Venture Concept No.2

For my venture concept, I tried to find a need that was prevalent in my local community. For my community, I realized that there have been many unmet needs within the university of Florida itself. My primary concern while searching was with the high degree of costs associated within the university itself and looking for student needs and wants that are being either unmet or exploited in some way. For me, one of the most renewing “bugs” of which I discovered is the high cost of textbooks that I get each semester. This was the need I chose to explore in my venture concept to try and find a possible profitable solution.

For many students, the cost of purchasing a textbook can be one of the priciest pieces of the semester. You can restrict yourself to renting but then you miss out on highlighting and annotating important sections. At the end of the semester you can get further shortchanged by selling the book back for significantly less than you purchased it for. This need was created because the university bookstore claimed an upcharge on every book that it sold and purchased. This need is located within every college town and in any university with an official bookstore, but in order to utilize this need, my venture concept will be localized to the Gainesville community.

As of now, this need is being satisfied through either simply ignoring the cost of buying and selling, renting the book, using craigslist to find other books, and the use of unofficial forums to locate other students with textbooks. Overall, students are not loyal to what they use and will easily switch over to anything that could offer a better service at a cheaper price. This opportunity is relatively large as it can be expanded to any and all books worldwide however, it is mostly focused on bookstores within college areas and is slightly smaller with that in mind. This opportunity’s “window” is also very large as it exists as long as universities and colleges exist worldwide, so there is no rush to deploy my venture as quickly as possible.

In order to exploit this opportunity, I want to innovate by creating a website that would connect students who have just taken classes to ones who are scheduled to take the same classes. This would connect students with books available for sale directly to those who wish to purchase books for their upcoming semester. The website would generate revenue exclusively through advertisements allowing students to buy and sell books with no middle man allowing students to easily obtain books without having to pay any extra cost. So for this instance, I am selling connections in exchange for advertisement revenue. Even as the company expanded, instead of relying on other means of revenue, I would simply expand the advertisement to be more prevalent and the revenue per click to increase. This revenue would be small averaging around 25 cents every time someone clicks on an advertisement. This small revenue would be counterbalanced by the minimal cost to run at around 10 dollars a year. This maximizes profit as I would only need someone to click on an advertisement 40 times a year to break even. Any other additional click would be additional income. This would also mean that I could easily expand at little to no cost to other areas.

Finally, this opportunity and innovation would culminate into a fully-fledged venture concept. Customers would switch over to my website for price savings from traditional methods. Getting them to switch would be rather difficult however as news of the website would have to travel over time and spread and rapid expansion would be unlikely at the start of the website. The competitors to my venture would be the official university bookstore, amazon, and any other local bookstores as well as services like craigslist that also help connect students to other booksellers. Packaging, price points, distribution, and business location are all inapplicable to this particular venture concept. Customer support and customer experience do play an important role in my business concept however. Customer support would be maintained through a support email address in a contact us page within the website. As the business expands, customer service could be outsourced to a secondary business that would control the objective for several different geographical locations at once furthering the minimization of costs overall. Finally, as the business expands further to many different geographical locations around the united states, I would organize a complete business to support the ongoing production of my service. I would employee one or two web developers to continually update and expand the websites to further accommodate students around the United States. As the website develops further, roles would begin to emerge such as an expansion department, a customer service department, and a design department.

Overall, the venture concept would culminate in eventual expansion internationally. I definitely think that the most valuable asset to my business venture will be the very maintainable costs to run the website and incredibly low breakeven point. This aspect alone makes the venture worth pursuing as the risk is almost none at startup. After I hand my business off, the venture will hopefully grow and spread to many different geographical regions, possibly even expanding its services provided beyond simply connecting students to now acting as a buying and selling service with minimal markup. Finally, when I feel ready, most likely after five years, I would sell the business to whoever I believed would continue to expand and grow the business. After doing this, I would maintain a small share in the company allowing it to expand and still maintaining some of the revenue. As I pass off the venture, I will move on to one of many different ventures that I could further develop into fully fledged businesses. By passing it on, I would have made my first step into becoming an entrepreneur. Also, by using this venture, I would have already developed many of the skills that I would need to further my future entrepreneurial concepts. It would also provide a perfect project to put on my resume should I chose to retire from the entrepreneurial lifestyle at any point in time.  

