Assignment 15A Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 2

• Report findings and draw conclusions:
• After conducting my interviews with new interviewees I gained several new insights that gave me a new perspective of ways that I can expand my service and make it more desirable to every type of consumer. My first interviewee who asked to remain anonymous, suggested that for the apartment complexes that were not going to be located close to the parking garage, I try to reach out to apartment complexes who have a need for parking and consult with them to provide a parking lot, rather than a garage, close to their apartments. 
• The next interviewee that I spoke with told me that some people might not be comfortable with the idea of a parking garage since parking garages can be seen as unsafe especially at night when parking alone. He suggested that I invest in a security guard or two to be stationed at the entrance of the parking garage that would monitor the cars that come in and out of the garage and monitor on security cameras for each level of the garage to make people parking their cars there feel more safe and secure. 
• After the second interview that I conducted, I was feeling very encouraged and happy about the suggestion that I had received from that interviewee. With that being said, for my third and final interview I chose to ask the interviewee if she had any suggestions to add onto the security guard proposal that could make it more efficient and the most productive. My third interviewee told me that with the parking decals that would be given to each resident that would be parking in the garage should come with a barcode, this barcode could be scanned by a scanning system by the security guard. This would ultimately get rid of the risk of anyone entering the parking garage who does not have a reserved spot. 
• My service could be purchased online or through the residents personal apartment complex leasing office or at my service's personal office. 
• In conclusion, these set of interviews gave me a much more specific focus on how I can work to improve my service of providing parking garages for college towns, and how I can make this service more accessible and desirable for every customer in this market. Each of my interviewees all agreed that the best alternative for my parking garage service 

Assignment 13A Reading Reflection No. 1

Reading Reflection: Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

1.) You read about the entrepreneur:

• What surprised me the most about Steve Jobs was that I was not aware that he did not make the majority of his fortune (and eventually a becoming a billionaire) from Apple but instead, made his money from Pixar. After purchasing Pixar, he transformed it from what the company currently was, which surprisingly I learned that Pixar was not always a movies and entertainment industry. 
• What I admired most about Steve Jobs is how he was able to become not only a successful entrepreneur but a successful businessman without obtaining a college level of education (unless you want to count the two years of college Jobs attended at Reed College.) This really stuck out to me because in this day and age there is a lot of emphasis and pressure put upon young adults that they will not be able to be successful and have a career if they do not attend college, Steve Jobs is a perfect example of being able to make something for yourself when college does not seem like the path you are wanting to take. 
• What I least admired about Steve Jobs was when the book talked about how he had gotten his former high-school girlfriend pregnant and then was not present in his daughter or girlfriends life after the pregnancy and his daughters life. In addition to this, he also was not present in Lisa, his daughters life for many years. This to me came off as irresponsible and turned me off from Steve Jobs and his work. 
• Steve Jobs most definitely encountered adversity and failure in his life through numerous ways. In his early life he faced adversity from being put up for adoption and having to become adjusted to a new family. All the way to facing difficult with the Apple I and his other early prototypes that were failures. 

2.) What competencies did you notice that the entrepreneur exhibited:

• Steve Jobs exhibited perseverance. No matter what problems he faced throughout his life such as the examples that I mentioned in the earlier question, he never gave up. When the Apple I or other such items failed or had setbacks he did not call it quits or give up, he just took his mistakes and he learned from them. This can also be displayed through the troubles that he went through with his daughter, as he tried to establish a relationship with her and paid back child support dues, he was consistent with every trial and tribulation throughout his life. 

3.) Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you:

• I feel that this book could have gone into more detail about the people that really impacted Steve Jobs' life and his successes. Walter Isaacson does a good job about describing and mentioning all of the faults and arguments that he had with people as he was older but he does not ever go into a great detail about who really pushed him and kept him motivated.  

