Sarah Solomon ENT3003

11A- Idea Napkin No. 1 1)  You.  Who you are. What your talents are. What your skills and experiences are. Also: what are your aspirations? Specifically regarding your business concept, how do you see this business (if you were to start it) playing a role in your life? My name is Sarah Solomon, I am a Junior at UF, and I am pursing a degree in Finance.  In high school, I was on numerous sports teams, and won All County honors 3 times for basketball.  Being 5'0 feet tall, this was a huge accomplishment for me.  I thrive at public speaking, and commend myself on being great with sales.  My skills come from my experiences.  At my internship this past summer, I learned how to build calcs, gain confidence on cold calls, and become knowledgeable about the financial sector and customer service.  My aspirations are quite simply to be successful.  After college, I want to be reliant on my own income, and be able to support my parent...

10A- Elevator Pitch

9A-  Testing the Hypothesis, Part 2  My next 5 interviews consisted of people who fell outside of my market.  I purposely found people who I thought would be appreciative of my unmet need, but didn't need it themselves.  These individuals were people who didn't necessarily care about spending more money on flights, as long as they got home.  Nor did they care about wasting their whole day, again, as long as their final destination was home.  In other words, their commute how it is now is not bad enough to alter anything at the Gainesville airport.  Who:  After conducting 5 interviews, I found that there are a lot of people who fall outside of my market.  As I mentioned before, there are students and parents who are okay with the traveling, prices, and flight times they already engage in.  These people are not looking for change.  I spoke with my friend Eliana, who has her car here.  She states, she is so happy that fli...

8A- Solving the Problem  The opportunity at hand is a service, that is, providing direct flights to New York from the Gainesville Airport.  Currently, the Gainesville airport does not offer direct flights.  This gives college students who need to get home the option of taking an expensive connecting flight, experiencing a layover, or driving 2 hours to Orlando to get a slightly cheaper flight.   Quite simply, I think there are a few solutions to this problem.  However, I think they involve a lot of actions from multiple people and services.  In a perfect world, and if I had the power to do so, some of my solutions would be as followed:  Make the Gainesville Airport bigger so it can support bigger planes  Create more terminals  Talk to different airlines to see if they would provide flights from Gainesville, directly to New York  Understand that these are college students traveling to get home, and lower the price subst...

Assignment 7A- Testing the Hypothesis, Part 1  Direct Flights from Gainesville to New York and vice verse Opportunity: Thousands of students from the University of Florida are from the North, or New York to be more general.  Currently, there are only connecting flights from the Gainesville Airport or a two hour drive to Orlando or Jacksonville.  The Who:  College Students who need to fly to New York  The What:  They are unable to easily fly to New York to get home, and spend more money on connecting flights to avoid a two hour drive.   The Why:  The Gainesville Airport is too small, as well as the planes. Testing the Who: Not just college students have this need; residents in Gainesville may need to get to New York as well as it is a popular destination.  Therefore, the who is not limited at all.  It can be college students, residents of Gainesville, college students parents looking to visit their children, prospec...

Assignment 6A- Identifying Opportunities in Economic and Regulatory Trends  1.  Economic Trend: People are receiving part time jobs, who want to work full time  Source:  https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/09/04/u-s-to-release-data-on-jobs-growth-in-august/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.df266c1f78f4 Opportunity clearly exists here, in that people want to work.  While the unemployment rate is dropping steadily, it is not dropping enough.  “There are 6.5 million people who are working part-time and want to work full-time. I would say — and they would say — that we’re not at full employment right now.” The prototypical customers are people who want to work full time, but are only receiving minimum wage/ part time gigs.  Specific examples could be people in the mining industry, health care sector, etc. These sectors used to be the most reliable industries, but in the past two years the mining industry alone has shed at least 17...

Assignment 5A- Identifying Local Opportunities  1.  "A recent survey just ranked the happiest states in America. So how did Florida do?" , by Madeleine Marr https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/article218117690.html This article, written on September 10th 2018,  discusses the ranking of the happiest states in America.  It discusses Florida's poor ranking of #29.  Studies are allocating this ranking to Florida's safety problems, high divorce rates, and unemployment rates.   The article blames Florida's ranking on the working environment.  “The state has one of the highest long-term unemployment rates, at 40.2 percent, a low job satisfaction score, and one of the lowest income growth rates, at 2.24 percent." So not only is unemployment low, but the article further discusses the volunteering rate as well.  Florida's volunteer rate is 18.3%, the lowest in the country.  The article also discusses Florida's extremely high divorce...

Assignment 4A- Forming an Opportunity Belief       Cooking and eating healthy meals is harder than some classes for college students.  It is certainly an unmet need. Numerous students don't know how to cook or simply just don't have the time to prepare home-cooked meals.  I think this need has always existed.  Thinking back on my past two years, as a Freshman I lived in a dorm and didn't have access to a kitchen. As a Sophomore, I lived in a sorority house and was only allowed to use the microwave.  Finally, as a current Junior, I finally have access to a kitchen and the utensils, but now the problem is in regards to time.  It seems as if there is never a happy medium.  To meet this current need, students succumb to eating at healthy restaurants which is expensive, or if they are fortunate and know how to  meal prep in advance.  I am 75% sure this opportunity exists.   Prototypical Customer: College student...

     3A – Your Entrepreneurship Story          This past summer, I was exposed to entrepreneurship.  I partook in an internship at REIL Capital, as a marketing specialist and capital specialist.  The company is involved in the cash advance industry, and was started by my boss, Ian Samlin.  The interesting thing about Ian is that he majored in sports management.  Yet, he knew once he left college he was capable of being his own boss, in fact he wanted to be his own boss.  With determination and the aspirations to succeed, he built his company, REIL Capital, from the ground up. The business, being a year old, has consumed Ian's life up to this point.  He worked tirelessly to gain knowledge on the industry, create a team, and most importantly, a product.  The company provides cash advances to small businesses, mom and pop shops,  and other business owners to help their businesses reach their maximum potentia...

Assignment 2A- Bug List   1.  Lines at 43rd Street Deli on Sunday Mornings  WHY it exists:  Everyone is hungover from the UF Tailgates.  People have visitors and family to feed and don't want to make a huge breakfast. Only two or three breakfast places are in close proximity from campus.     2.  Scooters fall when I try to park by Library West  WHY it exists:  Scooters are more convenient and affordable for college students to have than cars.  Therefore, there are thousands of them. Spots are not outlined and some people put their side break down, rather than the main break.  When I try to squeeze my scooter in, a bunch always fall which is embarrassing.    3.  Dumpster overflowing at Avenyl WHY it exists:  The apartment complex provides one dumpster for 27 units.  There is only two mechanics/ employees who are responsible for cleaning the dumpster. There is no organization, a la...