Feedback Summary:

For my first venture concept, I received mostly positive feedback within the comments I received. While I tried to maintain all of the aspects these feedbacks reflected, I also received several negative comments on which I know I had to change. I needed to clear up on how exactly I would maintain and expand revenue as my company grows. To do this, I included a section explaining on how I would still rely on advertisement even as my company expanded. Another one of my complaints was in the lack of explanation for my exit strategy. I added an explanation for when and what I would sell my business for. Finally, I smoothed out the wording and tried to increase the flow of all of the description of my venture concept.

Final Reflection

For me the most formative experience was the bug list, this was the one that shaped my entire mindset to that of the entrepreneur to begin with. The experience that I will remember most would be the venture concept as it seems like the entire semester was built around creating and perfecting it. My favorite experience was the combination of words assignment in which I tried unsuccessfully to get my word, “Serible” to catch on. The one that I am most proud of doing would be the third elevator pitch which was the buildup of the first two and the continual improvements that I made.

With these assignments in mind, I think I am one step closer to becoming an entrepreneur, though I do not think I am an entrepreneur yet. I have definitely developed the entrepreneurial mindset though. The recommendation I would have for students going down the same path would be to never give up despite the difficulties. To do the best in the course, I would recommend getting a head start on each of the assignments for the week. Finally, I would recommend taking the bug list assignment very seriously in order to ensure the fostering of the entrepreneurial mindset.

An Affirmation

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4MYHbD3jZWDZEdYQzEwaG54NGc/view?usp=sharing

My Exit Strategy

1.     I plan on expanding the business as much as possible in around 5 years. After that, I would try to sell it at as high of a price as possible, while still maintaining some stock in the company.

2.     I chose this exit strategy because as it stands I want to move on from this business and into another one, either by starting it or by joining another business. I want to continue to innovate in many different ways even after my first venture.

3.     My exit strategy has definitely influenced how I planned out my venture in the first place and how I spotted and grabbed my particular opportunity. From the beginning, I was always interested in minimizing cost and maximizing potential for growth and profits. I wanted to benefit and move on from my initial venture plan.

Venture Concept No.1

For my venture concept, I tried to find a need that was prevalent in my local community. For my community, I realized that there have been many unmet needs within the university of Florida itself. My primary concern was with the high degree of costs within the university itself and looking for student needs that are being either unmet or exploited in some way. For me, one of the most renewing “bugs” I have is the high cost of textbooks that I get each semester. This was the need I chose to explore in my venture concept.

This means that an opportunity is open. For many students, the cost of purchasing a textbook can be one of the priciest pieces of the semester. You can restrict yourself to renting but then you miss out on highlighting and annotating important sections. At the end of the semester you can get further shortchanged by selling the book back for significantly less than you purchased it for. This need was created because the university bookstore claimed an upcharge on every book that it sold and purchased. This need is located within every college town and in any university with an official bookstore, but in order to utilize this need, my venture concept will be localized to the Gainesville community.

As of now, this need is being satisfied through either simply ignoring the cost of buying and selling, renting the book, using craigslist to find other books, and the use of unofficial forums to locate other students with textbooks. Overall, students are not loyal to what they use and will easily switch over to anything that could offer a better service at a cheaper price. This opportunity is relatively large as it can be expanded to any and all books worldwide however, it is mostly focused on bookstores within college areas and is slightly smaller with that in mind. This opportunity’s “window” is also very large as it exists as long as universities and colleges exist worldwide, so there is no rush to deploy my venture as quickly as possible.