4.) If you were able to ask two questions to the entrepreneur, what would you ask? why:

• If I could ask Jobs' two questions my first one would be "If you could see your Apple company now, would you be proud of what it has become?" This would be to see how he feels that the people who run his company now if they are following any orders he left for the company and other information along those lines. The second question that I would ask Steve Jobs' is "What your biggest regret in your personal life?" I would ask this question so that I could dig a little deeper into his more intimate life and learn more about the relationships that he had throughout his life because the book did not reveal a lot about his personal side. 

5.) For fun: What do you think the entrepreneur's opinion was of hard work? Do you share that opinion?

• I personally think that Steve Jobs' opinion of hard work was never giving up when he felt like he had failed, he was a very determined and self motivated worker and I feel that this is what helped him to achieve all of the technological advances that he made in his lifetime. I feel that I share that same opinion to a certain extent because I do not give up after I fail something or when something gets tough. 

Assignment 14A Halfway Reflection

1.) Tenaciousness is a competency:

• During the course of this class for the past couple of months I have learned that time management is a crucial skill that has to be expressed in this course. There are assignments that sometimes require numerous interviews of up to 20 minutes from people in the neighborhood and real world that would have my need. There are also assignment such as reading requirements and elevator pitches that all require a good amount of time throughout the week not just the day before or of when an assignment is due. 

2.) Tenaciousness is also about attitude:

• A time when I felt like giving up in this class is definitely more recently with the assignment where I had to find and interview people that did not have a need for my opportunity. I found that it was difficult to find people in the first place that did not have my need but then it was also a discouraging feeling when people did not need my opportunity as I have put a lot of thought and effort into developing an idea for this opportunity.

3.) Three tips:

• Three tips that I would offer future students that would enroll in this course would be the following:
1. Spend time on these assignments!!! The assignments in this course are not ones that can be done an hour before the deadline for them as they require a lot of effort and time especially when you have to conduct interviews and other requirements such as videos for elevator pitches!
2. Even if you think that you are not an entrepreneur you need to learn how to develop a "temporary" entrepreneurship/tenacious mindset! This class requires a lot of out-of-the box thinking and it is crucial to think like this to do well on these assignments!
3. Put thought into developing your opportunity for an unmet need!!! This is important because these opportunities that you develop could be the start of you wanting to pursue a career as an entrepreneurships or if anything else could help you provide business ideas for other people in this class!

Assignment 12A Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 1

1.) Pick a segment:
For my segment I chose people that were living in off-campus apartments whether they were close to the University of Florida campus or further away and residents of the city of Gainesville. To find my interviewees, I started with apartments located on the streets that are closest to campus and sorority row. After a little while I found three people who were willing to sit down and have a 15-20 minute interview, in which I informed them that their identities would stay confidential throughout the whole process. They were all females aged 19-21, which I expected being around apartments near sorority row.

2.) Interviews:
1. My first interviewee was a female aged 20 from New york who lived in an apartment complex next to sorority row, she informed me that parking was a huge struggle for her daily, until she started to work extra shifts to be able to rent a parking spot from her apartment complex.
2. My second interviewee was a female aged 19 from Tampa, she lived a few blocks away from the actual UF campus and told me that many people might think the further out you live the easier parking is but that she struggles to find street parking as well.
3. My third interviewee was a female aged 21 who lived on a street closer to the Education Building area of campus, she told me that depending on what day of the week it is and time of day really made the parking either a huge struggle or just a normal level of struggle.

3.) Need Awareness:
My opportunity deals with the unmet need of lack of parking available to students and residents in the city of Gainesville. After conducting my interviews and having time to reflect over them, I realized that all of my interviewees for not only this assignment but for the other assignments as well all expressed the same concern and problem when it came to the lack of parking available in the city of Gainesville. While being most prevalent during the school year (August-May) and worse at night time rather than the day. All three of my interviewees all agreed to having to face a problem with parking almost daily because being that the UF campus is so spread out it is not always reasonable to walk to all their classes as it might be too far.

