Assignment 8A: Solving the Problem

Solving the Problem

• This product has to do with knowing your vitamin/nutrient levels quickly before any issues arise and it is too late. People waste money on vitamins/supplements on which they don't know they are deficient of or not.
• There are ways to check your vitamin and nutrient levels; however, they are deemed as not quick enough for people. I know there are products out there where you can send your spit in to a tester and within weeks get your results back. I would like to create a product to sell to customers that will give them a fast and easy to way to check their health.
• Here is a couple versions of my idea:
• Toilet Scanner: This could be sold to families or universities who have the financial ability to purchase it as it would definitely be more expense than the powder. In homes, the toilet will remember each individuals information to track your health. It will tell you on the screen what you are deficient in and how that is effecting your body internally. 
• Powder Color Changer: This product will be more geared to college students or someone who doesn't really care about keeping history on your information on the computer like screen. You will pour the powder or liquid solution in the toilet and it will change colors based on what you are deficient of. Either each powder/solution will be for a specfic thing (like vitamin d) and the intensity of the color will be how deficient you are of that vitamin (the more intense, the more deficient you are) or it will be one product that will change color based off what you are deficient of the most. 
• I know I am not a scientist and know there may be some constraints on how possible these products may be. My vision is to create a product that will make it faster and easier to determine what your body needs and doesn't need.

Assignment 7A: Testing the Hypothesis

Checking Vitamin/Nutrient Levels Quickly Before The Problem Arises

• Opportunity:
• Americans are at the mercy of making doctor appointments just to know something as simple as vitamin/nutrient levels in order to be at their optimal health. 
• The Who: Americans who care about their health
• The What: They are unable to know what their levels of certain vitamins are in a timely and efficient matter.
• The Why: Must make doctor appointments and pay the high price. 
• Testing The Who: People who don't actively care about their health are either just too lazy to do the research or don't have the leisure of going out and buying as many vitamins/supplements as they need. The "who" can be these people as it is a quicker way to know your health status and can help you save money in the long run; however, I believe the majority of the "who" are those who actively care about your health.
• Testing The What: The ultimate challenge I believe this opportunity faces is the technical side of things. There may be constraints on how possible it is for urine to test your vitamin levels. Maybe it can only test certain vitamins and not others. More research is needed. https://www.b12-vitamin.com/urine-test/
• Testing The Why: Some people may not care about the high prices of medicare and only care about the quickness of the results they receive. Some people may solely think this is a need due to the high price and not because of the time it takes to go to the doctors and receive your results days later.

• Interview #1: This interview was conducted with a mother who is currently not working and raising two children. Her worry of health, based on a scale of 1-10, is high up there along with the worry of finances. She said that she would say her worry is a 9 because if you are not healthy then what good is life. Finances were a big worry for her as well and she says if you do not have good health it will definitely affect your finances as well. The money she has spent on vitamins/supplements in the last year is up to almost $1000 since that is what is needed to be a premier member of Dr. Mercola's website. She said it would be nice to know what to focus and spend money on and what is actually going to waste since she does buy vitamins/supplements often.

• Interview #2: This interview was conducted with a female college student who actively cares about her health. She would rate her worry of health as a 7. The only supplements she takes are immune system gummies and she spends the bare minimum on vitamins/supplements because she does not know which ones she is deficient in. She would consider herself a healthy person as she goes to the gym but she would like to develop better habits. She wishes to be more consistent with being healthy rather than deciding one to day to be healthy and one day to not. The social norm of "freshmen 15" and binge drinking is worth addressing. College students don't realize the long term and internal affects since they seem to only worry about their outward appearances.

• Interview #3: This interview was conducted with a male college student who does not actively care about their health. He would rate his worry of health as a 4 as it is not one of his top priorities. He only takes immune system gummies whenever his roommate has them. Vitamins/supplements isn't something he cares for in general. I learned from him that his dad runs a business where you can spit on a cotton swab and send it in to the company to get results back weeks later of daily supplements that are perfectly customized to the person. I did not know this was out there but there is still a problem of quickness and efficiency. 

• Interview #4: This interview was conducted with a female who just graduated college. Her rate of her worry of health out of 10 is 9. She says that now that she is fully living on her own and working five days a week her health has become more important to her so she can be more productive. Since she has just started working on her own, she only spends about $150 a year but she wishes she could spend more. The vitamins she takes are vitamin c, b and d as well as probiotics, omega 7, ginger and collagen. Just being out of college, she knows all about the social norm of binge drinking and freshmen 15. She believes that if students were to know how they were affected by what they eat, freshmen 15 could be easily avoidable. However, she believes binge drinking will always be a norm in college no matter if students could see what they are doing internally.

