demand. These classes can fill up very quickly and if she isn't sure about what she needs to take and needs to see an advisor she says that she needs to do it the semester before because she can't risk waiting for advising once her registration is open. On multiple occasions she said she wasn't able to get the class she wanted because she wasn't able to get into advising before they filled up. She agrees that increasing the number of advisors would be a good solution to this.
Iteration No 2:
The next prototypical customer I interviewed was my friend Sam. His experience with advising is actually very different from mine and Brittany's. His major is Construction Management and because there's so few people pursuing that degree he doesn't have a problem with waiting for advising. This is because there is an appropriate student to advisor ratio unlike the ratio for Business students and Health Science students.
Iteration No 3:
The final prototypical customer I interviewed was my sister. She is actually a student at USF, but I wanted to see if students at other schools have similar experiences with advising. She said that she also has to wait a long time to see an advisor during high volume times. However, when she went to Pasco Hernando State College she didn't run into this problem as much. My sister said that something that USF does is when they sign up for advising they can access the number of people who are in front of them. This gives them the opportunity to go get stuff done and not have to worry about missing their spot in line.
Reflection:
I learned that the majority of people experience this opportunity, but not everyone. Different people also experience it differently. I really loved the idea of being able to see what number you are in line. This gives you the ability to go and get stuff done during your wait time. Whenever I go to advising at the Business college I have no idea when I'm up next and have to sit there for a couple hours waiting because I'm too scared to leave and miss my turn.
Summarize:
Generally, I think the opportunity is still there. It's just more apparent in certain places. Colleges and Universities that have a lot of students and not enough advisors are where you see longer wait times. I think entrepreneurs should adapt their opportunities based on customer feedback situationally. In this case I think a good compromise would be giving students access to what number they are in line if maybe they aren't able to hire enough advisors for these high volume times.
1. Everyone goes to advising at least once, but usually many more times, during their college career. Usually students go during drop/add week to fix their schedules or ask any questions they have, but with so many people trying to go at the same time they end up waiting hours for a 5 minute meeting.
2. Students need to have access to advising without having to wait multiple hours. This has been a problem for me since I started at UF. They will have more advisors working during these specific times throughout the year, but I still feel that it needs to be expanded even more. Some things are very time sensitive, like being able to choose certain classes before they fill up, and the wait times for advising can negatively impact some students. I am 100% sure this opportunity exists.
Iteration No. 1:
The first prototypical customer I interviewed was my roommate Brittany. She is a Health Science major and takes classes that are in very high demand. These classes can fill up very quickly and if she isn't sure about what she needs to take and needs to see an advisor she says that she needs to do it the semester before because she can't risk waiting for advising once her registration is open. On multiple occasions she said she wasn't able to get the class she wanted because she wasn't able to get into advising before they filled up. She agrees that increasing the number of advisors would be a good solution to this.
Iteration No 2:
The next prototypical customer I interviewed was my friend Sam. His experience with advising is actually very different from mine and Brittany's. His major is Construction Management and because there's so few people pursuing that degree he doesn't have a problem with waiting for advising. This is because there is an appropriate student to advisor ratio unlike the ratio for Business students and Health Science students.
Iteration No 3:
The final prototypical customer I interviewed was my sister. She is actually a student at USF, but I wanted to see if students at other schools have similar experiences with advising. She said that she also has to wait a long time to see an advisor during high volume times. However, when she went to Pasco Hernando State College she didn't run into this problem as much. My sister said that something that USF does is when they sign up for advising they can access the number of people who are in front of them. This gives them the opportunity to go get stuff done and not have to worry about missing their spot in line.
Reflection:
I learned that the majority of people experience this opportunity, but not everyone. Different people also experience it differently. I really loved the idea of being able to see what number you are in line. This gives you the ability to go and get stuff done during your wait time. Whenever I go to advising at the Business college I have no idea when I'm up next and have to sit there for a couple hours waiting because I'm too scared to leave and miss my turn.
Summarize:
Generally, I think the opportunity is still there. It's just more apparent in certain places. Colleges and Universities that have a lot of students and not enough advisors are where you see longer wait times. I think entrepreneurs should adapt their opportunities based on customer feedback situationally. In this case I think a good compromise would be giving students access to what number they are in line if maybe they aren't able to hire enough advisors for these high volume times.