In order to exploit this opportunity, I want innovate by creating a website that would connect students who have just taken classes to ones about to take the same classes. This would connect students with books available for sale directly to those who wish to purchase books for their upcoming semester. The website would generate revenue exclusively through advertisements allowing students to buy and sell books with no middle man allowing students to easily obtain books without having to pay any extra cost. So for this instance, I am selling connections in exchange for advertisement revenue. This revenue would be small averaging around 25 cents every time someone clicks on an advertisement. This small revenue would be counterbalanced by the minimal cost to run at around 10 dollars a year. This maximizes profit as I would only need someone to click on an advertisement 40 times a year to break even. Any other additional click would be additional income. This would also mean that I could easily expand at little to no cost to other areas.

Finally, this opportunity and innovation would culminate into a fully-fledged venture concept. Customers would switch over to my website for price savings from traditional methods. Getting them to switch would be rather difficult however as news of the website would have to travel over time and spread and rapid expansion would be unlikely at the start of the website. The competitors to my venture would be the official university bookstore, amazon, and any other local bookstores as well as services like craigslist that also help connect students to other booksellers. Packaging, price points, distribution, and business location are all inapplicable to this particular venture concept. Customer support and customer experience do play an important role in my business concept however. Customer support would be maintained through a support email address in a contact us page within the website. As the business expands, customer service could be outsourced to a secondary business that would control the objective for several different geographical locations at once furthering the minimization of costs overall. Finally, as the business expands further to many different geographical locations around the united states, I would organize a complete business to support the ongoing production of my service. I would employee one or two web developers to continually update and expand the websites to further accommodate students around the United States. As the website develops further, roles would begin to emerge such as an expansion department, a customer service department, and a design department.

Overall, the venture concept would culminate in eventual expansion internationally. I definitely think that the most valuable asset to my business venture will be the very maintainable costs to run the website and incredibly low breakeven point. This aspect alone makes the venture worth pursuing as the risk is almost none at startup. After I hand my business off, the venture will hopefully grow and spread to many different geographical regions, possibly even expanding its services provided beyond simply connecting students to now acting as a buying and selling service with minimal markup. As I pass off the venture, I will move on to one of many different ventures that I could further develop into fully fledged businesses. By passing it on, I would have made my first step into becoming an entrepreneur. Also, by using this venture, I would have already developed many of the skills that I would need to further my future entrepreneurial concepts. It would also provide a perfect project to put on my resume should I chose to retire from the entrepreneurial lifestyle at any point in time.  

Celebrating Failure

In this semester of Ent3003, I failed. For the first week of comments, I noticed that not everyone in my assigned group of people to comment on did the assignment. I was overjoyed as I now only had to comment on a single post. I really should have read the assignment details as it stated that you MUST comment on 3 posts even if you have to comment on someone outside of your assigned group. I took the easy way out and it cost me the point. From that point on I learned to take extra time to read the details behind every assignment and to always comment on three posts for each comment assignment. Failure hurts but it is the only true way to improve upon your past self. This class has also changed my perspective on said failure as now I view it as the only way to truly succeed is by first failing. I think I am much more likely to take a risk now than I was before this class. 

Elevator Pitch No. 3

For my final elevator pitch, I changed the angle of the camera as that was the number one most suggested thing in the comments of the previous. Other than that, the feedback was mostly positive so I tried to be concise and clear as possible.

My Unfair Advantage

1.     Localization

a.      Valuable: High, as this is the big thing that differentiates from other big businesses in competition.

b.     Rare: Medium, as few other competitors have this degree of localization.

c.      Inimitable: Low, a competing website can very easily establish a localized webpage

d.     Non-substitutable: Medium, other stores have different local resources to help

2.     No customer cost

a.      Valuable: High, this is probably the key draw to choosing my service over others.

b.     Rare: High, few other book sellers offer no cost to the customer.

c.      Inimitable: Medium, other websites can run without any cost but it can be difficult to do.

d.     Non-substitutable: Medium, customer cost is hard to imitate in terms of value.

3.     Minimal cost to run

a.      Valuable: Medium, while it provides no customer benefit, this can definitely maximize profit by minimizing costs.

b.     Rare: Low, most websites do not require much other than a server to run.

c.      Inimitable: Low, any book seller can easily setup a website through third party services.

d.     Non-substitutable: Low, websites and other low cost sites are plentiful.