• Interview #5: This interview was conducted with one of my male professors with a family. He would rate his worry of health as a 7. He estimated that he personally would spend about $200 a year on health related supplements but his wife probably spends more than that for the two of them. He takes Men's One A Day, thermogenic protein and bcaa glutamine. He believes that the problem with doctor visits isn't the quickness but the unnecessary prescriptions and insurance which causes the high prices.

• Given your interviews, what do you know about the opportunity that you didn't know before? 
• These interviews taught me that this opportunity may not be applicable to college students as they have other more important worries such as their school work. Now that I have confirmed that, I have an other idea for college campuses. Putting my product in the student union of colleges may increase the health of college students as now they won't directly have to pay for the product and not have a place to install it. This opportunity most likely applies to families rather than individuals.

Assignment 6A: Identifying Opportunities in Economic & Regulatory Trends

• Economic Trend: America Is Declining In Global Economic Power
• Source: https://www.thebalance.com/top-usa-future-economic-trends-3305666
• This information suggests an opportunity exists because it has been known for sometime now and is clearly visible that emerging countries are growing and are here to stay. Many countries, for the most part in the Middle East, are now becoming independent and strong in their role in economic and social markets.
• The prototypical customers are the policy makers in the US who either hope to isolate countries or hope to continue good relations with those countries.
• I believe the opportunity is difficult to exploit as global power is always shifting. It takes much time and money to pass policies in order to be influential among the other countries.
• I think it is important to be in the know about such a broad and general topic about our country. I have definitely talked about this in my micro and macro economics classes as well as my marketing class. 

• Economic Trend: Climate Change Is Causing More Natural Disasters
• https://www.thebalance.com/top-usa-future-economic-trends-3305666
• This information suggests an opportunity exists as the article contains straight statistics comparing the amount of natural disasters in the 1900's compared to now. Wildfires in the Western US have increased to 400% and floods have affected towns 9 more times than they did in 1969.
• The prototypical customer would really be every citizen as crop outputs have decreased causing food prices to increase. More specifically, people in coastal towns who may be affected by sea level rising and flooding.
• I believe the opportunity is difficult to exploit as the effects on the Earth through climate change is almost near irreversible. It will take many years and persuasion to get the country on the same level of agreement that this is actually happening.
• I took an environmental class in the fall semester and our last lecture was about climate change. My professor's main field of study is climate change and he gave us a wealth of accurate information about it.

• Regulatory Trend: Trump administration eases restrictions on oil and gas drilling 
•  https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/03/how-trump-is-changing-science-environment/
• This information suggests an opportunity exists as oil is a non-renewable resource and has gone up and down in scarcity as OPEC represents the majority of oil producing countries.
• The prototypical customer would be drilling companies who are now able to drill in these areas.
• I believe this opportunity will be definitely not be easy to exploit as it is difficult to drill without threatening the ecosystem in the area of drilling.
• Even though the opportunity exists for drilling companies, I do not not agree with this opportunity. I agree that we need more resources such as oil/gas and cannot solely rely on other countries; however, I do not agree in extracting those resources from protected lands and harming species such as the sage grouse.

• Regulatory Trend: The End of Plastic Cutlery
• https://www.forbes.com/sites/anagarciavaldivia/2019/01/22/the-end-of-plastic-cutlery-plates-and-straws-eu-market-says-goodbye-to-single-use-plastic-products/#6593e38d1565
• This information suggests an opportunity exists as single use plastic products are 70% of all items that are littered in the ocean. There are many statistics and numbers involving the amount of plastic in the ocean.
• The prototypical customers are the European companies who will no longer be producing single use plastic products and have to convert to other materials in 2021. Once these measures have been made, the prototypical customer will become citizens of nations around the world who want to be involved in the movement of no plastic and protecting our oceans.
• I think it is easy to exploit as there are already so many other options that do not contain plastic. The only difficult thing is passing policies to stop the production of plastic products.
• I believe this belief of an opportunity comes from my attitude as well as my experiences. I did a project in my environmental class on this and feel very passionately towards this issue. I use stainless steel straws now and bring them wherever I go.

