Forming An Opportunity Belief

Beginning point: I believe there is an opportunity to take advantage of the problem that there is no place to get food near the Lakeside Residential Complex.

Description of the belief: Lakeside Residential Complex is an on-campus apartment-style living option for undergraduate students at UF consisting of 5 buildings. It is located on the far west side of the campus. Both the dining halls at UF are located far from lakeside complex. Several other food places run by Aramark are located far from lakeside complex. The eastern part of the campus has some restaurants nearby on the main street, but that is not the case for the western part. Due to this, people living in lakeside don’t have any place nearby to get food. Thus, I believe there is an opportunity to solve this need. The southwest recreation center and some graduate housing options are also located near lakeside complex that can possibly take advantage of opening up of a dining hall or a restaurant nearby. I think that I am around 75% sure about an opportunity existing in this case.

Prototypical customer 1: A freshman student currently living at lakeside complex.

Q. What do you think about the eating options around the lakeside complex?

Ans. I find it very frustrating that there are no options for getting food nearby. The dining halls are located far from lakeside and so it is not convenient for me to travel to the dining halls thrice a day to get food every time.

Q. How do you currently handle this need?

Ans. I have milk and cereals in the morning and have lunch while I am on campus on weekdays. But for dinner and weekends, I often see myself having frozen food or mac and cheese, which is not healthy.

Q. Are you satisfied with the current solution?

Ans. No, I think that not having proper food options nearby gets quite frustrating sometimes.

Q. What do you think can be done to solve this problem?

Ans. I think that having a dining hall a bit closer or at least a fast-food restaurant nearby would really help a lot

Prototypical customer 2: A junior year student living at lakeside complex.

Q. What do you think about the eating options around the lakeside complex?

Ans. I think that the dining halls are a bit too far and there aren’t really any other options nearby because all other options are located near the Reitz Union and the Hub which are in the central part of the campus.

Q. How do you currently handle this need?

Ans. I actually enjoy cooking food. So, I mostly cook food myself. On some days, if I feel like eating outside, I drive to some restaurant and have food there.

Q. Are you satisfied with the current solution?

Ans. For the most part, yes. But I do think that having an option get food from close by would be nice, especially during the time of exams. During exams, I don’t have enough time to cook and there aren’t enough parking spots at lakeside so if I take my car out and it gets taken by someone else, I might have to wait to get another parking spot.

Q. If a dining hall or some other food place open up nearby, how often do you see yourself going there?

Ans. I think at least around 4-5 times a month and more during exams if it is within walking distance.

Prototypical customer 3: A student who is planning to live at lakeside complex next semester onwards.

Q. What do you think about the eating options around the lakeside complex?

Ans. I haven’t seen much into detail about it yet. But I have heard from some of my friends that it is one of the problems they face here.

Q. How do you currently handle this need?

Ans. Currently, my dorm is right next to one of the dining halls. So, I have my food there every day.

Q. Do you think this will affect you when you move here?

Ans. As I mentioned earlier, I live right next to the dining hall currently. So, I think that could be a big challenge for me to stay at a location that is far away from the dining halls. I hope to find a solution for it before I move there next semester.

Reflection: I found out that a lot of people face a similar need especially because they are college students. I think that there definitely is an opportunity that exists here. The most surprising thing that I found out during the interview is that a lot of students choose lakeside complex because it is very close to the gym and also because it is apartment styled.

Summary: I still think that my original opportunity exists. The assignment surely helped me to judge the extent of the opportunity far more accurately by knowing the opinions of other people. I think that adapting according to the needs of the market and potential customers is very important for entrepreneurs and should not be replaced by staying firm in most cases.