Venture Concept No. 2

Opportunity 
The opportunity for my venture would be the customers who I am targeting and have an unmet need I can satisfy. This unmet need is the lack of parking on the University of Florida Campus. There is not nearly enough parking for all the students who would like to drive to school. Reasons for wanting to drive (based on customer interviews) include:

• Campus is too far of a walk from where students are living
• Walking is inconvenient for some
• Walking is takes longer than driving and many student are busy 
• Students find the bus system inaccurate as far as timing is concerned 
• Some students feel uncomfortable taking the bus 
• Many female students feel unsafe walking to campus (especially at night) 

When conducting interviews with UF students, many female students expressed their concern for their safety when walking on campus at night. "I don't feel safe walking 20 minutes across campus to get to my club meeting, it is not worth my safety to me so I just tend to not join clubs" said Alyssa, student here on campus. It is unfortunate that students feel discouraged to participate in campus life due to this problem. My expansion of parking garages will help students to feel safe and become more involved to due their centrality.

This need can apply to any and everyone who can relate to one of the reasons to add parking listed above, or their own personal reason. The forces or changes in the environment creating this opportunity is the growing UF student population. The market is defined geographically by those strictly in the city of Gainesville; the market is defined demographically by college students, usually between the ages of 18-25.Customers are currently satisfying this need by either attempting to find scarce parking, walking, or taking the bus. This opportunity is very big due to the high demand for additional parking that there. Most students which I have spoken to about the concept have a hard time justifying paying $160 for a parking decal that barely ensures they can actually park on campus. The "window of opportunity" will be open for a long time in my opinion. Unless the bus system improves or students suddenly become overwhelmingly ok with walking, regardless of the distance, this will continue to be a problem for all Gators.

Innovation 
My innovation includes building upon already existing parking garages on campus (i.e. the garages in front of the Reitz Union and Sorority Row). The price of a parking decal currently is $160 for one entire academic year. I would like to raise the price only by $10 to cover some of the cost of construction, however most of it would be covered by the increase in students purchasing the decals.

Students will buy my innovation because:

• It will make commuting faster and easier 
• It is a safer alternative to walking 
• During the hot Florida seasons, driving is more practical than walking long distances 

Venture Concept 
My innovation will address the opportunity of creating more parking on the University of Florida's campus for students who would like to drive. Customers will buy my innovation because it is both safer and faster than walking. I do not think that getting customers to switch will be difficult considering the convenience of the service I am offering. My competitor's would be other businesses who would like to construct this infrastructure for the university, however I am a student here and have worked for UF's Student Government which I think gives me an edge over my competition.
As far as the product/service itself, packaging is not a concern due to the fact that a garage cannot be packaged. My price point would be fair considering the amount of revenue it would bring the school. Customer support would be available at all stages of the construction process, allowing the customers to be involved. My business would include about 100 employees, 70 of which would be involved in the actual construction part, and 30 in administrative business.

Three Major Elements 

• My most important resource will be my background in Business Administration. 
• This helps the overall business to succeed and be run as effectively and efficiently as possible. 
• What is next for my venture would be the "light system" described in my assignment of "Amazon Whisperer." 
• This technology is a great expansion upon parking garages to make the process as easy as possible for the end user. 
• What is next for me and my venture?
• In the next five years, I would like for my venture to be incorporated with today's technology. I would love for the University to implement the "light system" used in the above bullet point. As an entrepreneur, in the next decade I would like to expand to building other types of infrastructures for the school aside from parking garages. This first venture helps me to achieve this vision because the firm would have already worked with the university and they would have seen our great work. 

Feedback 

Most of the feedback I received on Venture Concept No.1 was very positive and many people liked my venture and agreed that it is something that is needed on UF campus. Some of the other feedback I received revolved around city permits on building, a topic on which I am not informed enough to make a judgement or offer a solution for. 

Change

Based on the feedback I received, I mostly just elaborated on my venture concept and made it easier to read and understand. Based on the feedback I received, I did not include information about city building permits because, like I said previously, I do not have access to enough information on that topic to offer a proper solution to that concern.