After conducting 25 minute interviews, I was able to gather a good amount of information based on their needs in comparison of my service. I interviewed, Amanda, Lucas, and Tyler. All 3 people have applied for student loans and are using that money to pay to go to college. The need is the most prevalent in college students and people who have recently graduated from college and that was mirrored by their responses. The main context which they all shared is they had to pay out of state tuition and were not covered by certain scholarships such as Florida Bright Futures like in state kids are. The need becomes the most salient for the people that aren’t able to get extremely high paying jobs straight out of college, which is basically all of us. Amanda’s situation was a little bit better as she was planning to apply to the MSF program, which would almost guarantee her a really high paying job out of college, but this is an extremely selective program so it would be hard to really know. When Amanda first became aware of her need, it was right before college and she was able to do a lot of research online to determine which loan service would be right before and how much she would have to pay later on based on interest and other expenses. Lucas was about the same, except he just picked any student loan service based on eligibility and hoped for the best and does not really have a clue about how he is going to pay them back. Tyler on the other hand, has not gotten a loan yet but plans too. He says he paid this semester’s tuition out of pocket and plans to apply next semester so that he can be covered. He is very stressed and is worry about getting ripped off which is why I think my service is a really good idea. They all talked to family for it and Amanda was the only one who did serious deep research on what would fully work for her. I think the largest issue is most don’t do the research required and my service would help to fix that issue because we would do the research for you and make it as simple as possible.
Monday, September 30, 2019
11A - Idea Napkin No. 1
- My name is Jaiden Patel. I am a freshman studying Finance in the hopes of being placed in the MSF program and graduating with a master’s degree. I’d like to think I am a natural born leader and I have a lot of experience in analyzing financial information. I aspire to one day be in private wealth management and ideally solely managing my own wealth. I see this business as an entrepreneurial venture that helps give back to society in a way and see it playing a large role in my life.
- I am offering a service that is able to help anyone dealing with student loans a way to perfect their plan based on their financial needs and time frame in order to ensure they are paying what they should be.
- I am offering it to anyone that has had to take out a student loan and is in need of a way to make the plan easier for them and more digestible so they are able to live their daily life without constantly stressing about them. All of them are still working to pay these loans off and are struggling in some way.
- Customers care because the student loan companies most are using are screwing them and they have really no way of determining what they should be paying. My service will give them peace of mind and potentially save them loads of money and time.
- I will have a master’s degree from one of the best MSF programs in the nation and the ability to see these problems and find solutions that are outside the box.
I believe that these five elements fit together pretty well and in a way that will increase the chance of the business venture working. I am sure that millions of people have this need which gives me a great target customer and I believe that many need a service like this to even stay afloat and not have to worry about being totally ripped off. I think my skill set paired with the need is perfect to ensure the success of the service.
Wednesday, September 25, 2019
Tuesday, September 24, 2019
9A - Testing the Hypothesis, Part 2
The first person I interviewed was my Mom. She did not have to worry about college debt and having to pay back this debt because her parents were able to pay for her to go to college, leaving her debt free when she graduated. She was able to totally avoid college loan companies and therefore doesn’t have to deal with this problem.
The second person I interviewed was my Dad. He did not have to deal with college loan companies because he worked multiple jobs throughout college in order to pay it all out of pocket as he went. In doing so, he did not have to take out any loans and ended up debt free by the time he graduated college.
The third person I talked to was my cousin Ajay. He did not have to pay tuition at all because he qualified for Florida Bright Futures which ended up paying his tuition for all four years because he maintained a certain GPA. He graduated free of any loans and did not have to deal with the college loan companies.
The fourth person I talked to was my friend Amanda. She is currently enrolled at UF, but does not have to pay tuition what so ever because she also qualified for Florida Bright Futures. It is currently paying for her classes as long as she is able to keep a high GPA, or else she would have to take out a loan from one of these companies in order to make ends meet.
The fifth person I talked to was another friend named Lucas. He was able to be covered by many different scholarships on top of FAFSA and did not have to pay anything to go to college either. He was actually paid to go to college and made a good amount of money for himself. He was able to avoid taking out any loans and therefore did not have to deal with the companies.
WHO: The people that fall outside the boundary are the college students or graduates that were able to pay for college in some other ways whether it be parents, scholarships, or financial aid services. Although most of them did not have their own money to pay for college like everyone else, they still found ways to avoid the college loan companies.
WHAT: The need I identified as information services so that people can navigate college loan services differs from the similar need of college kids just needing money to go to college. A service that connects students with scholarships would not be a bad idea either.
WHY: The outsiders do not have the need at all because they were able to avoid the companies entirely by finding other ways to pay for college.
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Inside the boundary
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Who is in
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Students that can’t afford college and need to use college loan services.
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What the need is
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Information that will allow the students to ensure they are using the most effective and cheapest plans for their specific needs.
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Why the need exists
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College loan services purposely screw over college graduates in order to make more money
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Outside the boundary
Who is Not
Students that have found other ways to pay for college.
What the need is Not
A way to get more money to pay for college.
Alternative Explanations
These kids were able to find alternative ways to pay for school such as scholarships and financial aid services.
Tuesday, September 17, 2019
8A - Solving The Problem
The solution that I am proposing is a service that one can subscribe to and will provide you with the exact information that you are looking for. This service will be call based and and will fully analyze your income, financial plan, and your time allocation to determine exactly how much you should be paying in order to get the most out of your student loan service. This will prevent these student loan services from taking advantage of the customer and will allow them to be financially stable much sooner than they would be without the service. If we were to add a product as well, this could be information in the form of a book to ensure the consumer has full comprehension of how their plan should work. The subscription would allow the consumer access to personalized calls based on their specific financial situation and payment plan and how they can use the student loan service to their advantage.
