Venture Concept No.1

Opportunity:

·      The forces in the environment creating this opportunity is the increasing population and the increase of drivers in popular areas and limited spaces to build more parking lots or parking garages. This increase causes individuals to spend a significant amount of time looking for parking spots. In addition, individuals typically are very busy, have specific times they need to be somewhere, or have more tasks that they need to complete for the day and therefore have a higher need for parking to take up less time in their day.

·      The market includes a variety of different demographics. The market is typically in a busy city or area or traveling to a busy area frequently. College students on large campuses, shoppers at the mall during busy hours or holidays, and travelers who must park their car at the airport are some of the largest parts of my market. In addition, those who own the parking garages and parking lots are also a part of my markets as it will be their say if my product is installed into their lots.

·      Consumers are satisfying their need currently by simply just searching for empty parking lots or arriving earlier to allot more time for themselves to find a parking spot. The current approach to their need does not fix the issue that parking a car can take up a large amount of time within one’s day. Therefore, many consumers are not loyal to how they are handling the situation, but have no other choice in how to address it.

·      The opportunity stands out against many other current systems as it includes features that the others don’t. Many consumers would benefit from the opportunity and would use it frequently if they were to live in the specified geographical areas.

·      Though the opportunity is great, technology is advancing rapidly on a daily basis and the opportunity may not be opened for too long as someone may implement it sooner or come up with an even better technologically advanced system for parking.

Innovation:

·      The product I am offering to my consumers is a real-time display board paired with a smart phone application. The real-time display board would be installed in busy parking lots and parking garages and would show an overview of the lot and where the vacant spots are. The application would allow individuals to plug in directions directly to a spot and would allow them to search for nearby parking lots or garages that have vacant spots. Included in the application would also be a feature that allowed individuals to pay directly for a spot from the app instead of having to use the current system for lots that require a fee to park.

·      The application for the smart phone would be free as I would allow other companies or apps to place ads on the app. I would charge the parking lots and parking garages to install the real-time display board and I would charge them about $50,000 for the product and for installation of the product.

Venture Concept:

·      Individuals who use the application will definitely switch to this new product as it requires no fee and it will make their driving lives a lot easier. In addition, it will allow them to save a lot more time during the day to get their other tasks completed.

·      However, it will be a lot harder to get parking garages and parking lots to switch to this new technology as it will cost them a lot of money and they may not see the benefits to it. Those parking garages and parking lots who do not require a fee may believe that the real-time display board and application pairing may be too expensive for what they would be gaining out of it.

·      There are a few competitors, but very little. There is a parking display in the Tampa International Airport and a few other busy locations. However, these competitors do not have the application paired with the display boards and their display board are not as high of a technology that the real-time display boards would be.

·      Price point, customer support, and business location play a huge role in defining my business concept. I may have to work on the price point of the real-time display boards as many parking garages and parking lots may find the price unattractive. Technology always comes with some issues at one point or another so I am going to need my company to have a solid customer support unit to help individuals with issues with the application or with the display board. Business locations are by far one of the most important as these display boards will only be truly successful in certain areas that have a large amount of traffic.

·      The organization of my business would be really important. I would have to have different sectors as there is a lot of different aspects that goes into my business. The most important sector would be those who are technologically advanced and can produce the product and application for the business. For the start-up of my business, I would start smaller and have as little employees as possible and focus entirely on producing the product and then I would work to sell the product and manage the business.

The Three Minor Elements:

·      My connections and determination will make it hard for competitors to copy my success. I have a lot of connections with those who would provide a lot of help in starting the business and giving me even more connections. Most of my family is involved in business and my father works for Par Technology, so I automatically receive a lot of help from those around me. I am passionate about this product and it would be hard to copy my determination and passion.

·      Next for my innovation, I would like to focus on more features that I could include with the application and possibly team up with some car companies to get a program installed into the car that works with the application.

·      In 5 years, I hope that this venture is successful and still making lives easier. In the next decade, as an entrepreneur, I hope to be establishing more ways to make life easier for people and to be using my entrepreneurial mindset in whatever line of work I am in. This first venture helps me understand the process of a business venture and gives me the experience to help me grow as an entrepreneur.