25A - What's Next?

Existing Market

1. In terms of products and services that my business offers, I think that my next venture would be to target other Universities around the nation that have the same problem. With this, I would have to expand my resources exponentially, and this would only be possible if my first market at UF is a success and I am able to turn over a lot of revenue as profits to put back into resources.

2. The first student that I interviewed said that instead of simply targeting students at the University, I should also expand and reach out the staff members, teachers, and people that are visiting the campus. They said that I would have more potential customers if I were to do this and make even more money. The second student that I interviewed said that I should potentially try to expand to more than just Universities. They said that my services could also be applied to other places, such as theme parks and movie theaters on days in which they are busy and it can be difficult to find parking. The third student that I interviewed shared a similar opinion with the first, but said that I should also maybe try and target people who already went out of their way to purchase a scooter, and maybe could offer them a similar service, also expanding my market.

3. I think that based on my interviews, all three students shared really good ideas. For me, I think that I would like to stick primarily with students at this moment in time because I do not want my market to get over saturated with too many customers and a limited amount of space. Also, professors and staff already have designated parking spaces, so I think they would not need to utilize my service. i thought that the movie theater and theme park idea was interesting and that could be a potential area of expansion, but it would be harder to break into. The third idea was also interesting, and I could target people who have a scooter, but I would have to figure out whether it is worth the time and money or not.

New Market

1. And interesting concept would be a B2B market, in which instead of targeting customers (the students) I could target the Universities themselves and offer them my service as a way for them to deliver to the students on campus. If this was possible, then they would be in charge of creating new spaces and would greatly cut back on my costs and resources needed to achieve a similar goal.

2. My service would create value because it would be essentially doing the same thing. I would merely have to offer the technology via the University, and they could use my technology to offer the same service but through a more established business. Because of this, I would have lower costs and resources needed, but the University would also get a cut in my business so I would also be making less revenue overall. I would have to figure out the numbers to determine whether this would be beneficial to my success or not.

3. The two potential customers that I interviewed shared very similar opinions. They both said that it would be a really good idea, because through an established business model such as the university, I would have a greater outreach. They said that they are far more likely to purchase my service through the legitimate university website rather than a company that they have never heard of before. This adaptation would make my service more successful merely for the fact that I would have a greater amount of customers than before, therefore earning higher revenue.

Step 4 / Reflection:

    For the most part, the assumptions that I made were affirmed after conducting interviews with potential customers. I had assumed that if I were to offer the service being the technology and application to the university, they could then redistribute my service to the students. This would lead to greater outreach and overall higher profits. However, I would have to split the revenues with the university, but overall it would be beneficial to me as a entrepreneur.

    I think that this new market is even more attractive than my original proposed business plan. This would not only increase my revenue, but it could potentially change the way that parking is handled around the nation. On top of this, if I were to expand to other campuses around the United States, I would be marginally more successful with this business concept than the one that I proposed previously.