4.) Information Search: 
Since my problem is very relevant and popular in Gainesville, people are always coming into conflict with this unmet need. With that being said, when asking my interviewees what form of information searching that they turned to when they realized that parking was a problem for them and they needed a solution the consensus was all the same, they all told me they would ask by word of mouth if anyone of their friends or a mutual friends knew of any place to park their cars, or reaching out to their leasing company for parking spot rentals. If these places of information could not help them with what they needed then they did not have any other places to search.

5.) Draw Conclusions/ Interview Summaries:
After conducting these interviews as I stated earlier, I felt as if all of the interviews I have conducted throughout my researching process for my opportunity that they have all had similar interests and opinions when it comes to the lack of parking in Gainesville and around off-campus apartments near the UF campus. The need awareness definitely feels stronger and stronger to me each time that I interview more people or conduct more research for my opportunity. After these interviews I feel that I have conducted a sufficient amount of evidence now to really begin thinking on ways to improve my opportunity.

Assignment 11A Idea Napkin No. 1

1. You: 

• For starters, my name is Brooklyn Nave and I am a sophomore. I just transferred to the University of Florida and I am a General Business Major with a minor in Economics. I'm hoping to either be in the MIB program or graduate and then pursue a MBA after graduation. My skills have always been in communicating with people and being able to contribute strong leadership abilities in groups and situations. I have always had a gift when it comes to talking to people and being able to negotiate and settle disputes. Being able to talk to people and settle disputes would come in handy with my service of parking garages that I am providing. When negotiating items such as price, land, location and other details in a contract with landlords it could potentially turn into an argumentative conversation, this is where my skills of settling disputes would help in a situation like this. This business could give me an opportunity to put my foot in the door when it comes to negotiating business sales. 

2. What are you offering to customers?

• I am offering a service to citizens in Gainesville, FL and students attending University of Florida. My parking garage will meet the unmet needs of citizens whose parking is limited during the school year due to students parking in the spots that are normally empty. My service will also provide a need for the students by creating parking garages for people living off campus so that they will have safe and affordable parking spots. This in return helps the citizens of Gainesville because they will have more parking spots open up as a result of less students parking on the streets. 

3. Who are you offering it to?

• I am offering my service to two main groups: off-campus apartment landlords and city hall with regards to downtown Gainesville. Apartment landlords would include any of the following: L3 Campus Gainesville, Trimark, KLM, etc. This service would most likely primarily be targeted towards this group of people since they would provide the most beneficial outcome for my unmet need that I am looking to solve. This group of people would probably be the most problematic in terms of successful negotiating, since they would have to contribute their time and money into the service as well but in the end would end up making the most profits out of the two groups I would be offering my services too. Gainesville will be my trial city and the first college town I would start with for parking garages before eventually moving to other college towns such as FSU, UCF, USF, and many others!
• My second group that I would be offering my parking garage services to is City Hall. This group of leaders would be offered the opportunity to have a parking garage centered in downtown Gainesville. This parking garage instead of the monthly rates that the garage for the apartments would be offered, would charge parking residents hourly rates to park in the garage.  

4. Why do they care?

• I am confident that people will buy my service because of how large of an unmet need there is for this service in crowded cities and especially college towns. My service of parking garages has numerous attributes to it that make it appealing to consumers in the market, such as, the locations of the garages will be very convenient to all main attractions, off-campus parking garages will be located in a centralized area between all agreeing apartment complexes included in the garage making it safe for the students, and the rates for the parking garage will be fair and reasonable. Consumers will actually pay money for this service because it is relevant and there are not a lot of other competitors in the market that provide this service, at least in Gainesville speaking. 

5. What are your core competencies?

• In my own personal knowledge, I do not know of any other company around here that offers services like these --- without insanely expensive rates. My only other 'competitors' would be the apartment complexes that opt out of signing onto a combined parking garage, and offer residents their own personal spots, but those spots are usually outrageously overpriced and sometimes not in the best locations either so I am assured that my core competency of offering affordable and safe parking spots in a great location will be more than enough to sway the consumers into renting a parking spot from one of my parking garages. 

