Venture Concept No. 1

Longer weekend hours for on campus food places

After attending the University of Florida for nearly a whole year, I have encountered many positive and negative aspects about the school. One thing that bugs me all the time is the limited hours for some of the food places on the weekends. I have asked around and it seems like many people also have a problem with this. The more and more people I talked to made it clear who I needed to target for the implementation of my product. The group of students who live on campus and are on the meal plan are the group who would be most willing to backup my idea. This opportunity for change came when I realized that going places on campus during the weekend is quite difficult and not something that is ideal for everyone. I figured that if restaurants on campus kept their stores open on the weekends or extended their hours, they would be able to drive in more revenue than they would anticipate. Currently, a student who lives on campus would go off campus to get something to eat, wasting time and even not using their meal plan effectively. This opportunity could be very big because not only could I create revenue for myself, I could help the stores make more money, and even save the students time and money as well. This window of opportunity could also be open for a very long time, if places on campus accept meal plans and remain open.

Innovation is something that I thought a lot before finalizing the idea for my service. I thought a lot to myself about whether someone would have tried this before or if it was tested and failed. After looking into it, I believe that it has never been a possibility and the school has not tested it out. The school would be foolish not to at least give it a test run. If they try it out and realize that they can gain more money from it, and satisfy their students needs more, then they should feel that implementing it is a smart move. What I want to do with my service is charge the students a flat rate charge on top of their meal plan to be eligible to eat at the restaurants any time that the restaurant is open. With the money I collect from the students, I should be able to pay the companies to keep the stores open longer on the weekends and give the students optimal times for eating there. I think that a flat rate charge of $50 per semester would be reasonable because it would allow them to eat wherever they want on their meal plans. This amount of money would be roughly 6 meals somewhere off campus. Instead of buying those 6 meals off campus, they can save that money and use it for something else. The money that they have in their meal plan is money they already anticipated on spending on food, thus allowing the extra 50 to be money they do not have to use off campus.

When it all comes together, you can realize that I have come up with a way to save the students time and money. Instead of using money off campus at places they probably do not even want to eat at, they can use that money to pay for my service which is far more convenient and cheaper. I think that customers would use this service because it is something that will allow students to save time which is a big factor for a lot of people in college. It will not be hard to get them to switch once I put into perspective how much cheaper it would be to just use my service rather than go off campus to get something. I think that the only competitors would be the off-campus places which would make deals during the weekend to pull students back off campus to eat cheaper at their restaurants. My price point is set so that it can help pay the restaurants extra money to be open for longer. This money can be used to pay employees or utility bills that might be racked up for being open during the weekends. The customer experience would be a lot better because they would realize the school and food places care about their needs and want to do something more convenient for them. I would organize this business by trying to show students how nice it would be to have this opportunity.

My most important resource will be the fact that I want to make everyone happy. With my service, I will try to make it beneficial for both the students who buy my service, and the restaurants who agree to stay open longer on the weekends. My next step for my venture will be to propose my idea to the school. None of this will be able to happen unless I talk to a representative who tells me what I can and cannot do with this idea. What is next for me is a lot of hard work. I will need to convince everyone that my service is the best thing that they can buy and how it will save them so much time and money if they opt to buy it. I hope that this business takes off and I can even look into helping other schools who have the same problem as The University of Florida does.