13A - Reading Reflection No. 1

The book that I decided to read for this reflection was The Wright Brothers.

1. Reading about the entrepreneur:

• The thing that surprised me the most about this book is about how many times the brothers failed but still continued to pursue their dream. Their success is one of the most true and upmost displays of tenacity that an entrepreneur could wish to harness. Even in the face of many failures, they continued to attempt to achieve the "impossible".
• Going off of my first observation, I would have to say that I mostly admire the tenacity and ingenuity of the Wright brothers. Traveling by air was seen by many as an impossible feat, and with enough failures, it could be enough to make one believe it. However, the brothers persevered through all of their failures never giving up on their dream.
• Not fully an undesirable trait, but the Wright brothers were so involved in their craft that they never married. Although it is important to be passionate about your pursuits, I still firmly believe in a balance, and that maintaining some sort of social life is beneficial to the entrepreneur. Not in all cases, but it's hard to point out any specific undesirable traits about the brothers.
• The Wright brothers faced plenty of adversity and failure. In fact, they are most well known for all the failure they did face. However, instead of giving up, they persevered. When they developed their first glider, the bad weather had messed up their flight plans and actually broken parts of it. With this adversity in their midst, the brothers used it as an opportunity to repair the glider as well as make it stronger and better before. Whenever they hit an obstacle, they always sought a way around it.

2. Competencies displayed by the entrepreneur:

• The major competency that stood out was that the Wright Brothers did not go into this project blind. They did not set unrealistic goals or expectations for themselves either. They definitely exhibited great quality traits of a successful entrepreneur. They spent years studying other experiments and aviation engineers so that they were able to craft together the best plan for the creation and prototype of their glider / airplane.

3. One part of the reading that was confusing:

• The one thing that confused me in this reading was how the Wright Brothers never attended college. The reading described many times about how intelligent the brothers were and they were incredibly successful at college, but I understand how it goes to show that one does not need a college education to be a successful entrepreneur. College will only show you the basics, but it is really your character and your traits that make you a successful entrepreneur.

4. Two questions I would ask the entrepreneur:

1. After all of the adversity that you faced, did you ever feel like giving up? Most people face adversity in life and feel like giving up all the time. This is especially true when the goal someone sets for them self is way above the standard and something that seems impossible. They may think that it is just too unrealistic and give up, even if it is their dream.
2.  If you could go back and time and change one thing you did, what would it be? The reason I would ask this question is because looking back on such an impressive feat would surely present a lot of hindsight. There are many things that people do and look back on thinking that if they had done something a certain way, maybe it would have been a more efficient process and they could have gotten more done in less time.

5. Entrepreneur's opinion of hard work:

• I think that we would share the same opinion of hard work. There are two important aspects of being a successful entrepreneur. The first is that you have to have a vision and be passionate about it. The second is, you have to work extremely hard. There are many people who have amazing creative and innovative ideas, however, if you do nothing about it and you don't put the work in, they just simply will never come to fruition. 

14A - Halfway Reflection

1. One of the main factors that helped me keep up to date in this class was that at the beginning of this semester, I set up a google calendar for all my assignments and when they due. Therefore, on Monday, I would get a notification on my phone to let me know what assignments were due for this week. With this planning, I am able to keep ahead of the class and make sure that all my assignments get completed on time.

2. On one of the first weeks, there was a lot of work. I thought that it would be a lot to handle, and just for a single week of assignments, I had written over 3000 words. I had to remember that going in to this class, there was going to be a lot of work, and I always remind myself that it will be worth it. Yes, there is a lot of work, but all of the assignments that I complete have enabled me to think differently in a entrepreneurial mindset. I have enjoyed every assignment for this class because they are both thought provoking and also very helpful. I feel like I have definitely developed a tenacious attitude over this past couple of months, and I will do whatever I have to do to keep this attitude for the rest of this semester and onward.