Do these elements fit together?

• I do believe that all of these elements work together and would be great, however, I do feel that there are some important parts of this opportunity that are weaker than others. First, I am not sure what it would cost me personally to get this business up and running and where to begin looking for a credible and safe contracting and construction crew to hire to work on the parking garages for me. Secondally, I am not sure how to go about getting my name out there and the services that I provide. This is due to a lack of connections and people to spread my business around to people in the community and area. Other than these two details I feel that all of these elements that I have work together to make this a great opportunity!

Elevator speech URL

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZm0cyyVZaA&t=3s

Assignment 9A Testing the Hypothesis Part 2

• Who?
• After conducting my interviews with five individuals who I thought might have the need that I have presented in my opportunity for an unmet need, I was surprised to find that there are people whom I thought would need this opportunity that actually did not. These individuals are people who have either not brought their cars down to school with them therefore do not need to worry about finding parking spots and are also people who do not care about finding a good spot that is close to their apartment for not only convenience reasons but for safety reasons as well.
• My first interviewee is a female from a neighborhood over from mine who informed me that she does not have a need for this opportunity because she is an out-of-state student and her parents did not allow her to bring her car down from New York so she does not have a vehicle. However, she thought that having a parking garage would be a great opportunity for her roommates who do have their cars down here at college with them. 
• My second interviewee is a male who surprised me a little bit, seeing that he had a car that is at college with him I assumed he would have an opportunity for this need but he informed me otherwise. He said although he sees how parking could be annoying to some he just simply does not care enough about his parking spot to have an opportunity for this need.
• My third interviewee informed me that although she does have a car with her at college and that sometimes parking can be quite frustrating, she would not purchase a parking spot in a new parking garage because it is "cheaper to pay one price yearly for street parking versus paying monthly."
• My fourth interviewee was a senior in high school who plans on attending the University of Florida in the fall of next year, she told me that she will be staying off campus with her sister. Although, her apartment will be in the area that I felt my opportunity would meet needs, she told me that she would be sharing a car with her sister and that her sister lives at an apartment (one of the few) that have designated parking spots for the residents of their apartment complex. Therefore, she would have no need for the parking garage. However, I decided to interview her sister as my fifth interviewee who told me otherwise, although she does have parking at her apartment complex it is a first come first serve basis when it comes to finding a parking spot. She can see a need in my opportunity but says that "knowing gainesville landlords they would find a way to increase the parking garage prices" and therefore, she would not be purchasing a spot in the parking garage.
• What?
• I learned through talking to the people that i interviewed that although this would solve some people's parking issues in Gainesville, one parking garage would not satisfy the needs of every student and resident in the city of Gainesville.
• Why?
• I do not believe that the need is different rather people are influenced by different factors whether it be money, family or culture. All of those factors contribute to whether they see my opportunity for their as a priority or not.

Inside the boundary                          Outside the boundary

Who:                       College students that have                     College students who have not brought

                                 brought their cars to college.                 their car to college.

  

                                 College students who do not                  College students that live in an apartment

                                 live in an apartment complex                 that offers parking spots for them.

                                 that offers parking spots.

 

                                 College students who would be              College students that would not pay for a

                                 willing to pay monthly for a parking        parking spot monthly.

                                 spot.

What:                     To help cut down on the lack of parking  To eliminate parking issues in the city

                                for off campus students.                            all together.

            

                               To provide safe and close parking spots    To make it mandatory for all apartment

                               for students living in off campus                complexes to have parking available

                               apartments that do not provide parking        for all their residents.

                               spots.

Why:                     The city of Gainesville does not have enough parking spots for their residents let                                   alone their guests and students that are here. 

                               People can not afford some prices that apartment complexes charge for their                                         parking spots.