3A - Your Entrepreneurship Story
3A - Your Entrepreneurship Story
A time in my life when I was exposed to entrepreneurship was when I entered a contest in middle school. For the contest we had to come up with an invention and a plan for the business that would surround it. We had to estimate how much money we would need to get the business up and running and start making products. It was similar to a young persons Shark Tank. I was in the top three and had to present my invention and business idea to a panel at MOSI. My invention was a rack that goes inside of a cooler so that when you open it the rack pops up and separates everything inside from the ice and freezing water to avoid sticking your hands in there to fish for what you're looking for. I really felt like an entrepreneur during this time. It was a really good experience for me.
This experience was actually what made this class spark my interest. In middle school I really wasn't knowledgeable in the business world and was basically winging it during the contest. I think it would be really cool to learn the ins and outs of entrepreneurship and in this class I hope to learn about and actually have an understanding of everything it entails.
A time in my life when I was exposed to entrepreneurship was when I entered a contest in middle school. For the contest we had to come up with an invention and a plan for the business that would surround it. We had to estimate how much money we would need to get the business up and running and start making products. It was similar to a young persons Shark Tank. I was in the top three and had to present my invention and business idea to a panel at MOSI. My invention was a rack that goes inside of a cooler so that when you open it the rack pops up and separates everything inside from the ice and freezing water to avoid sticking your hands in there to fish for what you're looking for. I really felt like an entrepreneur during this time. It was a really good experience for me.
This experience was actually what made this class spark my interest. In middle school I really wasn't knowledgeable in the business world and was basically winging it during the contest. I think it would be really cool to learn the ins and outs of entrepreneurship and in this class I hope to learn about and actually have an understanding of everything it entails.
Thursday, January 23, 2020
Assignment 2A - Bug List
Assignment 2A - Bug List
1. People who come into the restaurant I work at minutes before we close.
1. People who come into the restaurant I work at minutes before we close.
- Why it exists: Some people can't make it there any earlier and they need food. Or they don't realize it's bothersome to come in right before closing because it keeps the closer from being able to start their work so that they can get out of there asap.
- Why it exists: Some people aren't good parkers or they don't realize how close they are on the other side. Or the person parked next to them is close to the line and is forcing them to also park close to the line.
- Why it exists: Some people think that since their dog is friendly it's not a problem, but fail to think about whether the other dog is friendly and just make an assumption because they aren't used to an unfriendly dog.
- Why it exists: Some people get really drunk and can't control themselves and then don't remember they did it so forget to let anyone know.
- Why it exists: Once a bar hits their capacity it becomes one in one out and only one person can go in as one person leaves which makes waiting in line take a lot longer.
- Why it exists: It probably would hinder the flow of vehicle traffic having crosswalks so close together.
- Why it exists: People just assume that cars are paying attention and are being cautious of them I believe because there is so much foot traffic near campus.
- Why it exists: There aren't enough waiters working to handle anymore tables so they can't seat parties even if there are available tables.
- Why it exists: It's right next to campus and is very convenient for students to get on the way home so they get very busy resulting in the line to get extremely long.
- Why it exists: They have to make money somehow. They can't just make an app for you to use and not make you pay for using it.
- Why it exists: The wheels are too small and easily get stuck in one place.
- Why it exists: The jar the candle is in is too deep and not wide enough for you to fit your hand in it to light it
- Why it exists: Usually too many people are showering at once.
- Why it exists: When necklaces are put in a bag together they're going to knot if they're all on top of each other.
- Why it exists: Employees don't always pay attention and can accidentally make something incorrectly.
- Why it exists: The office in my apartment complex doesn't have a good system for organizing packages and they also don't have enough employees. It takes a long time and multiple people to sort through the packages and put them in our mailbox.
- Why it exists: Professors don't check to make sure their exams don't fall on the same day as a different professors exams. They stick to their own schedule and can't be expected to work around students other classes.
- Why it exists: When their is a lot of people leaving or coming from The Standard, usually during passing periods for class, almost all of the buttons get pushed in the elevator. So if you live on one of the top floors you end up having to stop on every floor on the way up or down.
- Why it exists: Chipotle doesn't give you the drink at check out so unless you go out of your way to make sure they have the drink you want then it's hard to know.
- Why it exists: Some people don't realize the left lane is the passing lane and they just drive casually whereever they want. This can also happen if the driver isn't paying attention.
Reflection: I didn't find this assignment as difficult as I expected it to be. I usually don't have a very good memory and I did it in one sitting so I was concerned I was going to have a hard time with it. However, I guess there are a lot of things that "bug" me that stick in my head. Some of them I had to really sit and think about why it exists. That was interesting to me because that's not something most people ever think about. They just acknowledge that it bothers them and then they move on. When thinking about why some of these things exist I felt like it was prompting me to think of a solution.
Monday, January 13, 2020
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