3. The first tip that I would give is to watch all of the videos posted. Although you can skim through them and still do fine on the cupcakes, I find that I gain something beneficial from every video. They are both incredibly interesting and fun to watch, and I always learn something new each week. The second tip I would give is to try and do assignments before they are due. You really have to plan ahead, as some of the assignments require conducting interviews or giving presentations for the camera, so if you leave them to last minute, you will find that they can be impossible to complete. And the final tip I would give is to have fun. Even if you are taking this class for the "easy A", there is still so much useful information and beneficial knowledge that can be taken away from this class. Even if you don't plan on becoming an entrepreneur, a lot of this knowledge is applicable outside of this field. You learn things about innovation and creativity, which can be utilized in almost every day life.

12A - Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 1

Interviews Summary: The segment that I decided to focus on for my interviews was undergraduate students specifically living in Broward Hall. I chose between 3 students, one had a car and was a freshman, the second had a scooter and was a freshman, the third was a sophomore with a car. I asked each of these three students at one times the need most frequently arises, and they all seemed to agree together that it mostly occurs on weekends or after classes. For classes, they usually can walk to where they need to go or use a bike. However, the problem is most persistent whenever they need to go shopping for groceries, go to events off campus, or just eat out at a place that is not included on campus. They also become most aware of this need whenever they are slapped with a $35 ticket for parking where they should not be. Two of the three students (owners with the cars) have both been hit with at least one ticket. The student on the scooter also has this unmet need, but in a different way. This student has seemed to find their own solution. They purchased a scooter which allows them to travel without having any major issues finding parking, however, they are pretty concerned with the safety of using these scooters. He says that he does not wear a helmet when he is riding, and tries to use the scooter minimally. He says he would much rather have a car on campus so that he does not have to deal with the dangers of riding on a scooter on open roads next to the cars. He was also pretty annoyed that he had to cash out a hefty sum of money for his scooter, which he now barely uses. When these students became aware of their need, they took different approaches to find solutions. The student with a scooter, well he purchased a scooter 2 weeks in school starting. The other two students, the freshman and the sophomore with a car, said that they have started to park their car at the Jennings lot. However, they also agreed that finding parking their is very random and their are some days where they have to move their car all the way to the commuter lot and make the 15 minute walk to Broward, which is a huge convenience. The sophomore also conducted extensive research into parking policies at UF and solutions to their need, but to no avail. Whatever, they searched, they found that parking still was an issue. She said that she has received 5 tickets for invalid parking since she came to UF.

Conclusions: After conducting these interviews, I found that these students in this particular age segment all face the same unmet need. When freshman first come to the University of Florida, they are often unaware of the strict parking policies, and they fall victim to numerous tickets. Paying for classes is expensive enough and having to pay parking tickets on top of it can be quite annoying. I also found that these students have different personal solutions to the problem, however, I see a trend: most students either purchase a scooter or park over at Jennings, Beaty Towers, or the commuter lot. Freshman coming to college looking to bring their car could definitely do with having more efficient parking. It would make the college experience all the more enjoyable, and hopefully it will save them a lot of money in the long run and avoid falling victim to parking violations.

11A - Idea Napkin No. 1

1) You - I believe that I have many skill sets that I believe would make me a great entrepreneur and have a successful business. Firstly, I am determined to reach a goal I set for myself, so the obstacles that are bound to come won't be able to shut my dream down. I think I also have a pretty good eye for what people want and I am good at identifying opportunities. I also believe that an important aspect of any business is networking and connections. I definitely have some successful business owners that I know that I could reach out to if I ever need to. Finally, I am also very hardworking and open-minded. With this, I will be able to approach different problems in different ways to be able to come up with a solution.

2) What are you offering to customers? - I am offering customers a product that would create convenience and efficiency. Having extra parking spaces would offer a large potential benefit to consumers at a higher price so that people can better park in spaces.

3) Who are you offering it to? -  I am offering my product to mostly UF students and teachers alike who own any time of vehicle, car or motorcycle. These students would utilize my product to better find parking spaces around campus.

4) Why do they care? - People care because the parking at UF is a pretty big issue. A lot of people have headaches when coming to finding parking spaces, and so if it was made better, people would be sure to utilize my product.

