Opportunity Belief (Assignment 4A)

1. I have a belief that there is an opportunity in the near future to be a business owner of a plumbing or some sort of service related company.

2. After talking to many of my parent's friends, many of them are under the belief that so many other people want to someone great, therefore no one wants to be the plumbers, electricians, and people like these because these jobs are becoming looked down upon by the middle class. My parents, and a countless number of their friends, have a problem finding a decent plumber nowadays, and when they do, the rates they charge are very high, coming from the smaller amount of competition for work. This problem is relatively new, and is actually just starting to become a problem, but after talking with my dad about this exact problem, I have become more confident that it will become a greater issue. At this point, to meet this need of finding a decent plumber, people are just paying the inflated rates, seeing no other alternative. I am 60% confident that this problem exists in many regions of the U.S, if not, all developed countries.

3(a). The first person I talked to was my Uncle John.
4(a). He lives in Ohio in a middle to higher class area. When I asked if he believed this problem existed, he agreed, stating that he never even thought of it as being an opportunity/ problem until I mentioned it. He remembered years before when the prices were lower and he agreed with my statement of changing societal ideals about what a "good job" is. However, he also mentioned to me that with the internet, many people can trooubleshoot a lot of their problems rather than hire a plumber, but he still agreed that many poeple wouldn't even attempt trying. Because there still are plumbers, he never needed a single "solution," but after I explained my idea of starting a business with many well-trained plumbers for a higher class area of South Florida, he thought that it was a great idea.

3(b). The second person I interviewed was my friend's parent, Tim Bull, who lives in a middle to lower class neighborhood.
4(b). Tim lives in South Florida and works as an electrician in the city of Deerfield Beach. After discussing all of the suggested questions, he agreed with me greatly that there is a significant decrease in the number of people who want to work in the service-related industries, including plumbers. He told me that he has been noticing this decrease for the past 3-5 years, and that he has also seen the rates of a lot of other companies rising with this decrease of other competitors. He told me that most of the poeple he services do not mind the increase in prices, and that getting into this industry is not a good thing to get into due to smart technology taking over many of these service jobs.

3(c). The third person I interviewed was a family friend, Laura, who lives in a very upper class neighborhood in Boca Raton, Florida.
4(c). After I discussed some things with her, she too agreed that finding a good plumber to work on her sprinkler system. She told me that not long ago, a water pipe broke under her house and that becuase of such short notice, she paid an astronomical amount for the guy to just pull up one floor board and replace the pipe. She told me she doesn't take care of that kind of stuff around the house, but she talked to her husband on the spot, and he too agreed that the price of hiring a plumber is huge right now, and that he has only noticed that after their water pipe incident becuase of how infrequently he needed a plumber. He said that the last time he needed a plumber, the price seemed to be relatively normal, but that that time was about 2 years before. He said that the only way he is going to accomodate the need is to just try to find a cheaper plumber, but if not, to just pay the price because they have no other option.

5. After talking to these people, I have noticed a few things about my opportunity. For one, I noticed that this problem occurs more so to the upper class, which in reality, is a very small percentage of the population. However, I still feel that a business can be created out of this niche problem, but that I may need to do more research on how feasible it really is. Secondly, I learned that this problem will probably continue to be a bigger issue, and that I should keep my eye out on rates and trends to really see if my hypothesis is correct. I was surprised that I didn't even think about the fact that the internet eliminates a lot of hiring because individuals can learn so much online that they may not even need a plumber most of the time.

7. I believe that a lot of my original opportunity is still there but that I may have lowered my percentage a little. Even though I realized that the amount of people having this problem is smaller than I thought, I still believe that there is enough people to capitalize off of, and that this problem will continue to become a larger issue. I definately believe that my opportunity is more narrowed and accurate now, being that I narrowed my target customer. I believe that it is imperative to listen to customer feedback as they are the ones who are buying the product and as they say, the customer is your boss. I think that if so many people are telling you the same thing that you should maybe reconsider that part of your product/ service, but that someone should take normal criticism lightly and not take everything to heart. The random criticism is normal and should be payed attention to, but that it should not always change your mind on things you believe are right in your product/ service.