Forming An Opportunity Belief

I believe there is an opportunity out there. There always is, someone or some group always runs into problems through every day basics. It’s these opportunities that will allow entrepreneurs to capitalize on these unmet needs and provide a specific kind of service to the consumers in need.

The unmet need I chose is sort of a courier service for any type of errands an individual might have; whether it be groceries, daily errand runs, doctor appointments. An all around, no limit courier service leading to exceptional service for the consumer. The consumer can range from the older population that can’t get around as well or need assistance to complete the daily errands to the very busy household; a family that has two hard-working consumers that are always at work and don’t have time to make grocery trips (maybe they live on the outskirts of town or an hour drive from town), take care of house errands like transporting swimming pool chemicals to the house, or delivering needed supplies for weekend projects. An all around delivery service. This need came from hearing complaints from customers at my current job.  They would normally complain that they didn’t have time to make all the trips they needed to before going back to work, or some would actually complain that they lived too far to make multiple trips to town.

Most consumers are usually making huge adjustments or not meeting all the required needs for this opportunity. If they lived very far from town, they would usually plan the entire day in order to stay in town and get all the errands done, therefore they wouldn’t need to drive back and forth so much. For the consumers that would be too busy for the daily errands needed, they try to jam all the projects and errands within the weekend since it’s the only time they have outside of work to complete these tasks. I can see this opportunity possibly expanding and focusing on overall satisfaction of the consumer and their needs. I feel 70% sure that this opportunity exists out there.

Just a little background information, I work in a pool store and see most of the customers that come in on a weekly basis. I only work Thursday through Saturday so I have a limited amount of exposure to these customers. I chose to interview certain customers as they came in for a pool water analysis (which usually takes about 10 minutes) and ask them about their unmet needs in relation to my idea.

My first interview was with Denise; I knew that she lived about 30 minutes outside of Gainesville near Trenton. I mainly just asked her to describe to me how she prepares for the day when she comes into Gainesville, how long does the day trip usually take, and whether she enjoys it. The first expression she gave me was “it’s a double edge sword.” She told me one of the main reasons she moved out so far was for the seclusion the small town has in comparison to Gainesville. Denise isn’t a fan of the minor hustle and bustle that Gainesville offers but does enjoy the drive into town whenever she is taking care of her grandkids. Any other time, she can’t wait for the drive and overall trip to be over and be back home, nestled in her secluded home. She prepares her trips mainly around the few doctor appointments she has at Shands. When there isn’t a doctor appointment, she tries to pack all her errands into a single day’s trip to town. Starting with any small stuff such as coming into the pool store to get the necessary supplies to last her for about a month. Then she stops by the drug store to pick up her and her husband’s prescription meds. Then the day ends with either a trip to a major department store like Home Depot or sometimes to the mechanic for a scheduled service. After hearing these statements, I asked her about the courier service idea. Whether or not she would benefit from it and how often she would use this service. Denise thought the idea would work but only for consumers that are in town. She believed that consumers on the outskirts of town or farther away would have to pay an arm and a leg in distance covered for the trips. She also explained that she would benefit in having less anxiety about trying to plan these days ahead of time and not spending so much time on the road and more time in the secluded house she admires.

My next interview was with Julie; she works in North Florida Regional Medical Center and almost always leaves work at around 6 pm. Her husband Nick is a project manager for a construction company in North Florida which puts him in different parts of Florida every few weeks. Together, they have one mess of a schedule to try and communicate all the errands they have to do. Just like before, I took the time she had during her pool analysis to ask her a few questions. I asked her about how long does her typical day cover before she’s back home or has time to run the needed errands, would she benefit from a courier service to assist her on these errands, and does she and her husband have enough time to take care of other errands during their weekend break. Julie was a little hesitant at first about the idea but after a bit of thought she saw some of the pros and cons. She said that most of her work days begin at 8 in the morning and for the most part end at 6 pm, she does have ample time to cover a few small errands but she is almost always tired at this point and can see the benefit of the courier service in giving her some relief after work. Her husband Nick has a sporadic schedule and can sometimes be home for the week or be hours away from home for a week. According to Julie, the courier service would only benefit her if Nick was gone for a week and she didn’t have anybody home to help with the extra errands. Whenever Nick is home, he usually takes care of the errands as much as he can so they can enjoy their weekend by the pool.

Lastly, I interviewed Tracy; she works 50+ hours a week between two jobs and is also a single mother of one 11-year old Matt. She’s an apartment manager and accountant and I got the chance to interview her while I was visiting my girlfriend at her job. Tracy is an extremely busy individual but unlike Julie, doesn’t have much help at home and with her son Matt. I explained to her my idea of a courier service and asked her whether she seemed it would be beneficial to her, and her expectations of such a service. Tracy was proud to talk about the courier service because she believed it would benefit her but only if it was affordable, easy to use, and consumer friendly. With her hands tied behind her back, she has very little wiggle room to run her day-to-day errands so she sees the potential of a courier service for other individuals in her situation as well. She explained that for her, she would like to see the courier service as a quick, anytime kind of service. The courier service would have to be very flexible to accommodate her needs as they came up either daily or weekly. Just like Julie, she is doing her best to fit these errands in between the two jobs and unfortunately, it bleeds into the weekend for her; on the same boat as Julie, she believes the courier service would give her much needed relief from the daily stresses she faces.

If I had to put it in percentages, I believe that there is still about 50% of my opportunity there. I’ve realized that this opportunity could benefit a population that lives in a bigger and busier city such as New York or Chicago rather than Gainesville. My new vision for this opportunity is more accurate; the customer interactions I experienced helped focus my attention to bigger cities. For instance, lawyers, accountants, and the big corporation employees in New York would benefit of a courier service such as this to alleviate and give them some breathing room in the hectic lives they carry. I believe entrepreneurs should definitely adapt to their customers, most of the ideas and start-ups are usually prototypes until they’re proven to have a solid framework to carry the business model. They should also stay firm on the services they carry out, some entrepreneurs can make the mistake to branch out and provide a bigger spectrum of services and just like the saying goes, “don't spread yourself to thin”, creating many different problems.