4.     Easy to market

a.      Valuable: Medium, while good for later profits, this provides no benefit for the consumer.

b.     Rare: Low, anything localized to a certain area has an increased marketability.

c.      Inimitable: Low, because of the ease in localization, this also means an ease in marketability.

d.     Non-substitutable: Low, other resources can easily provide marketability.

5.     Easy to access

a.      Valuable: Medium, anyone with a smartphone and access to the internet allows them to access the content on the website.

b.     Rare: Low, any website on the internet will have the same degree of accessibility.

c.      Inimitable: Low, just by setting up a website access is easy to all.

d.     Non-substitutable: Medium, other resources can provide accessibility but not to the extent of web communication.

6.     Readily available community

a.      Valuable: High, there is already people who want to trade and sell books without easy access to do so.

b.     Rare: Low, other communities with various needs also exist.

c.      Inimitable: Low, any others who create a similar service will also have access to the same community.

d.     Non-substitutable: Low, creating a community is key to any successful website.

7.     Accessible resources for startup

a.      Valuable: Low, elimination of cost would not provide that much in terms of startup access.

b.     Rare: Low, any website would also have easy access to startup resources.

c.      Inimitable: Low, every website is easy to startup.

d.     Non-substitutable: Medium, other services could have potentially easy startup potential.

8.     Potential for rapid expansion

a.      Valuable: High, if the website takes off, then any other are is a potential new expansion zone.

b.     Rare: Low, many other startups would have a similar potential for expansion.

c.      Inimitable: Medium, for the expansion to take place another website would need to be successful.

d.     Non-substitutable: Low, many other services have the potential for rapid expansion.

9.     Cross regional access after expansion

a.      Valuable: Medium, this will expand the services offered to a larger area.

b.     Rare: Low, cross regional product differentiation is common in growing businesses.

c.      Inimitable: Low, many other services offer cross regional access at any time.

d.     Non-substitutable: Low, other services could provide cross regional localization form the start.

10.  Strong word of mouth spread

a.      Valuable: High, word of mouth would be essential to growing the website.

b.     Rare: Low, many other localized businesses often have a large degree of word of mouth spreading.

c.      Inimitable: Low, other local businesses often have word of mouth as the primary marketing technique.

d.     Non-substitutable: Low, other marketing techniques could provide the same benefit.

My top resource would be the zero customer cost as it provides a benefit to the customer and differentiates the website from other services in that also provide books in the local Gainesville area.

Amazon Whisperer

1.      Revenue drivers: For my venture, my only revenue driver would be advertising revenue.

2.      Next product: Since my service would be localized to the Gainesville area, the next product that I would offer would be other areas in Florida such as our arch nemesis in Tallahassee next.

3.      How it enhances: This would enhance my current product by allowing cross regional trading of books as well as local trading.

4.      Amazon product: While amazon does not offer a product like mine, they do offer a service similar to the one I plan on offering. They offer rentals both on eBooks and also hardcopy deliveries.

5.      Customer dislikes and likes: While there are no customer reviews on a service as wide ranging as this covering many different products, as a consumer of this service myself, I have a general idea of the positives and negatives that this service has. The likes are that renting a textbook is easy to do and cheaper than a conventional rental from the university bookstore. The dislikes are that the product drastically increases in price the longer you hold on to the book and buying books are still not as cheap as exchanging them.

6.      Changes I would make: I would personally make it easier to hold books for longer and offer exchanges for a surcharge that would add to the already profitable service.

7.      Why it’s a good addition: This extension of my service would be a good extension as it allows an easy slope up and expansion with minimal risks that could maximize profit and opportunity realization. 

Idea Napkin 2

1.       You. My name is Alan Crowetz, I am a junior here at the University of Florida studying information systems and operations management. I enjoy technology and am very adept at understanding computers as a whole. I know the basics of html and website design. I really want to enter a business in my field and hopefully one day become a CEO or upper management. If I were to start up this entrepreneurial business right now, I would most likely spend little time on it as I am currently very busy with school and work but when it is all started up, maintenance would be quick and practical.