7A - Testing the Hypothesis, Part 1
Former students in the United States are unable to pay their student loans off in a reasonable amount of time because student loan services are providing misleading information in order to make more money.
The who: Former Students
The what: They are unable to pay their student loans off in a reasonable amount of time
The why: Student loan services are providing misleading information in order to make more money
Testing the who: Everyone who is in my current who shares this need because they have to deal with the same companies that continue to screw people over such as Navient
Testing the what: The boundaries of the need are the people that have to deal with companies that are misleading their clients
Testing the why: The need is rooted in the information required is not being given and instead is being misled in order to make more money off each client.
After doing 6 interviews with UF alums, I learned that they had to really go out of their way to get information from the companies that were in charge of their student loans. They all had to call many times just to get even the slightest answer and instead had to turn to random websites and other ways of getting information in order to make sure they were paying off their debt as efficiently as possible. A couple said they were encouraged to go on a forbearance plan rather than an income-based repayment plan when the former was the right option for them. The company wanted to make more money off them by charging them extra interest later on.
I had no idea how serious of an issue this was until people in my own family had to deal with the exact same problems. It is very interesting how widespread of a problem this is and how there is nothing that is being done about it.
6A - Identifying Opportunities in Economic & Regulatory Trends
https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-to-get-rid-of-carbon-emissions-pay-farmers-to-bury-them-11568211869
The opportunity that is being proposed is that by paying farmers to sequester carbon dioxide into the soil, not only do businesses benefit by managing their emissions credits wisely, but also farmers are also able to have healthier soil that will allow them to grow healthier crops and turn a better profit. The customer with the opportunity is any business that needs to counteract their carbon footprint in order to be a healthier company for the planet. These companies can put farmers on payroll who’s job is to sequester metric tons of carbon dioxide into the soil at a time. The opportunity is extremely easy to exploit because companies really need this in order to not have to pay fines for having such a large carbon footprint and farmers can benefit because they are finally getting paid for something that will improve their crop yields and soil health anyways. Up until now, if farmers were to sequester carbon dioxide into their soil, they had to do it on their own good will. I saw this opportunity because I have a passion for having a small carbon footprint and I know many companies struggle with this issue. Rather than them having to actively work to make it smaller which many of them won’t do, they can just hire farmers to do it for them in order to counteract their large footprint.
The opportunity being proposed is a service that is able to find the absolute best deal on the exact car a consumer wants. This opportunity exists because spending is up in the last quarter despite us being in a trade-related state of uncertainty. The customer with the opportunity to use the service is anyone who wants to spend money but also wants to be smart about it because of all the uncertainty going on. The opportunity is extremely easy to exploit because many people would love to use it and it is not too hard to actually create. I saw this opportunity because I like to always know that I am getting the absolute best deal and I feel like many share that idea with me.
This information leads me to believe an opportunity might exist because now many people who want flavors for the e-cigarettes are not able to have access to them. The customer would be anyone who is looking for a flavor for their e-cigarettes. This opportunity is difficult to exploit because now there is a ban so it will be harder to gain access to these flavors. I saw this opportunity because many of my friends use flavored nicotine products and probably would try to find some kind of a work around if they didn’t have access to them anymore.
This information leads me to believe an opportunity might exist because many people like to know that the water they are drinking is entirely clean and free of any pesticides and fertilizers. The customer would be the 30% of people in the United States who rely on that water for drinking purposes. This opportunity is going to be difficult to exploit because we won’t know whether the farmers are using chemical pesticides and fertilizers due to the regulation change. I saw this opportunity because I have taken numerous environmental management classes throughout my high school experience.
Monday, September 9, 2019
5A - Identifying Local Opportunities
Farmers Brace for Dorian’s Worst - Sugar cane, citrus, rice all at risk of devastation should hurricane hit region
With Dorian inching closer by the day, farmers and crop owners are worried that they are going to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars of crops which could destroy businesses, especially smaller ones.
The problem is that the winds will uproot any crop not sturdy enough to handle them, which is not many.
The people who have to deal with the problem are farmers and crop owners but also anyone who wants to by crops at a fair price.
Storm survivors arrive - to relief and uncertainty
Dorian has uprooted many families and destroyed homes all over the Bahamas. Many look for supplies while others flee to the US to find somewhere to live either temporarily or permanently because they have lost everything.
The problem is that many families are facing issues they have not had to deal with before and are being forced to start new somewhere foreign to them.
The people facing this problem is the ones in the Bahamas whose houses and lives were destroyed.
Drug rehab facilities shut down, lay off more than 200
Watershed is a drug rehab company that was forced to shut down after not having enough funding to continue. Many lost their jobs and many more were denied the help they need because the company cannot afford to stay afloat.
The problem is the company could not find enough money to stay in business.
The people facing the problem is past employees who were laid off as well as anyone who was at the rehab center looking for help.
Fire Rescue: Take down your shutters
The story discusses the importance of removing shutters shortly after the hurricane as they pose as a fire hazard in an emergency. The shutters make it hard for people to escape in the chance there is a fire and for firefighters to get in to help.
The people who have the problem are those that are caught in a fire and their shutters are still up as well as firefighters trying to help
Gardens day care wants more classrooms, bigger playground
Currently the Gardens day care is doing very well and many kids are coming in each day and having fun. However, the playground can only comfortably allow 170 kids and that is not enough to meet the large amount of children that attend the park. The day care is facing issues with fitting people in the facilities so now they are expanding to make it more welcoming to all that want to come.
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