5) What are your core competencies? - I know a lot of places around campus that could be transformed into parking spaces around different segments of campus. One thing that I would need to build up would be my connections I have on campus. With that being said, I am very good at talking to people, so setting up a meeting with the person in charge of parking would not be too difficult. Setting up the meeting, however, may prove to be more complicated.

I think that most of these aspects fit well together. My skill-sets would give me the determination I need to make this business into a reality. The only big issue I face when attempting to make this product a reality is finding the actual space to set up these parking spots. The campus is already pretty cluttered, but I am sure that there are ways to convert empty lots into parking spaces for students. There are also under-utilized parking spaces that could be better allocated to students, so I may look more for these. The weaker aspect would be the resources that I actually have. This is something that I would definitely have to work on.

10A - Elevator Pitch No. 1

Video Link: https://youtu.be/czK5-w4w2Xo

9A - Testing the Hypothesis Part 2

Who: For this exercise, I decided to conduct interviews on people who do not actually use their own car on campus, but would find my opportunity to be helpful for either the future or people that they know. Basically, people who would potentially use a car on campus if parking somehow where to become more efficient on campus.

Interview 1: For the first interview, I found a student who uses the RTS bus system because they find that cars are inefficient. On my way to the gym I struck a conversation with this person on the bus in the morning. They said that they have a car, which they brought to campus last year, but they decided to leave it at home because it was too much of a hassle. They agreed with me in saying that if these new parking spots were to open up, they would definitely bring their car back to campus.

Interview 2: For my second interview, I found a student outside of Broward who was parking their scooter. They said that they had decided to purchase a scooter to be able to get around campus better. They also agreed with the first interviewee in saying that they would bring their car, however, there were not enough good parking spots. They also believe that it was unfortunate because they had to go out of their way and purchase a scooter when it would have been better to just bring their car.

Interview 3: This person I interviewed was a freshman I found walking to the Reitz Union after his class. They currently do not have the unmet need because they did not bother acquiring a car. It is well known, they said, that UF has terrible parking. They also said they probably would not consider living off-campus next year without a car because they would either have to purchase a scooter or take the bus everyday just to get to campus.

Interview 4: I interviewed a person who uses a bike to frequently get around campus. They said that buying a bike was a good option, because they do not have to have to deal with the bad parking situation. They also agreed they would consider getting a car if they did not have to be stressed about finding a parking spot.

Interview 5: For this last interview, I chose somebody who goes to the gym every morning (Southwest Rec) and chooses to run there every morning. It's about 2 miles away from where he lives, and he says that if he had a car and could utilize better parking services, it would make his life so much easier. It would definitely be something he would take advantage of.

What: The point at which the need differs is the point at which people decided to bring their car and people that did not decide to. It seems that a lot of people are missing out on the luxury of having a car for convenient travelling around campus, but they do not. In this way, both groups of interviewers have the same need.

Why: The underlying cause for the people inside and outside of the group are very similar. The people on the inside deal with inconsistent parking which causes them a lot of stress while the people on the outside have decided to utilize other forms of transportation to avoid the stress.

                        Inside the boundary                                                      Outside the boundary

Who:              People who have a car but                                                People who decided not
                       have trouble finding parking on                                       to bring their car and resorted
                       campus everyday, finding it                                             to other methods of transpor-
                       quite inconvenient.                                                           tation.

What:             There is either not enough parking                                  They have to buy scooters or
                       spaces or they are frequently receiving                            bikes or use the bus because
                       tickets because there are so many                                    bringing a car is not efficient
                       restrictions.                                                                       for them.

Why:               There are parking spaces, but there are                            Very similar, there are either
                        so many restrictions on them.                                          not enough spots or too many
                                                                                                                 restrictions on them. 

8A - Solving the Problem

The opportunity that I have found in assignment 8 was that there are not enough viable parking spaces to students that are attending UF and would like to use their cars to make travel more efficient.

