5A Identifying Local Opportunities

1. "Fire Damages Greenacres- area apartment complex”

a. https://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/20200130/fire-damages-greenacres-area-apartment-complex

    b. There was a fire at an apartment complex, firefighters were able to get control of the fire and smoke pretty quickly. No one was hurt by the fire and smoke that started on the first floor. They are still investigating the source of the fire.

c. The problem is that a lot of people that are displaced by the fire, and many of them probably lost a lot of their possessions.

d. The people who have the problem are the families that lost their homes.

2. “Gov. Ron DeSantis, Florida legislature not addressing Medicaid shortfalls, health advocates say”

a. https://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/20200130/gov-ron-desantis-florida-legislature-not-addressing-medicaid-shortfalls-health-advocates-say

    b. Deborah Lloyd who is the former executive director of Good News Outreach developed a medical crisis and did not have health coverage and no one to help her. She lost all of her money and also lost her job. When she needed to be hospitalized again she tried applying to Medicaid and found out that she is not eligible because she is unemployed. She talked about the 450,000 residents who “fall into the Medicaid coverage gap.” She was joined by Florida legislatures that are trying to find draft solutions to this problem.

c. Many people do not have health coverage and are not eligible for even primary care because they are unemployed.

d. The people who have this problem are the ones that are not insured and are not able to pay for their health care,

3. “School ethics committee discusses lapses in oversight of after-school programs”

a. https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/education/article239794353.html

    b. The committee met after it was discovered that a privately funded after school program was run at two district schools without the proper protocol.They found that the organization had misrepresented itself so they can take advantage of the free facilities at the public schools. It is unclear whether or not they had the proper training or background checks on their employees. 

c. The problem is this was going on for so long without the schools and administration realizing. The parents were most likely unaware as well. If they close them down that it would also leave a lot of parents without a place for the kids to go to after school.

d. Parents, School administrators and teachers are all potential “whos” in this example.

4. “UF Health monitors rumors of coronavirus spreading to Gainesville”

a. https://www.alligator.org/news/uf-health-monitors-rumors-of-coronavirus-spreading-to-gainesville/article_69a9b1a0-426c-11ea-86b2-87354e5a2a4e.html

    b. UF health is monitoring the students who travelled to and from China before the quarantine was in effect. These students have been in contact with their families in China and thus might have been exposed to the virus. However none of them are exhibiting any symptoms. 

c. The problem is we are not sure whether or not they were exposed to the disease and if it might reach Gainesville. It also present a problem to many of our international students who might not be able to go back home for the foreseeable future.

d. The people who have this problem are the students at UF, Gainesville residents, Families of students who live in China. 

5. “UF Sailing Team’s equipment damaged by high winds”

a. https://www.alligator.org/news/uf-sailing-team-s-equipment-damaged-by-high-winds/article_dbe2b252-42d6-11ea-ba7b-6741d053fad8.htmll

    b. High winds at Lake Wauberg caused a lot of damage to most of the equipment of the UF’s sailing team. All of their boats are unusable and buying new equipment will cost about 100,000 dollars. They have set up a GoFundMe page so they are able to get the funds they need to replace their equipment and hopefully are able to compete and hold all the events and races they were planning before this setback.

c. The problem is most of the equipment of the team was destroyed and it would cost a lot of money to replace it.

d. The people who have this problem are the members of the team or any student who wants to join to the team.

4A Forming An Opportunity Belief

My belief is that students sometimes have a hard time finding the textbooks so they need for their classes with affordable prices.  I think the unmet need is a platform that can have information listed by students on the best places to get textbooks for the best price, and maybe students can even sell their books on the platform. UF students are the ones with this unmet need. It could always be broadened to other schools as well. I think that need always existed. For now students sometimes just use the bookstore, or go on facebook pages and try to find people selling the books they need. I am 60% that this opportunity exists. The prototypical customer is a UF students.

The first individual I interviewed is a sophomore who said that she normally buys her textbooks from Amazon. She thought a good idea was for the bookstore to match prices with online websites like amazon as it is more convenient to buy from the textbook. She did like my idea and said it will only work if it was popular on campus and a lot of students use so we can really get the best deals.

The second student I interviewed thought trying to find affordable textbooks was definitely a problem that she had. She talked about how UF claims that all access is the best price you can get  but it is actually not subsidized that much. She thought the app would only be a good idea if it was run by the students and not the school. She said that she would use and that it was useful in regards to finding an easy way to buy and sell textbooks from other students.

