29A- Venture Concept No.2

• Opportunity:
• In the Gainesville area there has been an increase of homeless people. The most likely cause of this increase is that people are being laid off from work or end up losing it in some other way. The homeless being the potential customers of my business, usually have no where to go and end up living on the streets or in some back corner alley.
• It was calculated that in the homeless population in the Alachua County started to around 603 in 2007, then went to 1218 in 2012, after that lowered to 870 in 2015, until finally going down to 819 in 2017. Now while it has been shown above that the homeless population went slowly down, but not before rising up in 2012 by about three times the value of the population in 2007. You may also notice that while the population in 2015 and 2017 is less than the population in 2012 it is still higher than the population in 2007. Even though like I said earlier the homeless population may have gone done in the recent years its still bigger than it was back in 2007 and for all we know it could possibly rise up once again like it did in 2012, if nothing is done soon then we could be looking at a homeless population close to the population of UF students or a medium sized village.
• How the homeless people are satisfying this need is by going to nearby homeless shelters or begging strangers for money. Since every person is different it really depends on the person on how loyal they are with doing what they currently doing on dealing with homelessness. There are some people who would prefer not to go around asking random people for money where most of the time they'll be turned down and as for the homeless shelters there might be some people who would prefer it since it is in sense a traditional way with dealing with homelessness.
• The forces that allow this opportunity to exist would have to be certain factors that occur in companies or workplaces that result in people being laid off from work. With it comes the possibility of people who did lose their jobs not being able to find a new one and becoming unable to pay their bills. It could also result from poorly made financial choices or other factors on the person's part.
• Regarding on how long this window of opportunity will stay open, I think the answer will be for as long as there is homeless people and there are ways to end up homeless such as previously mentioned losing jobs or poor financial choices, this opportunity will exist.
• Innovation:
• What I thought of for this innovation was making two services that were specifically made to help homeless people find a job and return to a normal everyday life. The first service will be one that helps the homeless find nearby jobs that fits their capabilities and skill set. The second one gives them temporary living space until they are able to afford their own.
• In terms of how I will make money from this that later on, once the business stabilizes I will plan on creating a loan type system that once the people I helped have steady lives and steady finances they will be expected to pay that money back. But then again as I said before this will be when the business stabilizes but before that it would mainly be a charity type business starting out, but it could stay like that and could just make some money by partnering up with major companies.
• Different people earn different amounts in their salary, so there isn't a fixed price just yet for the use of my services because there are some people who could end working at some big company compared to people who get a job as a coffee server or a janitor.
• Venture concept:
• Have the knowledge that homeless people have a reliance towards homeless shelters it is understandable that it would be difficult to adjust to a new possible way of living. It still hasn't been decided whether or not the two services will have a loan system implemented or will it be a charity type cause and money will be made y being partnered with big companies.
• I don't see the possibility of a competitor, seeing as these two programs were created to help the homeless and if they are then if they would be willing to help then I would be all for it. But if a competitor would appear it would have to be a business that provides similar services but at lower prices, meaning lower reimbursements to pay back if the loan system was implemented. Which in my opinion is a weakness because that would mean they are earning less money and lower prices doesn't always equal the best quality but on the other hand more people would go to that service more thus getting more money than originally thought.
• The support and experiences of customers would help define my business concept by giving their feedback on the services that are offered to the homeless and could help get more difficult and stubborn homeless people to come on board and take advantage of the services and help get their lives on track.
• I would organize a business to support the ongoing production of my service by creating one that is efficient and simple enough to understand by any person no matter their intelligence. To begin, I would hire maybe eight to twelve employees since its just starting up, one with some help will be in charge of the housing service and another will be in charge of the job locating service and while the rest will be divided between the two groups if there is any.
• Unfair Advantage:
• In my opinion hat my unfair advantage is that other competitors (if there are any) won't have is that my business will be adaptable to change and thus can only get better for the sake of the customers. And since adaptability is more of a way of doing something it is not so easily able to be copied so there won't any need to worry about competitors.
• What's Next:
• I probably would like to expand my services to other parts of Florida and then slowly to other countries in the US, until finally it reaches other countries. As a little side project I would like to add a section where a real life and former homeless person or group of people tell their story on how with these service helped their life for the better and that perhaps these stories could end up becoming printed as a book to sell with the possibility to make even more money.
• Whats next for you:
• As I said before I plan on expanding my services worldwide but as for myself I probably will continue to run my business for a couple more years and then retire from it and have someone else run while I am not there. Next I'll take a look at the world and see if there is anything opportunity out there that I could make a solution out of it.
• Feedback:
• Partner up with big companies: could make money if partnered with a big company that funds my business.
• Make the services a charity type business: loan type business could come with risks and there could be problems with the paying back part involving different people.
• More informative: added more information to this post to make it more clear.
• Spread the service to other countries: start out in Gainesville and slowly go towards other parts of the US and then to other countries.
• How I'll change my venture concept based on the feedback:
• Reading over the feedback I'll choose certain factors that could benefit my business and then implement it.
• I'll go back and view my past interviews and see if any of the feedback is relevant towards improving my business.
• I'll probably try to find a company that is willing to partner up with my business.
• I may need to find more than one company to partner up with if I am in a different country.