Opportunity
1. The need of this business comes from the people who have to drive to the University of Florida campus. This need exists because there are not enough parking spots for all the people who come to campus. The market is primarily geographical and relatively limited, although if you wanted to scope out other colleges I'm sure you could find schools with similar parking problems. Right now, customers are satisfying this need either by getting a coveted spot on campus, parking off-campus somewhere far away, or using other means of transpiration to get to school (walk/bus/bike). I don't think people really have brand loyalty when it comes to parking - they just don't want to get a ticket. This is a big opportunity. I think the window of opportunity will be there as long as the University continues to grow without addressing the current parking needs. The main force behind this is actually the University itself -- they are the ones in charge of parking and how many people get decals.
Innovation
This is not a radically innovative idea. People have been building parking lots for decades. The parking lots that I would design would probably be parking garages with some kind of tollbooth or parking attendant to monitor and regulate the garage. My main source of money would be allowing people to park. I would sell semester-long parking passes for 150$ which is less than UF currently charges. I would have to make sure I have enough spots to at least breakeven on my expenses, which would be just rent/property stuff and some employees.
Venture Concept
Customers will use this because they aren't able to use anything else. I don't think it would be hard to get people to use the parking lot. Build it, advertise it, and they will come. My competitors are other off-campus parking but most are really far from the UF campus. I would probably have under ten employees, I don't think it would require that many people.
My most important resource would be a parking lot.
Location and geographics do play a major role in parking. This needs to be addressed because it's causing more problems than not. In fact there are many empty spaces in parking lots but if you do not have the right colored decal you can't be there. I think your business needs to improve or renovate the parking lots we have now. For instance the commuter parking lot by the physics department has a giant lot but is always packed, if you were to make parking garages in that area rather than one flat lot, there would be so much more parking available! I would say rather than making new parking lots you should refurbished the ones we have and make them more efficient.
ReplyDeletehere is my page: http://mysemesterinent3003.blogspot.com/
Hi there! Yes UF really needs more parking!!!! I would very happily be a future customer. I currently pay $110 a month for parking so I think you could get away with charging a lot more per semester if you wanted to. People will be very willing to pay because they truly have no other option.
ReplyDeleteFeel free to check out my blog at http://thereseverything.blogspot.com/2016/03/theres-my-venture-concept-no-1.html
Hi Taylor, I agree UF needs more parking but I'd like to hear more about how you will do this better than others. Since this isn't a new idea and people build parking garages already I don't understand what obstacle you're overcoming that is stopping others from building parking garages nearby. Why aren't others building parking garages? Is it because the University owns most of the property around the major class centers on campus and so parking is dominated by technically on-campus parking like the commuter lot? is it because more profitable businesses occupy the areas around campus and drive up property prices? It seems like if it were this simple someone would have done it. This was very interesting, you should check out my venture http://imalsonotadoctor.blogspot.com/2016/03/venture-concept-no-1.html
ReplyDeleteHey Taylor,
ReplyDeleteI would definitely be in favor of more parking around UF! I love your idea, and I could certainly see myself becoming a customer. How close is your price compared to that of your competitors? If they really are a lot farther away from campus, you can certainly get away with charging more than they do. Great job on this post! Here is a link to my blog if you're interested: http://ryangoodsonent3003.blogspot.com/2016/03/venture-concept-no-1.html