The third student I interviewed also agreed that finding textbooks is a problem she said that it was “such a hassle and stressful especially during syllabus week” She thought the app would be convenient and efficient, so she can compare prices more easily and find her best choice. She said she would probably use this app as it would also be safer way to buy and sell used textbooks.

After conducting the three interviews, I found that students clearly hate buying expensive books and some of them thought it was a problem. I explained my proposal to have an app that would not only include the best deals/ places to buy the best priced textbooks and give students a well established platform to sell and buy textbooks instead of looking at many different facebook pages. After they heard this proposal, they mostly thought that it was a good idea and that they would use it if it really collects all the best deals and if many students use it. 

Most of my original idea stayed the same, however, it was brought to my attention how hard it will be to get it started as people will not want to use if there is no one using it so getting a lot of students interested in the idea and advertising this would be very important in the beginning. I think it is very important for entrepreneurs are able to adapt their ideas and ways of thinking as they have to be able to see what their customers want. If they are unwilling to change their ideas they might never be able to grow their businesses or find better solutions that “fit” more of their customers. 

3A Entrepreneurship Story

I actually do not have a lot of entrepreneurship experience, maybe not at all. That is actually why I am taking this class. In high school, however, I was on the newspaper staff. One of our big problems was that students were not interested in looking at the newspaper and we would get no feedback. We decided to expand our online presence. We started a website for the newspaper and we also became more active on Instagram and Snapchat and that helped us connect more with the students and were able to see what they are interested in reading in the school's newspaper. Having that feedback and more engagement with students helped us get more donors and many businesses were interested in advertising with our newspaper which helped us fund the newspaper and we were able to produce an issue using glossy paper which caused a lot more money.
 I think understanding entrepreneurship is very important for most professions. I am majoring in psychology and I am really enjoying this class as a lot of it can be related to psychology. When we talked in lecture about how the "who" has to be aware that there is a problem. If people do not realize that they have a problem, they will never look for a solution. I am also realizing how many small problems are out there that might have very simple solutions, that no one has thought of yet. When I used to think about business ideas or even just problems in the world, I and I think a lot of people make the mistake of thinking of big problems that might be too complex and difficult for one person to solve. However, when we think of everyday life, there are many problems that we can find and business ideas everywhere. That is why I am really enjoying this class and cannot wait to learn more.

Bug List

1. Long lines at Starbucks especially at the libraries during exam weeks - There are a lot of students at UF and most go after or before their classes in the 15-minute window so it can get really crowded

2. Having to take online classes rather than in-person which helps me understand the material better -  many students need to take the same classes and they cannot all take them in person.

3. Not being able to register for certain classes that I need for my degree - one.uf kept crashing during registration, and UF does not have a waitlist for classes

4. I cannot go off campus on weekends - there are less/ no busses

5. No available seats in the library - too many students for the available places

6. I do not have my car in Gainesville - I live on campus and there is no available parking

7. Buses break down. -  no regular maintenance

8. long lines at advising for the college of liberal art and science -  Limited hours and many students.

9. Students who walk slowly - Because they slow everyone down and cause traffic

10. People that do not recycle - laziness, not enough recycling bins on campus

11. Reckless drivers - distracted, they are on their phones, they are in a rush.

12. People who are on their phones while walking. - because college students cannot go five minutes without checking their phones.

13. People who talk loudly or play loud music on the quiet floors in the library -  low self-awareness. or maybe they are no aware that it is a quiet floor

14. There are a lot of buildings on campus that are not accessible to people with disabilities - costs money and the buildings are very old

15. Laptop/ phone die quickly and so I have to have both chargers at all times. - They die because I have to use them a lot for school and day to day life in general.

16. SNAP app (free car service on campus) is not always reliable and sometimes a car does not come for a very long time - maybe the app does not work well or there are too many requests and not enough drivers.

17. Not enough parking on campus -  too many students and parking garages cost a lot of money.
18. No elevators in my dorm building - My building is one of the old ones and there is no room for an elevator.

19. Not being able to attend some of the live lectures of my classes because there is not enough room - UF has a lot of students taking the same class and it is easier and cheaper to put them in one section rather than divide them

20. When the ice in my coffee melts and it waters down the drink - It is generally hot in Florida and the ice melts quicker than I can finish my coffee.



Reflection: At first I found it difficult to come up with "bugs" as I was trying to think of big and important problems. However once I just thought about my day to day life, it was a lot easier to come up with things that bugged me. I also noticed when I was answering why each one of those things was a problem that many of the answers were that there are a lot of students at UF.

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