Identifying Local Opportunities- 5A

Assignment 5A

1. "Evictions would be easier under proposed changes to Florida's mobile-home laws, advocates warn"

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/os-bz-mobile-homes-legislation-20200131-vbokigarvvgkxn7uvxavar2esq-story.html

-This article in the Orlando sentinel talks about how potential regulatory changes to mobile-home laws might affect how evictions can be carried out. According to the article, the most prolific change to these laws is that evictions would not have to be sent through certified mail, which would allow people to be evicted without getting the chance to talk to a judge about why they are being evicted.

-This problem makes being evicted easier and would force many people who are already poor and cannot afford a regular home, many of which are older citizens, to be evicted from their property without getting the opportunity to talk to a judge.

-The people that would usually have this problem are people in Florida who are most likely poor mobile-home owners who cannot pay rent or are being evicted for other reasons. Tenants might also have the problem, as many mobile home renters might soon be frustrated and try to fix their problem by arguing with their tenants.

2. "Man frustrated as county demolishes his home"

https://www.chronicleonline.com/news/local/man-frustrated-as-county-demolishes-his-home/article_77a85a78-42e8-11ea-a557-e3e3969a5678.html

- This article talks about a man, David Walton, who had his house demolished by Citrus County officials. Mr. Walton's house was a bit unkempt and had a blue tarp acting as the roof to his house. When one of his new neighbors complained, county officials inspected the house and deemed in unsafe to live in. After trying to fix the problem, but to no avail, Mr. Walton's house was eventually demolished.

-The problem is that Mr. Walton and his wife are now without a home, due to the demolishing of their old house.

- The people that have this problem are Mr. Walton and his wife, Mr. Walton's neighbor, and county officials. Mr. Walton and his wife have this problem because they don't have place to live. Mr. Walton's neighbor and county officials have this problem because the Walton's could potentially take legal action in attempt to rectify this problem.


3. "Miami man convicted in Lakeland home-invasion triple murder"

https://www.theledger.com/news/20200131/miami-man-convicted-in-lakeland-home-invasion-triple-murder

-This article talks about how a Miami man, Jamaal Smith was convicted for killing three people in a home invasion. Quite confusingly, while Smith was charged for killing these people, he was not the one who fired the gun in two of these three deaths. Despite this, he was at the scene of these murders and was an accomplice, so by Florida law, he is legally responsible for each of these murders. His punishment is yet to be determined as prosecutors are seeking the death penalty as this case continues.

- This problem is that jurors and prosecutors face an ethical dilemma in the wake of killings in Lakeland.

-This problem is faced by many, including Mr. Smith and his family, the jurors, the prosecutors, the judge, the city of Lakeland, and legislators in Florida.

4. "Malware attack targets Port St. Lucie Parks and Recreation department"

https://www.tcpalm.com/story/news/local/st-lucie-county/2020/01/30/malware-attack-targets-port-st-lucie-recreation-department/2859004001/

- This article briefly describes how the Parks and Recreation department faced an attack on their servers but attempted to ease public anxiety by noting how nominal the attack actually was.

-The problem is that the Parks and Recreation Department has had trouble securing their information in their computers. The article noted how while this was only in this one government agency, the city has faced a couple other malware attacks on other agencies this year.

- This problem is faced by the Port St. Lucie government,  anyone's information that this government has stored on their compromised servers, and any company that this city government has reached out to to resolve their security problems.

5. "Fort Myers workers demand participation in local construction projects"

https://www.news-press.com/story/news/local/2020/01/29/fort-myers-workers-demand-participation-local-construction-projects-including-jones-walker-apartment/4600069002/

-This article briefly describes an unsettling situation in Fort Myers: many unemployed locals are being denied opportunities to rebuild an apartment complex in their local community. The apartment complex is going to be built by a large company, and local workers are protesting because of this.

-The problem is that many people are out of jobs in a poor area of Fort Myers, and local projects that could be done by the local unemployed people are being offered to other companies.

-The people that have this problem are the unemployed workers, the apartment complex, the corporation that this project was outsourced to, the Fort Myers legislators, nearby Fort Myers businesses, and the families of the unemployed workers.

Forming an Opportunity Belief- 4A

Assignment 4A

1. From feedback on my bug list and from talking to my left-handed friends, it seems that many people have a problem with smearing their pen ink when writing. 

2. I believe the unmet need is a need for a pen that does not smear as easily or some other way to solve this ink smearing problem. From my own experience, I know that left-handed people have this problem all the time when writing with a pen. I could imagine that right-handed people might sometimes have this problem less often, but it probably still occurs. This need has always existed since writing with ink has existed. I would say I am ninety-five percent sure that this need exists. 