2.      What are you offering to customers? I am offering a website that would connect students in previously enrolled classes with those currently enrolled in the same classes for book sales and purchases.

3.      Who are you offering it to? I am offering it to students in the local Gainesville area with ties to the University of Florida and Santa Fe College.

4.      Why do they care? Students would be able to purchase and sell books without a middle man saving them potentially thousands of dollars over the course of their academic career.

5.      What are your core competencies? Localization in Gainesville means quick responses and ease of use for the customer as well as safety and trust concerns with other larger businesses.

I still think that my five elements fit together perfectly as everything creates a localized ideal customer with a strong need. A trustworthy website could easily draw in the people with this need and the customers to further fund the website. Hopefully by fulfilling this need, the website could grow to meet needs of college students nationwide.

1.      I tried to make everything more concise and clearer.

2.      I made the area and “who” much more specific than before.

3.      I expanded on who I am and what my skills are.

4.      I explored different core competencies and chose the one that best fit my plan.

I tried to broaden the scope of which my initial project entailed by being more descriptive of the services rendered

My Secret Sauce

Five ways in which I have human capital that is truly unique:

1.      I have always had a great deal of curiosity for everything unknown to me. When I find something new, I love to take it apart and rebuild it and learn how every aspect works.

2.      I have a great deal of fascination and passion for technology as well as the experience to continually explore new technologies and developments as they occur.

3.      I have a driven attitude and always want to work harder and push for things more and more until everything is accomplished.

4.      I am very organized in everything I do and do not forget dates or assignments easily.

5.      I have a good sense of humor and easily bond with people from all walks of life.

Interview the people who know you best:

1.      Pedro Molina-Torres

https://soundcloud.com/aj-crowetz-ajinator/1d20160703125242p15612015029?in=aj-crowetz-ajinator/sets/secret-sauce-assignment

 I think this interview sums me up perfectly. Not only do I joke around with my friends in the beggining, but we also talk about how I work extremely hard so I can be lazy later.

2.      Savannah Padgett

https://soundcloud.com/aj-crowetz-ajinator/1d20160703125616p15617074961?in=aj-crowetz-ajinator/sets/secret-sauce-assignment

I think this interview definitely reflects my want to work hard. I really strive to make all of my friends as happy as possible.

3.      Taylor Stearns

https://soundcloud.com/aj-crowetz-ajinator/voice-001?in=aj-crowetz-ajinator/sets/secret-sauce-assignment

This too shows how I work hard in everything I do. Even though I can be extremely busy at times I don’t let that interfere with my friendship.

4.      Lauren Stearns

https://soundcloud.com/aj-crowetz-ajinator/voice-002?in=aj-crowetz-ajinator/sets/secret-sauce-assignment

While I’m glad that my friends appreciate my selfless nature, I was honestly surprised that this would be one of the key things that they thought of. I am glad that I am able to serve my friends without realizing it

5.      Christian Freeland

https://soundcloud.com/aj-crowetz-ajinator/1d20160703192242p15618764277?in=aj-crowetz-ajinator/sets/secret-sauce-assignment

This definitely shows the humor side of me. I have close friends and am not afraid to share a laugh and bond with them more.

Reflect on the differences:

I personally see this activity as a chance for personal reflection on how I view myself versus how others view me. I tend to see myself with more rigorous and impersonal skills while my friends view me with strong and caring personality traits. I think that the differences emerge because I tend to view myself in a much more antagonistic tone. I think my interviewees are for sure correct about me. I wouldn’t make any correction to my list however as I feel as though my list can accurately sum up everything that I feel about myself and how others tend to view me. 

Elevator Pitch No. 2

While I did not get much feedback from my first elevator pitch, I definitely think that the feedback I did receive was key in forming and structuring this new elevator pitch. I tried to introduce my topic earlier than before and I also tried to improve the lighting in the room as well (though it was not as beneficial as I thought).