Assignment 5A: Identifying Local Opportunities

Orlando Sentinel

Homicides up nearly 30 percent last year - Local detectives say there's no single cause for the increase

https://infoweb-newsbank-com.lp.hscl.ufl.edu

Orange County has seen an increase of homicides; however, the Orlando Police Department is puzzled at the data. The homicides in the area have increased from 83 to 107 people and come from a various of causes including gang activity, drug activity and domestic violence. The problem presented is that there is no known correlation for this increased activity; therefore, the Orlando Police Department cannot focus on how to deal with it. Orange County has this problem but more specifically the Orlando Police Department as they are trying to figure out a way to lower the amount of unregulated guns in the area.


Lawsuits are hurting Florida's nursing homes

https://infoweb-newsbank-com.lp.hscl.ufl.edu

Trial lawyers are trying to profit off this terrible time of families having to deal with their loved ones in nursing homes. The problem is the disproportionate amount of lawsuits that nursing homes deal with and that Florida already has a bad reputation as the "judicial hell-hole". These lawyers are expressing how dreadful and unacceptable these nursing homes are. Seniors in nursing homes have this problem and it will not be fixed unless legislators act in a meaningful way.

Hurricane Michael by the numbers: Homes, businesses, oysters wiped out

https://infoweb-newsbank-com.lp.hscl.ufl.edu

Hurricane Michael was worse than Irma in the amount of debris that was left behind. Three months after the hurricane had occurred, people are still picking up debris and thinking of ways to ask for federal aid from the government. Many farmers lost their crop yield and many residents are still dealing with the destruction of Hurricane Michael daily. The problem is the effects of Hurricane Michael are still with the people and the quickness of federal aid is not there. The people who live in the counties heavily effected by Hurricane Michael have this problem.


Is Florida at risk of recession?

https://infoweb-newsbank-com.lp.hscl.ufl.edu

Although the chance of a recession has risen from year to year, Florida will still hold strong in the next coming months. A shocking 900 people move to Florida each day and the population is predicted to be over 21.4 million this year. There seems to be more jobs that are available to fill than people who are capable and certified to fill them. There is much uncertainty in the markets which causes job growth to slow. The problem is with job creators and how they will invest due to the market. The state of Florida and the people who reside there have the problem.

$15 minimum wage could cripple small business

https://infoweb-newsbank-com.lp.hscl.ufl.edu


The $15 minimum wage argument is mostly represented in the media by large businesses such as Disney who can afford to pay their employees that amount. The small businesses, who represent more of the market, cannot afford this. It would cause them to let employees go and potentially work for themselves in other various jobs than just being the manager. The problem is the debate of the $15 minimum wage in general as that would cause labor costs to rise. The small businesses have the problem if the minimum wage were to raise to $15 per hour.

Assignment 4A - Forming An Opportunity Belief

I believe there is an unmet need for knowing your vitamin levels and what state your health is at immediately. I feel that everyone wants to be healthy and live longer. No one wants to be at the mercy of making doctor appointments and the high costs of Medicare. This need has existed ever since the advent of fast food and the want for quickness. In turn, the want for quickness and speed developed this need. Less people are eating whole foods and getting the actual vitamins they need. The product I would create is a toilet that after you urinate it will provide you with an electronical list of your vitamin levels and maybe bacterial and viral infections you may have. People are already doing an action they do every day, so in the end, it would only benefit them. However, I am not a scientist and realize there may be constraints on how possible this may be. Somehow, the public needs to know their health right away so they can take immediate action. This product can also help with the problem of wasting money on vitamins and supplements people actually don’t need. To meet this need now, people are going out and buying all the possible vitamins/supplements and waiting to go to the doctors. I’m probably 60% sure this opportunity exists.


#1: Female College Student

· Do you actively do your best to be healthy?

o “Yes! I try my best but being in college definitely holds me back. You are exposed to more bacteria and viruses. Being on your own for the first time can cause you to become lazy with your normal routine.”

· When did you first start caring about your health?

o “I grew up caring about my health. My mom was definitely a major health nut and always gave me different vitamins. I would say though that I started taking my health into my own hands when I quit travel soccer. I wasn’t exercising every day so I started to notice my health go down.”

· Do you ever wonder what you could be doing to better your health?

o “I take my health very seriously and it has always been one of my top priorities. However, college has definitely made me more busy and it is hard to take time to spend on your healthy habits.”

· What do you currently do to know what vitamins to take? Are you happy with this solution?
o “I do not exactly know what vitamins to take. I take about 5 different vitamins every day and hope that they are making me healthier.”

· What do you currently do to know what illness you have? Are you happy with the quickness of this solution?

o “If something feels wrong with me I just sit and wonder until it gets worse. When it does get worse, I call my mom or go to the doctors. I don’t have a car here so it is definitely difficult when I feel sick.”

