Venture Concept for Gainesville Parking House #2

1.

Opportunity
The different students that regularly drive scooters across the University of Florida campus have expressed their complaints towards the difficulty of finding parking spaces near the more popular locations. Students are spending up to hours looking for spots and are looking for a solution to the struggle of going on campus with a scooter at all. As construction in the city of Gainesville increases, open plots of land around the town are becoming less and less common which leads to this great opportunity. There is a relatively large, single plot of land across one of the most popular locations on campus that will not be available for very long. This provides a space for off-campus parking in a location that could great benefit students and whoever starts it up. Demographically, this location is perfect for targeting students and encouraging a fast, stress-free opportunity to park and get on to campus.

Innovation
The creation will be the Gaineville Parking House (GPH). This will be a 3-4 story parking garage that will provide approximately 20 car parking spaces and 100 scooter parking spaces. This land will be purchased for approximately $200,000. We will gain this money back by selling $5 parking per hour, $25 per day, $150 per week, $500 per month, and then an annual parking pass for $1,000. It will take a bit of time to gain profit but within five years it should be all profit. Once the cost of buying and building the land and building has been regained, the remaining money will be profit that can go into maintaining the building and potentially expanding in the future. Most of the money gained  would go into maintaining a clean parking garage and providing a designated personally parking space in one of the best locations near the University of Florida.

Venture Concept
Currently one of the only parking options on or near the University of Florida is the on-campus parking that most students find frustrating. The few spaces offered on campus are, for the most part, the only competitors close enough for students to consider parking in to get on to campus.  For this reason, I believe it will be a quick purchase for many students and will require minimal convincing in doing so. This is due to the idea that many students often find themselves late to class or even just missing out on events due to not having the option of a quick and easily-accessible parking space. This strong focus on academics and on-campus involvement in Gainesville will encourage a lot of individuals to partake in GPH regardless of the cost. The prices are relatively high, however, the location and ease of access provided seems to make the price adequate. The costs would come down to 3 to 4 different security guards that would rotate shifts in manning the entrance booth, and 4 to 5 janitors that would rotate in keeping the building in a clean state.


The location of the GPH is the most notable advantage the parking garage has over all other competitors. This resource is what will convince individuals to park there simply because of how easy it would make it to get onto campus. With close to no other options of land to build a parking garage on anywhere near as close to campus, it will be nearly impossible for competitors to have a similar situation.

The next venture I'd like to tackle is a different parking garage on the more popular parts of the opposite side of the campus and then potentially moving on to other schools with similar situations.

In the next five years, I hope to have several more successful parking garages across the state in locations where they are needed. In ten years, however, I hope to have successful parking garages across the world in locations where I believe they will thrive, while having enough money to be able to take risks in where I start opening them.

(2-3).

In the feedback students basically expressed how some of the calculated numbers might be misleading and inaccurate. I did some more research and revised the numbers I had previously. The numbers added are much more realistic and provide a better understanding of the goals I plan to achieve. The comments helped me realize how important it is to pay attention to smaller details. 

Final Reflection

After looking through all of the blog posts I have submitted the one experience that really stood out to me was the assignment in which I had to go and meet up with a professional in the field my venture was in. This was very unique to me because it was the hands on experience that I had been waiting for a class to provide me with. I felt uncomfortable at first when going to meet with them but it assured me of actual progress towards being an entrepreneur after I came out of the interview.

After experiences such as this one,I truly do see myself as an entrepreneur or at least having more of a mindset like one. I feel as though I have a better understanding towards what it takes to be an entrepreneur including the risks and rewards it entails. The books I read also really helped open my eyes to the point of views of other renowned entrepreneur and influenced my mentality in a very positive way.

If I could give advice to a future student joining this class I would tell them to tackle each assignment with a commitment to learn and apply the concepts learned towards the vision they have of themselves professionally. I found it very motivating to learn something new and to think of ways it could be applied to my intended future endeavors.For success in the class I would strongly encourage staying on schedule with assignments and always watching lectures as soon as they are released in the case they aren't going in person.

