Assignment 24A- Venture Concept No.1

Opportunity: My opportunity lies in assisting college students in Gainesville with paying for summer rentals when they will not nor will they need their rentals during the summer months. The forces that create this dilemma are simple: landlords are trying to maximize as much profit as possible. Students who I have interviewed are tired of this current situation, yet they use acceptance or what I like to call "It is what it is" in order to diminish the need. What I love about this opportunity is that it brings to light an unsolved need that people forget they even had. Most people already hate the management and rental situation they are already put in, so naturally they do not have much loyalty altogether. This opportunity is relatively big as it can capture a large part of the rental market in Gainesville, but also we must remember it is narrowed down to Gainesville locals only. This window of opportunity will be available until another student think of this idea and acts on it because landlords and leasing companies will never move away from maximum profit.

Innovation: My innovation is simple, create a flexible contract where Students do not have to pay for 12 month contracts if they do not like. The idea is to take the rental amounts landlords will lose during the summer months and allocate an agreed upon percentage to the rest of the months. For example, if a landlord were to be losing 2000 dollars that summer, the agreed upon contract would state that half of that lost money will be spread across the 8 months students do pay. Thus students would pay 125 more dollars per month (1000/8), but not have to pay for the summer. Now understandably, landlords will not like this proposition because they are losing money. That is why my company would own a small apartment building and begin with this idea to show the consumer demand for it.

Venture Concept: It is very easy to see why customers would switch very easily to my idea, they save money and get more freedom. Students already need to live somewhere, so it makes sense to take away customers who are in worse situations and bring them to mine. It is also important to note that this venture will not work out if two things happen: customers do not find out about us and competitors quickly adopt this reform. My competitors in this scenario are the large leasing companies such as Trimark. Since I believe their weaknesses include a lack of response to customer feedback and a slow action time, I think I will be able to attack quickly and gain attention in consumers minds. In terms of product display, the most important things will be price and advertising. Customers need to know that we exist and that we are the cheapest available option. The segment I am going for is the student who uses their own money to pay for college, and who is looking for the cheapest option that will satisfy their basic needs of living in a college town. Comparatively, I am the Spirit Airlines of Gainesville rentals. Ideally, this venture would include student employees who have a far outreach such as large instagrams or snapchats. I would pay them to advertise my living area so that I could create customer awareness and later customer demand.

Minor Details: My most important resource will definitely be speed. I need to move so fast that my competitors are stunned and have already lost market share. I also need to be quick in responding to customer feedback and making sure everything I promise gets done quickly. After solving this issue of summer month rentals, I hope that my venture will move on to looking at other component parts of a contract. Specifically, I hope to negotiate items such as electricity bills, water, etc. to make a more custom rental experience. Lastly, if I were to launch this venture I would hope that in 5 years I have created a whole new rental experience where I am the market leader in Gainesville and can move my product to other larger cities such as Miami.