My Customer's Avatar

My customer avatar is that of a student just starting college. He or she is a freshman or person new to UF looking to buy books at a discounted price. This student is probably receiving financial aid and plans on or already has a student loan. This student wants to spend as little as possible on making sure they receive good quality used textbooks at a price cheaper than what the bookstore offers.

I am similar to my avatar in that I too am looking to spend as little as possible on purchasing books as possible and am constantly looking for the best deal on them. I don’t think this is a coincidence as being a student is probably what sparked this idea in the first place. 

Serible

Serible

[sar-ah-bowl]

Adjective;

Something that is both terrible and sad

Unfortunately, my word did not catch on and wasn’t used by anyone but me. I got a few laughs from my friends as I tried to slide this word into our daily conversation, but other than that, it wasn’t used by anyone but me. 

Halfway Reflection

1.     Tenaciousness is a competency. What are the behaviors that you have used (or developed) to keep up with the requirements of this course? 

I have developed many different attributes that have helped me with my progression in this class. Hard work and creativity definitely help with this course more than most others. I’d have to say the biggest competency would be planning ahead. The longer you give yourself to do the homework, the better your assignments will be.

2.     Tenaciousness is also about attitude. Talk about a moment or two when you felt like "giving up." What pulled you through? Do you feel like you've developed a tenacious attitude during the past two months? What experience or experiences most contributed to this?

I definitely felt like giving up when I had to do interview after interview. I pulled through by managing my time and just toughing it through. I have definitely become more tenacious in the past two months due to the large amount of workload I have been giving from this summer.

3.     Three tips. What are three tips you would offer next semester's student about (1) fostering the skills that support tenacity and (2) developing the 'tenacious mindset' ?

Fostering the skills that support tenacity:

1.     Always work hard and try and do all of the assignments for that week.

2.     Take time off to relax.

3.     Don’t overwork.

Developing the ‘tenacious mindset’:

1.     Plan out what you want to do when.

2.     Think of how to balance your life with school and life.

3.     Don’t let bad times prevent you from accomplishing your dreams.

Idea Napkin No. 1

1.     You. I am an ISOM major with years of experience with computers. I also know the basics of html and the very basics of website design. I really want to enter a business in my field and hopefully one day become a CEO or upper management. If I were to start this business then it would only play a minor role in my life as it would take up relatively little time to run it, but hopefully it would be a source of secondary income as time progressed.

2.     What are you offering to customers? I am offering a service to connect students to one another for book exchange and sales.

3.     Who are you offering it to? I am offering it to students in the local Gainesville area and potentially with success to students in a state and even national area.

4.     Why do they care? Students would save potentially hundreds of dollars each year on buying and selling to each other rather than the local bookstores.

5.     What are your core competencies? Being localized in Gainesville means that only a select group of people would be involved in the trading process rather than those at a national scale. What we have that no one else has is that we would not be involved in the sale at all money wise so that students would get the best price for their books.

Overall, I think these five elements interact quite well with each other. I definitely think that the weakest aspect of my business will be establishing it as a trustworthy website and getting enough people to use it each semester to make it popular. If I could accomplish those things, I think that this offering could definitely work to create a more reliable and cost effective alternative for students. 

Elevator Pitch No. 1

For my opportunity, I chose to focus on book sales to students who are getting shortchanged by large markups. I chose to use this opportunity to create a business, Booklist, to help students connect to others in need of a similar book. 