3. I would say a prototypical customer is a left-handed person. 

4. When I asked one of my left-handed friends, Trevor, about his experience when writing, it was clear that he had this problem as well, but it didn't bother him that much. Additionally, Trevor said that he usually writes with a pencil instead of a pen, which means this problem is much less likely to affect him, since a pencil cannot smear as easily. It was pretty clear at this point that Trevor really did not have this problem, since he rarely uses a pen.

5. I was very surprised after talking to Trevor about his writing. He noted that the ink smearing really did not bother him that much when he did use a pen. This was the most surprising thing that Trevor told me, since it bothers me immensely. It might just be his own personality, so for the next person, I will interview I will try to find someone that might be easily bothered by this problem.

3B. I would now say that the prototypical customer is someone who is left-handed, and writes with a pen more often than not.

4B. I queried one of my other left-handed friends, Bo, about his experience when writing with pens and if he was ever bothered by the ink smearing. He was very adamant about this and said that he was always looking for a pen that would not smear when he is writing. He said that this was the characteristic that mattered most in a pen to him because he hated when the ink would smear when he was writing. He noted that what he did not like about this was that the ink got on his hand when it smeared, not that it made the writing look messier. To address this issue, he says that he continues to search for a pen that does not smear onto his hand when he is writing. He said that he was yet to find a viable choice. 

5B. I was not surprised at all by my talk with my good friend Bo. Since he is one of my close friends, I knew that this would be a big problem with him. This interview reveals to me that there might be a personality trait in people that would draw them more to this product: cleanliness and neatness. When the ink smears when you are writing, the ink inevitably smears onto your hand and creates a smudge of ink on the paper. After talking to Bo, it seems more clear to me who my prototypical customer might be. 

3C. I would now say that my prototypical customer is a left-handed person who writes with a pen more often than a pencil, and who values cleanliness. 

3B. I interviewed one of my other close left-handed friends (almost all of my best friends are left-handed), Evan. When asking him about how he writes, and if he seems to have this problem, he was very clear about what he thought about this: he realized that this was a problem, but unless there was a pen that was no more expensive than the pens he usually bought, there was no way he was willing to pay a premium to fix this problem. He said that he uses regular pens, and when they smear, he is frustrated. Despite this, his frustration is not enough to justify an uncharge for such a nominal advantage. He said that he valued cleanliness, but he did not think this qualified as uncleanliness. 

3C. After talking to Evan, I was a bit disappointed. I thought that he was a person that would be perfect to talk to about this opportunity, but I was incorrect in this assumption. While he seemed to value cleanliness and neatness, he didn't see this as a bother. This revealed to me that it might take an extreme value of perfection and cleanliness to desire such a problem to be resolved. Despite this, I believe talking to him about this issue revealed to me that the market for such a pen would be difficult to appease. 

7. These interviews with my friends revealed to me much more than I initially would have thought. One of these revelations is that there are two directions I could go with this opportunity: One way would be to make a pen that is the same price as other regular pens but has a clear advantage in terms of smearing. Another way to go about this problem would be to market a more expensive pen towards a smaller market: a market of left-handed people who use pens more often than pencils, but value cleanliness and neatness to the extent that they are willing to pay a premium on such a product. Both of these directions present clear hindrances so I am now more unsure than ever whether this is really an opportunity, or if it is just an unavoidable nuisance for us left-handers. I do believe that this problem is much more defined than it was when I started the interviews, but it might be so defined that the practicality of this opportunity might have been diminished. I think that entrepreneurs should seek to define their products towards their customer’s needs since the customer is who is going to buy the product. Staying firm in one’s beliefs about their product leaves some looking for a market for their specific product, and to paraphrase Professor Pryor, “it is easier to find a hole first, and then get the peg”. 

Entrepreneurship Story- 3A

Not your mama's garage sale 

One of the first times I was ever exposed to entrepreneurship was when my parents and my aunt and uncle decided to hold a garage sale. This garage sale was a means to get rid of all of the old stuff that had accumulated around our houses and in our storage departments. My aunt and uncle own an event planning company, so they had tents and tables for us to use for this garage sale. This event took a significant amount of planning and organizing which began months before the event was to be held. Although the event was stressful and time-consuming, it served many purposes.  Not only did it allow our families' to rid of unwanted junk, but it also provided a few days worth of time to spend with our family, along with a small economic gain. This garage sale usually lasted a few days and would become an annual tradition for our family. While this was only a minor entrepreneurial venture, it showed me that through nifty problem solving, you can achieve many things at once.