Exit Strategy

1) The business I have created is intended to only grow in value as things become more and more crowded in the surrounded area, yet, I do intend to sell it at the right time. This plot of land alone will draw a lot of attention and I believe that in twenty years I will be ready to sell the business entirely and with that the land. 

2) The surrounding area to the plot of land I have intended is already very crowded, however, In twenty years I expect it to be much worse. It will certainly be at a point in which building any more parking lots will be completely out of the question. This would drive up the business of a parking lot not only for students but also for people trying get to the buildings I expect to be there. I believe that the land alone would be worth a lot but I would want to sell the business entirely.

3) I believe that the desire to pick a location that would thrive so well throughout the years and also gain value over time was directly influenced by my exit strategy. I saw the available lot and realized it's potential in the town's current situation but also what it could mean for me if I were to have a business revolving around it. It has led me intentions towards keeping it a thriving lot while everything around it develops and brings in more customers.

Celebrating Failure

This semester I decided I would start taking soccer more seriously again and set a goal for myself. I set tape in goals making right triangles at each corner and proceeded to take free kicks from 20 yards out. I decided that by the end of the semester I would be able to score ten out of ten goals in one of the corners. I started going three days a week and in the first two weeks I would average around four goals out of each set of ten. It was a horrible start and very discouraging but after doing research and practicing more and more I started raising that number. By the fourth week I was scoring between five and six goals every ten. This small improvement definitely helped give me more confidence. It was two months later when I finally scored ten out of ten. This was very exciting for me, however, It still wasn't consistently ten out f ten every time. It took another two weeks til almost every shot was hitting a corner.

This experience taught me something that I had heard before but never actually practiced. This really demonstrated that practice really pays off and that failure is a part of the process of succeeding. Every time that I failed I was able to evaluate myself and and make improvements that led to my overall success.

I wouldn't say that I handle failure poorly, however, there are many times in which I feel very discouraged by my failures and that discouragement makes it much harder to see the big picture. In general I am able to understand that it is ok to fail every once and a while but that doesn't stop me from being discouraged. This class has allowed me to be much more comfortable with the idea of failing when I am trying to improve in something. It has opened me up to the idea of risks and allowed me to see that sometimes it is worth risking some things even if it can potentially lead to a failure.                                 

Reading Reflection

I decided to read the book Cognitive Surplus by Clay Shirky and found it to be very insightful on some important points for being a successful entrepreneur. It mostly made me question how I have and should be spending my free time. This book points out how things are changing in terms of how people are spending so much free time from things such as television towards social media and other forms of communication online. What stood out to me and surprised me most was the way Shirky emphasized the benefits of this change and made social media appear as such a positive outlet for this generation. I have always looked at it negatively but this book was able to highlight the ways it is a much better use of free time compared to other things like staring at a television. The way the book made me change my mind truly made me admire Shirky's opinion. This book connected with several points that we have been working towards in this class. One of the things we have discussed is spending time efficiently and this book definitely talks that over. It also focuses on interaction and finding opportunities through the best means available such as social media in many of the cases in the book.

If I were to design an assignment for this course that has to do with the concepts in this book I would create an assignment called "My Free-time evaluation". In this assignment I'd firstly ask students to write down a list of the five things they do most on their free time. After this they would evaluate if or how these activities benefit them professionally or in identifying opportunities. The third step would be to determine how they could use these activities in developing or creating current or future opportunities.

I think that my biggest surprise in this book was the part where he mentioned the need to be aggressive in posting to gain attention. He describes that sometimes upsetting people is the best way to gain attention while using social media.

What's Next?

Existing Market

When discussing the things that should be taken into consideration currently, two of the three that I interviewed discussed the development of the land and construction that would be needed before ever truly making any profit. I have been focusing so much on the final product that I hadn't considered the initial investment, necessary work, and time that would be required before ever being successfully functioning. One of the people I interviewed told me that her dad was in construction and that to build anything at all, the land that I intended to use would need to be inspected and then prepared for construction. They all expressed that a lot of students on campus would be waiting for nothing more than an open, functioning parking garage.