· Would you buy a toilet that could test your vitamin levels and potentially tell you of an illness when you urinate?

o “I would definitely tell my family back home to get it. It is not really practical for college since most people live in apartments. In the future, I would seriously think about getting one.”



REFLECTION: The protypical customer is most likely not a college student as they usually have limited funds and cannot replace toilets. Although it may be something useful to them, due to their busy schedules and the scariness of living on their own, it is not practical.

#2: Young Adult Male in Relationship

· Do you actively do your best to be healthy?

o “Yeah, all the time. I workout, cook fresh food, and eat vegetables and fruit every day.”

· When did you first start caring about your health?

o “I always grew up caring about my health. I was taught by my parents. However, I actively started to care about being healthy in high school.”

· Do you ever wonder what you could be doing to better your health?

o “I don’t wonder about things I can’t control or don’t know about. I do wonder how much my health could increase if I become more consistent with what I already do.”

· What do you currently do to know what vitamins to take? Are you happy with this solution?

o “I don’t take any tests or anything like that. I just take vitamins depending on the way I feel. For example, when I am feeling a little sick I take more vitamin C.”

· What do you currently do to know what illness you have? Are you happy with the quickness of this solution?

o “I wait it out until it is bad enough to go to the doctor. I am not happy with this and definitely wish it was quicker. No one wants to feel under the weather longer than they have to.”

· Would you buy a toilet that could test your vitamin levels and potentially tell you of an illness when you urinate?

o “It depends on how expensive it is. It wouldn’t be my first priority to buy it but if I could easily afford it I would definitely buy it.”



REFLECTION: The protypical customer could potentially be everyone if the item is affordable because everyone wants to be healthier and live a longer life. However, I believe that this opportunity is not for someone who is just starting to create a life and is looking for inexpensive options.

#3: Female Adult with Family

· Do you actively do your best to be healthy?

o “Yes! I try and take the supplements I need and get as much sun and exercise as possible.”

· When did you first start caring about your health?

o “I started caring about my health after I had children. I didn’t want to be sick and then get them sick. I also wanted to teach my children good habits that would last a lifetime.

· Do you ever wonder what you could be doing to better your health?

o “Yes, absolutely! I want to achieve all the optimal levels I need for any vitamins.”

· What do you currently do to know what illness you have? Are you happy with the quickness of this solution?

o “I just buy my time and see if it goes away. I drink a lot of water and rest. I am not happy with the quickness of this solution because I have to wait and see if it’s anything serious. I don’t want to spend money on going to the doctor if I don’t have too. This solution I have is too time consuming for a busy family.”

· What do you currently do to know what vitamins to take? Are you happy with this solution?

o “I don’t know what vitamins to take. I just guess. Throughout the year, I just switch how many of each vitamin I take. I am not happy with this solution because I could be throwing money away.”

· Would you buy a toilet that could test your vitamin levels and potentially tell you of an illness when you urinate?
o “Yes absolutely. I would probably not install it in all four bathrooms I have but rather just one.”



REFLECTION: Having a family could potentially mean having more of a need for this opportunity. The responsibility of having to care for someone else increases the need for this product. A family also means spending more money on doctor visits and vitamins.


SUMMARY: I believe my original opportunity is still there. There is certainly a huge portion of customers, such as college students, who would not buy this product but still are intrigued with it. My opportunity is definitely without a question more accurate than when I started as I learned a bunch of things from the multiple people I interviewed. Based off my interviews, people are not happy with potentially wasting money on vitamins and supplements they may not need. They are also not happy with the wait time to figure out what is wrong with them. How well the product does is based on the customers opinion of it so of course entrepreneurs should adapt their opportunities based on the customer’s feedback.

Assignment 3A: Your Entreprenuership Story

Assignment 3A: Your Entrepreneurship Story

I don't really recall any fascinating or life changing memories of myself being exposed to other's entrepreneurial ideas. The only vague memory of mine that relates to entrepreneurship happened during the 8th grade. My best friend and I were super into fashion and thought it would be amazing to create our own clothing brand. We went to the craft store and got plain t-shirts and some iron on printer transfer paper. The clothing brand was named “Carefree” after my hometown in Arizona and we instantly became obsessed with making these shirts. We created an Instagram for our clothing brand and posted pictures of ourselves in the t-shirts we designed and named. I remember wearing them to school and our teacher actually wanting us to do a mini presentation because she saw how driven we were to make it a success. Although this all seems so silly now, it has reminded me to push towards my dreams, no matter how far away they seem. My biggest goal is to one day create my own brand and company along the lines of beauty and fashion. My middle school story weirdly parallels my goals and ambitions that I have now. I took this class as an elective for my major but chose this one specifically so I can dive deep into the world of creating a business. I hope to gain the experience and insight of what could possibly be my life in the next years. I want to see if I am capable of problem solving and making my own creation.