My reason for signing up for this class was because I was interested in the problem-solving aspect of entrepreneurship. I hope one day to have a career in which I feel is making the world a better place. Because of this, a class in entrepreneurship seemed like a useful and practical choice for my schedule. From this class, I hope to see an improvement in my ability to see situations from other people's perspective so that I can better understand the problems that we have in our world today.

Bug List- 2A

1. Clothing that doesn't fit

Why: This happens when I order a size online that is my usual size, but it ends up not having similar dimensions to the clothing I already have. This happens because companies produce clothing in different fits. 

2.  How I don't know what's in my Taco Bell Burrito

Why: I'm not really sure why this happens, but every time I order a taco bell burrito, the filling of the burrito just seems to be a weird mixture of indistinguishable foods. This might be sloppy food preparation, but it might also be because they are intentionally trying to hide what some of their food actually looks like. 

3. Spilling stuff on myself

Why: Whether it is pen ink, food, or coffee, I always manage to spill it on myself. In the case of pen ink, it is usually because the ink smears on the paper, and gets on my hand. The food that spills on me is usually because I am in a hurry when I am eating, which inevitably leads to spilled food. The coffee that spills on me is usually when the Starbucks worker slightly overfills the coffee. This leads to excess coffee overflowing onto the lid, which eventually ends up on my shirt or shorts. 

4. How my floor always seems dirty

Why: My floor always seems dirty, and it is usually because of food. When I cook in my kitchen and transfer food from one container to another, I always seem to spill food on the ground without noticing. 

5. When my lead on my pencil breaks

Why: This happens when I press too hard with my pencil. The lead cannot support the force that I am pressing it into the paper with. 

6. Ink smearing when I write with a pen

Why: This happens because I am left-handed. When I write, my hand trails my writing, and with the paper being used to support my hand, the newly laid ink gets smeared by my hand.

7. When my hands and face are cold on cold days

Why: I don't have cold-weather accessories such as gloves or a beanie because I live in Florida, so it seems impractical to buy something I might only use a few times each year.

8. When my phone dies at 10%

Why: I am not exactly sure why this happens, but it is probably because of the age of my phone. I am a few iPhone generations outdated and it shows every time I near 10% battery life. 

9. Running out of room when writing a title 

Why: The paper is not long enough to support the length of the title that I am writing. This usually happens when I start a new page in my notes.

10. The paper taste you get in your mouth when using a paper straw

Why: Since the adoption of paper straws at Starbucks, my coffee seems to have an unsavory aftertaste. This happens because paper has an unmissable taste.

11. Not having a clean towel when I get out of the shower

Why: This happens when I fail to recognize that I have run out of clean towels and decide to take a shower.

12. When my pen runs out of ink even though I recently purchased it

Why: This could either be from air bubbles in the ink capsule, or the pen has just run out of ink quickly.

13. Not being able to get the water the right temperature in the shower

Why: This happens when I am in the shower and try to adjust the shower handle to the perfect temperature, but it seems impossible to get it exactly right because minor adjustments in the angle of the shower handle equate to much larger changes in the temperature of the water. 

14. How one hole on my watch strap is too big, and the next hole is too small

Why: There is not a hole on my watch strap that matches perfectly to the size of my wrist. This is because there are not enough holes, so the holes are too far apart to fit my exact size.

15. How you can't rewind a video lecture when you are watching it live

Why: I believe that the entire video needs to be processed in order to go backward in the lectures.

16. When I get tired in the afternoon even though I got a lot of sleep

Why: This happens in the afternoon and is probably a symptom of caffeine withdrawal or my perception of how much sleep I got the previous night is not correct.

17. When people park in more than one parking spot

Why: This happens because people either do not have the parking ability to park in only one spot, or another car that is parked incorrectly is impeding them from parking correctly.

18. When I know how to do a math problem and still get the wrong answer

Why: This usually happens when I know exactly how to do the problem, but I am too hasty in typing the problem into my calculator or reading the problem. 

19. How cold it is in Starbucks  

Why: This is because they want to sell you coffee, so turning down the temperature makes warm drinks seem more enticing.

20. When I can't find my debit card

Why: This happens when I use my debit card, and then forget to return it to my wallet.

Reflection: This assignment seemed surprisingly difficult to me. While coming up with twenty things that bugged me was not too difficult, extrapolating why each "bug" existed seemed very difficult at times. While initially for some of the bugs I felt inclined to write, "because thats just how it is" after thinking through each bug, I now understand the true importance of this exercise and its profound relevance to entrepreneurship.

  

Test Post

This is my test post, I hope it works.