Other than the physical construction, one of the individuals that I interviewed expressed that a greater focus on advertisement should be a large priority. I hadn't considered this aspect and was quick to agree that while it wasn't something I had planned on, it certainly was very important. Without advertising, the building would definitely still draw in attention due to its location, however, the use of social media, flyers, and pamphlets sent through mail would all likely increase anticipation of the building while it is in construction.


New Market

The entire time I have worked on this project I have had the intention of it being for students, however when thinking in terms of another market, it can also be beneficial for Gainesville locals and others simply visiting the town. When talking to my boss who grew up in Gainesville, she explained that many visitors in town would be willing to park their cars in the parking garage for several nights. She told me that a great way to modify what I had previously to encourage that group to use the parking garage would be to offer specials on special weekends such as labor day weekend. I found this to be a very helpful idea and have greatly taken it into consideration.

I was very eager to give this new market a shot and truly do believe that it can contribute to the parking house. I found it fascinating to hear from the second individual I interviewed about all of the people that end up visiting town and even the locals that need places to park when visiting mid town. While I believe that this market can be beneficial to my cause, it still doesn't end up nearly as attractive as my existing market. I expect that students will be using the building regularly as opposed to weekends or for occasional visits to mid town.

Venture Concept for Gainesville Parking House

Opportunity
The different students that regularly drive scooters across the University of Florida campus have expressed their complaints towards the difficulty of finding parking spaces near the more popular locations. Students are spending up to hours looking for spots and are looking for a solution to the struggle of going on campus with a scooter at all. As construction in the city of Gainesville increases, open plots of land around the town are becoming less and less common which leads to this great opportunity. There is a relatively large, single plot of land across one of the most popular locations on campus that will not be available for very long. This provides a space for off-campus parking in a location that could great benefit students and whoever starts it up. Demographically, this location is perfect for targeting students and encouraging a fast, stress-free opportunity to park and get on to campus.

Innovation
The creation will be the Gaineville Parking House (GPH). This will be a 3-4 story parking garage that will provide approximately 20 car parking spaces and 100 scooter parking spaces. This land will be purchased for approximately $20,000. We will gain this money back by selling $5 parking per hour, $25 per day, $150 per week, $500 per month, and then an annual parking pass for $1,000. This will easily gain back the money spent and plenty of profit within the first year. Once the cost of buying and building the land and building has been regained, the remaining money will be profit that can go into maintaining the building and potentially expanding in the future. Most of the money gained  would go into maintaining a clean parking garage and providing a designated personally parking space in one of the best locations near the University of Florida.

Venture Concept
Currently one of the only parking options on or near the University of Florida is the on-campus parking that most students find frustrating. The few spaces offered on campus are, for the most part, the only competitors close enough for students to consider parking in to get on to campus.  For this reason, I believe it will be a quick purchase for many students and will require minimal convincing in doing so. This is due to the idea that many students often find themselves late to class or even just missing out on events due to not having the option of a quick and easily-accessible parking space. This strong focus on academics and on-campus involvement in Gainesville will encourage a lot of individuals to partake in GPH regardless of the cost. The prices are relatively high, however, the location and ease of access provided seems to make the price adequate. The costs would come down to 3 to 4 different security guards that would rotate shifts in manning the entrance booth, and 4 to 5 janitors that would rotate in keeping the building in a clean state.


The location of the GPH is the most notable advantage the parking garage has over all other competitors. This resource is what will convince individuals to park there simply because of how easy it would make it to get onto campus. With close to no other options of land to build a parking garage on anywhere near as close to campus, it will be nearly impossible for competitors to have a similar situation.

The next venture I'd like to tackle is a different parking garage on the more popular parts of the opposite side of the campus and then potentially moving on to other schools with similar situations.

In the next five years, I hope to have several more successful parking garages across the state in locations where they are needed. In ten years, however, I hope to have successful parking garages across the world in locations where I believe they will thrive, while having enough money to be able to take risks in where I start opening them.