Forming an Opportunity Belief

Forming an Opportunity Belief

1)    The biggest unmeant need that I have experienced first-hand is the shortage of parking spaces in the area of Sorority row and Norman. I have lived around sorority row and Norman for the past three years and have found parking to be the biggest issue living in this area. The problem is that apartment complex’s only give one parking spot per apartment. So, if you live in a 4-bedroom apartment that leaves three people without a parking spot. In result, many tenants choose to use street parking. However, street parking has its negative disadvantages. The problems with street parking is that one some people do not know how to parallel park, two after 4pm all areas that require a decal become a free for all (no decal required from 4:00pm-8:00am), and three you most likely are leaving your car far away from your apartment so safety becomes an issue.  Therefore, I see an opportunity to build a parking garage un associated with the University of Florida and lease out parking spots.

2)    The prototypical customer will be those who live in apartment complex’s that have a limited number of parking spots. Furthermore, this need has existed sense I have lived in the area. I also find it unbelievable that some of these real-estate companies have not acted on an opportunity to build parking garage and charge rent.

3)    The prototypical customer is those who live in apartment complex’s that offer only one parking spot per apartment.

4)     

The first person I talked to was my girlfriend who lived in an apartment with three other girls that all had cars and they tried to share the parking spot.

1.     Do you find that sharing a parking spot with roommates is difficult?

Answer: YES! I can’t stand that I do not have my own parking spot

2.     Did you find that street parking was difficult to find?

Answer: It depends what time you look for parking, if you look around 7:30 at night forget about it, you won’t find anything.

3.     If there was a parking garage that charged rent would you consider parking there and paying a fee per month?

Answer: I would have, for me I wouldn’t even care about the money because I feel that parking in the street is somewhat asking for someone to break into your car or even hot your car and just leave.

4.     How much would you have paid been willing to pay for renting a parking spot?

Answer: I would have been willing to pay around 80$ a month to know that my car had its own designated parking spot.

           

Reflection:

The biggest thing that I took away from my conversation is the dollar amount that she is willing to pay per month for a parking spot. If someone could get around 100-200 people willing to pay an amount of 70-80$ per month for 12 months they would make huge profits.

The second person I talked to is an old friend that was in a three-bedroom apartment with one parking spot, however she was the only one with a car so she had her own parking spot.

1.     Do you think you would have been able to share your parking spot if your roommates had cars?

Answer: I don’t really know, it was never a problem for me so we never had an issue with parking. Its only really annoying when people come to visit and there is no room to park.

2.     Do you know of friends that have an issue with sharing parking spots?

Answer: Just about everyone has to share a parking spot, I know there’s a couple of complex’s that have two parking spots per apartment but it’s an issue for many people.

3.     If you were in a situation where you were sharing your parking spot and there was a garage that charged rent for parking, how much would you pay per month?

Answer: I could see myself paying 50$ a month, but it couldn’t be a lease or an agreement, it would have to be per month and I could cancel at any time.  

Reflection:

            I found that I learned the most from this conversation as I feel many people would have the same view. I became more aware that most people wouldn’t want to pay for a parking garage and that I would really have to target certain people.

           

The third person I talked to was a male, with a large truck that lives in the same apartment that my girlfriends used to live in.

           

1.     Do you find that sharing a parking spot with your roommates is difficult?  

Answer: it’s the only thing that causes problems between us. I have a nice large truck and I don’t like leaving it out on the street.

2.     Do you find that when try to do street parking it’s difficult to fit your truck in the space?

Answer: Yes, I can only park the truck in certain areas because I don’t want to stick out and then get a ticket.

3.     If there was a parking garage that had its own designated parking spots would you rent from there?

Answer: Yes, I love my truck and I wouldn’t want anything to happen to it. I also wouldn’t pay an unreasonable amount, so it would have to be a fair price.

4.     How much would you pay to rent a parking spot per month?

Answer: I could see myself paying around 50-60$ per month to know that my truck is safe.  

           

Reflection:

            I interviewed this person because I know that he really cares about his truck and that he would be willing to pay for this type of service. I got a more real dollar amount on how much a person who really cares about their vehicle is willing to pay. He also brought up another point on vehicle safety, and I wonder If there would have to be additional cost such as security guards that would need to take into consideration.

Summary:

            I still believe that there is an opportunity however there would need to be a lot of research involved in order to see this project through.  I would have to interview hundreds of college students that live in the area to get a better understanding of how many people would actually want this type of service. Furthermore, I would need to look into the costs of building a parking garage or a parking lot and how much mortgage payments would be in order to figure out a reasonable dollar amount to charge in rent. Lastly, I found that this would be a long-term investment and it’s something that you are not going to see large profits starting off. I feel that all entrepreneurs should adapt to feedback, there is no point in offering a service that nobody wants.  In order to have a successful business you need to be willing to adapt to customer needs.