25A - What's Next?

Existing Market

In terms of the services for my venture, I think the next steps include going out to campus and asking college students a quick 2 question survey regarding how they feel about the negative aspects of living at apartment complexes near campus. Students barely have time to waste so it would be the perfect opportunity to ask them in between changing classes if they live near campus, if so do they have a car and how much is their parking fee. The statistics gathered from this activity can be posted on the app and also shown to the different apartment complexes I have connections to in order to turn this into a reality for students. 

Interview 1

My roommate who lives with me at an apartment complex near campus and pays $150 monthly parking fee. 

She thinks something customers might want and that I should be doing is giving out free snacks or candies to students around campus who sign that they agree parking fees near campus are too high as a form of proof to the managers and staff of those apartment complexes when we go speak to them. People are naturally attracted to free things, granted most people will take 1 minute of their day to hear someone out, sign a paper, and get a free candy!

Interview 2

A close friend who attends UF, lives near sorority row, does not have her car in Gainesville but her apartment complex charged $250 a month for parking.

She thinks something customers might want and that I should be doing is making a list of ideas in order to lower parking fees, print those lists out and take them to meetings with different apartment complexes in order to open their mind to different ways and prove to customers that action is being taken. This would make my student-run organization look professional, prepared, and creative. 

Interview 3

Another close friend who attends UF and lives near 2nd Ave has her car in Gainesville and pays a $200 parking fee. 

She thinks something customers might want and that I should be doing is possibly reaching out to another student-run organization who is more known about on campus and partnering up with them. They can promote us and we can promote them, and potentially do fundraising events together. All student-run organizations on campus are all beneficial towards some cause or purpose and working with diverse people helps could strongly help my success with my service. 

The feedback I received from my three previous interviews will be strongly taken into consideration and put into action. The “next steps” advised to me were ones I would not have thought about on my own, giving me more reason for wanting to work with a group of students and possibly adding more to my team. In terms of growing in my existing market I will definitely work on gaining actual facts by doing surveys around campus, which would make my service seem more legitimate. 

Furthermore, in order to gain popularity and have students become interested in our service and goals, I plan on hosting fundraising events with other student-run organizations where we can all promote each other and hopefully reach all our goals’ by helping one another. In my opinion, it makes the most sense to take all the ideas given to me and place them into action and consistently asking customers in my existing market for their opinion and making them feel like their voices are being heard. Customers like knowing they are being paid attention to, and that is exactly on what I plan on continuously achieving. 

New Market

My business venture is made for college students who live at apartment complexes near campus but overall for students who want to put in an effort into making their voices heard about situations that most people underestimate. A different group of consumers would be young adults who no longer attend college and have their career.

I think my venture concept may be able to create value for young adults no longer attending college because they may not live in a college town anymore but some may still live in an apartment, possibly back home. Even though this market already has their career and has pay coming in, they have even more expenses that college students probably do and they too should not be paying more than necessary for a parking fee.

Interview 1

A family friend who attended UF 5 years ago and had her own car in Gainesville when she lived there. 

Although she thinks my venture concept is strong and serves a good purpose, she herself would not find a need for a venture concept like mine because she moved back to her home town, Miami, currently lives in a house with her boyfriend and has no worry about paying any parking fees. She said if I wanted to be successful in the new market of young adults no longer in college, I would have to make it more broad towards many cities, towns, and apartment complexes that charge for parking. She explained that in a city like Miami, it will probably be difficult to accomplish lowering parking fees because Miami is such an expensive city due to location. Everything in Miami is expensive and those who live there know what they're signing up for.

Interview 2

An older cousin of mine who attended college in her home town in the Dominican Republic and later moved to Australia to recieve her Masters degree. 

She had never heard of an idea like the one I composed and was impressed by the detail and thought I have put into my venture. She never had a college experience where she had to pay for parking because back home she had a chauffeur and in Australia she had her own home, which had no parking fee. She added how if the application I was working on was world-wide and worked for apartment complexes all over the world, it would be a huge success. However, she understands I'm a college student studying business and these projects are bound to start small. 

What surprised me the most about this market of young adults who no longer attend college is that the venture concept I came up with was specifically designed to make the lives of college students easier. Since most of us live on a budget or allowance and don't have a steady income due to not having our careers yet, my service benefits us more. I was shocked as to how hard it was to come up with another way as to how venture concept could apply to others who are still young adults but no longer in college. 

The interviews I had with these young adults made me realize that I did truly come up with a great idea for students in my position but it is rather difficult to apply my venture to young adults like them especially because they live in such big cities such as Miami, FL and Brisbane, Australia that the app I have in mind is too centered towards college students. Unfortunately, this new market does not seem as attractive as the existing market because I definitley have more opportunites and connections with my existing market.