Venture Concept No. 1

                                                     Venture Concept

        For this assignment I wanted to take my readers back to the beginning of the class.  Our first assignment on venture concepts threw me off guard. I had no idea of a business that I thought would work. I always wanted to start a bakery but in small town Gainesville, I didn't think it would hit off all that well. So I asked myself, what do Gainesvillians need? I knew that UF students always seemed to complain about parking, so that is what I decided to do my venture concept on. 

   After interviewing about a dozen people, I knew I had found an unmet need. Almost everyone I interviewed agreed that UF was in need of parking for students. I also learned that even faculty don't  receive free parking at UF. After researching on UF's parking website faculty have to pay up to $1,188 annually to park on campus. I was astonished. It seems absurd that an employee has to pay for parking. After learning about the faculty problem of parking, I decided that my venture concept could not only help UF students but also UF employees too. 

    After much thought I could not think of a way to create parking on campus. Campus has a building on almost lot and no space to build a parking garage. The only solution would be off campus parking but people already do that. 

    Finally, an idea came to me, Rent A Scooter. Scooters are a great way for students to get around campus. However most students have cars and don't want to buy a scooter too. I think having a Rent A Scooter store across the street from UF (preferably in midtown) is a great idea. Scooters have dominated UF's environment. UF has huge spaces for scooters to park. I have many friends who have told me they are thinking about buying a scooter but don't know yet because of the price. I think Rent A Scooter is good solution and will be a hit!

     Geographically, my market is contained to Gainesville. It is not common for scooters to be as popular as they are in Gainesville elsewhere. I think setting up shop in Gainesville will start Rent A Scooter. It is possible if business does well here then set up shop in other universities. Most incoming freshman buy scooter even before they their first semester begins. I think this opportunity is huge! I think that scooters will still be big on campuses for a while. 

     Rent A Scooter not only always customers a chance to rent a scooter for a day or up to a week but we also provide charging stations around Gainesville and campus for free charging refills.  I believe electric is the future so I have decided that all Rent A Scooter scooters will be electric. I also believe that our customers will like this since they will receive free chargeable refills. For the charging stations I pictured in my mind a similar look to a gas station. The station would have several hooks to one mount and several mounts to the station. Only Rent A Scooter customers would be able to use the charging stations with a Rent A Scooter card that would be insertable to the charging station. 

     In addition to the chargeable stations, customers have the option for signing up with us for a monthly subscription. Each subscription would entail a year of use of Rent A Scooter, similarly to renting apartments off campus at UF. For example a Rent A Scooter monthly subscriber signed up for a years rent of scooters starting in January. So until next January, each month this subscriber will get a bill of $14 ( I don't know the real rate yet). 

    I believe my customers will like my service because renting from Rent A Scooter requires no maintenance or upkeep of the scooter and no requirement of refilling the gas tank. Also plenty of scooters will be available at the lot for immediate use. I believe Rent A Scooter is a win win for students and even faculty.
    At this point in my life I can start a business. I have no money or assets to buy things to start a company with. I think it is a great idea for an entrepreneur who is finished college and ready to start a buisness.