The main solution that I could think about regarding this issue was building three or four parking lots that are specifically accessible to only UF students. They would be located in different parts of the campus so that students who live in different dormitories have a relatively close space that they could rely on. There could be a method in which to access the parking space, a student would have to use their UF identification to be checked and allowed access into these car parks. This service would be accessible to all UF students

One issue that could face this potential solution is that their could still be an overflow of parking as most people would probably want to utilize this service. To counter this, there could maybe be an up charge or a payment-per-semester type plan in which students can access specific places if they have the specific plan. This could solve the problem of over-cluttered lots and students would be able to reliably utilize their cars without having the headache of trying to find one in the first place.

7A - Testing the Hypothesis

1)The opportunity that I am going to pursue is that it can be nearly impossible to find a place to park your car on campus. There are a lot of parking spaces, sure, but there are so many restrictions that makes it so you cannot leave your car there for a long period of time. Most of time, students have to move their car to avoid getting ticketed. I did not end up bringing a car to UF just because of how hard it is to find parking, and it did not seem like it was ultimately worth it in the end.

2)Students at the University of Florida have a difficult time finding convenient and reliable parking because of the restrictions place on available lots.

The who: Students on the UF campus
The what: They are unable to find convenient, reliable parking
The why: There are many restrictions on available spots

3)There are other people who share in this need. On gameday weekends, for example, many families and fans come to UF to watch the game, and there is not a sufficient supply of parking spaces for everybody. The problem is not necessarily that there are not enough spots, it is simply just that not all of the spots are available for people to park. When you have fifty-thousand or more people on campus, there is no way everyone can fit their car into a spot. This is why a lot of students have resorted to scooters for the time being. Most students would agree that having more parking spaces would be highly beneficial. It would allow people to better commute from place to place without having to stress about getting ticketed.

4)The five interviews I conducted, I revolved them around 3 different types of students: One student from Broward, one from Hume Hall, and one from Jennings hall. I also interviewed an alumni who frequently travels to UF to watch football games, and a student who live off-campus and has to commute to campus everyday for classes.

Interview 1: Broward Hall Student
    I talked to this student quite a bit. He told me that he currently has a car at UF. The one convenient part about living in Broward is that there is a parking garage right next to the dorms. He says, however, that when he does decide to use them (not on the weekends) he has to wake up before 7 in the morning to move it so that he does not get a ticket. The main feeling I detected was frustration that he cannot leave his car there when he wants to.

Interview 2: Jennings Hall Student
    This student described similar frustrations as the student from Broward. She had a car last year, but decided not to bring it this semester due to the inconvenience. She found that she was getting tickets left and right for simple parking violations, and ultimately decided that it was not worth the effort. She said she tried parking at the commuter lot near Hume a few times, but it was incredibly inconvenient, as the walk back was not worth the effort.

Interview 3: Hume Hall Student
    This student did not find it as annoying having a car on campus. They mainly use it to travel off campus on the weekends or to go out to eat with friends. However, students at Hume have a commuter lot, so he did not find it as much of a nuisance. He did however mention that his friends at Broward always complain about parking.

Interview 4: Football fan
    This person comes to most UF football games during the season. Since he is always super early, he often does not find trouble finding parking spaces for himself. However, he did note about how there are cars parked everywhere due to the lack of parking spaces available to the many fans that travel to UF to watch the games. UF tries to compensate for this buy restricting certain parking zones to students so that only fans can use them on the game weekends.

Interview 5: Off-campus student
    This student used to use their car to come to campus for classes, but ultimately decided that it was not worth the hassle. After a few tickets, he quickly resorted to utilizing the RTS bus system to get to campus, and now leaves his car at his apartment complex. He said that he now only uses his car to go places of campus, such as grocery shopping, dinner, etc.

After all of the interviews were conducted, I realized that this opportunity does exist because a majority of the people that I interviewed displayed similar discontent and frustration with the current parking system at UF. There is a commuter lot, however, for students living in Broward, or other residence halls farther away, using this lot is not beneficial to them.