Tweaking the Innovation

1.     Product/service mix –

Water for residents	Water for Businesses
Gallons of water	Pump straight to business
Bottles of water	Barrels of water

2.     Levels:

a.      Gallons of water

                                                    i.     Core: Clean water in a portable container

                                                  ii.     Tangible: safe water in a gallon

                                                iii.     Augmented: delivered safely to nearby markets

b.     Bottles of water

                                                    i.     Core: Clean water in a smaller container

                                                  ii.     Tangible: clean mineral water

                                                iii.     Augmented: delivered safely to nearby markets

c.      Pump straight to business

                                                    i.     Core: clean water for sodas and other necessities in business

                                                  ii.     Tangible: clean water pumped into local restaurant storage

                                                iii.     Augmented: Delivered to any business in the local area

d.     Barrels of water

                                                    i.     Core: Clean water in a large storable barrel

                                                  ii.     Tangible: strong steel barrels full of clean and sanitary water

                                                iii.     Augmented: Delivered to any business in the local area

3.     Innovations:

a.      Gallons of water

                                                    i.     Core: Price competitive water, clean tasty water

                                                  ii.     Tangible: Different gallon containers that are more portable, different minerals in the water

                                                iii.     Augmented: Home delivery, local area pickup

b.     Bottles of water

                                                    i.     Core: price competitive bottles of water, clean tasty water

                                                  ii.     Tangible: Different flavors, different sizes of bottles

                                                iii.     Augmented: Home delivery, local area pickup

c.      Pump straight to business

                                                    i.     Core: Reliable water, customer satisfaction

                                                  ii.     Tangible: Scheduled water deliveries, fast fill ups

                                                iii.     Augmented: Business delivery, Safe water stamp

d.     Barrels of water

                                                    i.     Core: Reliable water, customer satisfaction

                                                  ii.     Tangible: Different materials of barrels, different barrel sizes

                                                iii.     Augmented: Business delivery, Safe water stamp

My Solution

I decided to come up with a few solutions for an opportunity in the flint Michigan post I made earlier. A water delivery service could be established to provide water to those affected by the bad water. People could pay to disconnect their systems and attach them to an external source such as the service could provide. 

Looking for Opportunity

1.     Economic Opportunity 1: Jewlers could potentially be replaced by online dealers

a.      Where I found it: http://money.cnn.com/2016/05/26/investing/signet-tiffany-jewelry-earnings/index.html?iid=hp-stack-dom

b.     What makes me think an opportunity exists: Jewelry stores are having to discount their jewelry to improve the market

c.      Who is the customer: Jewelers or wealthy people?  

d.     Is the opportunity easy or hard to exploit: The opportunity will be difficult to exploit because of the receding market and the stiff competition that already exists.

e.      Why did I see the opportunity: I am an ISOM major and as such am constantly looking for opportunities for business online.

2.     Economic Opportunity 2: Online banking security is at risk as hackers are becoming increasingly prevalent.

a.      Where I found it: http://money.cnn.com/2016/05/26/technology/swift-bank-hack-philippines-lazarus/index.html?iid=hp-stack-dom

b.     What makes me think an opportunity exists: Banks are willing to invest in order to save them from theft and negative media.

c.      Who is the customer: Banks

d.     Is the opportunity easy or hard to exploit: Hard, as hackers are difficult to protect against and one slip up can mean complete failure.

e.      Why did I see the opportunity: As someone who does online banking this concerns me and I hope that my bank would be protective of my information.

3.     Regulatory Opportunity 1: Bridges are starting to fall apart as the infrastructure needs updating.

a.      Where I found it: http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/25/politics/infrastructure-roads-bridges-airports-railroads/index.html

b.     What makes me think an opportunity exists: National park service is hiring others to repair outdated bridges.

c.      Who is the customer: National park service and other government

d.     Is the opportunity easy or hard to exploit: Hard, repairing bridges on a national scale requires billions and is difficult to get the grant for.

e.      Why did I see the opportunity: I have been interested in historical decay as a whole.

4.     Regulatory Opportunity 2: Flint, Michigan has no clean water.

a.      Where I found it: http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/20/health/flint-michigan-crisis-at-a-glance/index.html

b.     What makes me think an opportunity exists: Clean water needs to be transported to flint cheaply.

c.      Who is the customer: Flint residents.

d.     Is the opportunity easy or hard to exploit: Easy, it is relatively cheap to transport water gallons and sell them.

e.      Why did I see the opportunity: I have been following flints water crisis since it came on the news and was interested in the tragedy that happened.