I lost all the pictures we took and put on our Instagram but this is one of the images we took from the internet and printed. lololol

Assignment 2A: Bug List

Assignment 2A: Bug List




1. There are no open parking lots for people to park who don't have a pass aka when my friend comes up and visits she has no where to park

WHY it exists: The land in Gainesville is very valuable and parking space is limited so the city and UF must reinforce who can park where.




2. When people try to get on the bus before everyone gets off and then people bump into each other by the exit

WHY it exists: People want to be the first one the bus so they can get a good seat. There are technically no rules or regulations about it.




3. When you time out your schedule based off the bus but the bus stops at a stop for 5 minutes and it ruins your schedule

WHY it exists: The bus drivers must get multiple breaks and it has to be when they are on route at various bus stops.




4. When places don't accept credit cards and then you have to use an ATM which can sometimes make you pay an extra charge

WHY it exists: The company either doesn't have the technology capable of reading a credit card or the company wants extra $$ from you for using the ATM.




5. At most of the intersections in the neighborhood areas by sorority row there is not a 4 way stop and it is really hard to see cars due to the parallel parking of other cars.

WHY it exists: The traffic on the street that doesn't have the stop sign is more heavy so in order to not stop the flow of traffic there is not stop signs.




6. People who cross the road without checking for cars

WHY it exists: In most cases, the law is always against the driver. The pedestrian must feel like nothing they are doing is wrong.




7. Southwest gym being so far away that I have to take multiple buses to get to it.

WHY it exists: UF did not have enough space on campus to build a gym of that size unless they tore buildings down.




8. When my email puts really important emails in my junk/spam and then I do not respond in a timely manner

WHY it exists: Some certain subject lines make the scanners believe it is spam or junk mail when it is not.




9. When you are scrolling through your camera role and then all the sudden it goes straight to the top to your first pictures

WHY it exists: The iPhone screen is super sensitive so it will pick up the smallest movement and thinks you want to come all the way to the top.




10. When people leave their laundry in the washer or dryer in the dorm buildings

WHY it exists: People often forget their laundry is in their and come back hours later. There is no way to return or contact the person who left their clothes that are done.




11. When you are turning into a parking spot and there is a shopping cart in the middle of it

WHY it exists: There is no system to make sure people put them back in the place they are supposed to be. Workers only come out every so often to round up all the carts.




13. When people who know they have to turn left don't wait at the back of the turning line but instead cut

WHY it exists: There is no possible way to put a police officer on every red light corner to make sure things like that don't happen/less likely to.




14. My sink in my apartment is too small and whenever I wash dishes the water splashes on me.

WHY it exists: Our apartment is really a one bedroom "luxury dorm" living so everything has to be compact.




15. When people with full shopping carts go to self-checkout

WHY it exists: Now that more and more stores have the self-checkout option they are reducing the amount of people who work at the cash register. Due to that, more people choose the self-checkout line because it might be shorter but then becomes longer due to the person with the full cart.




16. When you just got something from a store in the plastic packaging thats impossible to open

WHY it exists: This probably exists to make it less easy for shoplifters to simply take the item out of the package before leaving the store.




17. When you try to sign up for really important classes and the system crashes

WHY it exists: Everyone wants the best classes and the best times and for the most part goes online at the same time. The school cannot predict when these crashes will occur.




18. When the professors are allowed to choose what is an A and A- and make an A- 94 and below.

WHY it exists: To make it harder for students to achieve a 4.0 because more and more students are now getting higher grades




19. When your iPhone starts having all these problems mysteriously when the new iPhone comes out

WHY it exists: Apple is potentially doing this on purpose so more people will have to buy the latest iPhone and keep having to upgrade.




20. When you have to decide your life a year in advance (aka signing up for an apartment and finding roommates)

WHY it exists: There is not a lot of furnished apartments walking distance from campus.




Reflection: This exercise was definitely more challenging than I thought. There were many things I thought of that bugged me but it was hard to figure out the "why it exists" without it being your own opinion. It definitely took great self-awareness and being alert when I was doing things in my daily routine such as going to the gym, going to Target, riding the bus to class and etc. I am glad we did this exercise as I think it is the perfect way to start off a class such as this one!

Test

It's me.