Assignment 29A- Venture Concept No. 2 - Handy Man Sam's Parking Garages

Part 1:

Regardless of whether you guys have a car or not, I'm sure that the unfavorable parking conditions in the city of Gainesville have been realized to some extent (maybe not currently, of course). Since I drive lot in my day-to-day life, this is the opportunity I have chosen to take advantage of and improve. From year to year, the city of Gainesville is becoming a lot more populated as the University of Florida accepts more and more students. Naturally, the issue of parking is only going to get worse from here. On top of that, even as it currently stands, the city struggles a lot as it is trying to squeeze everyone into the smallest radius for football games. There are hundreds of thousands of people within a 3 mile radius which is actually ridiculous, especially considering how it's only going down from here. As such, my plan's core objective is to create parking while maximizing the most amount of space. Entailed in my operations plan are three major steps needed in order to create a solution in the city. Each of these are equally important, except the first two are standard for every construction operation in the field and the third step is a distinctive one that serves to set my idea apart from others.
         The first part of the plan is to scout out single-leveled parking lots in high-traffic areas that could use a more efficient and abundant parking system. The main component of the plan is to maximize the given space by simply building the single-leveled parking lot upwards, thereby converting a parking lot to a parking garage. This way, even in crowded areas where there isn't much space like midtown and on campus, a lot of spots can still be made available without actually taking up more street space.
          The second part of my plan would be to create partnerships with the city of Gainesville and the University of Florida to get permission for the construction of these parking garages as well as attain property rights to these single-leveled parking lots. Once this is done, then the immediate construction of the parking lot can begin. Obviously, this would be a very expensive endeavor, so I would of course have many serious investors lined up in exchange for a small amount of equity in my company.
         The third part of my plan is what will make my idea very different from the rest: parking sensors will be installed into each and every spot of my garage and with that technology in place, the number of available spots will be displayed on the outside of the parking building to avoid wasting people's time. This will be very convenient especially for those who commute to campus by car and have experience the nightmare of not being able to find a parking spot during a time crunch.
Furthermore, this data will be also be linked to this app that I will have created for use on cellular devices. This app will have the relative location of all of my parking garages and will pinpoint the closest parking garage available and will also allow you to see the amount of currently available spots in each of the garages. This will add a whole other level of convenience that will change the parking game in the city of Gainesville for good.
         At the moment, the only competitor I have would be the school (UF), neighborhood parking company's, as well as a few parking garage owners in the downtown area of the city. The reason my product/service would better serve the community and provide more opportunity for customers is due to the much higher level of convenience offered by my garages. With a much higher level of technology implemented in these garages, it would make much better use of the space. Furthermore, UF decals and neighborhood parking are extremely expensive so my rates would also be much better than theirs.
         With many of these parking garages around the city, people will never have to loop around the same block 20 times to find a spot. All garages will be interconnected and there will definitely be an attempt to spread out these projects throughout the city evenly. I personally I feel like an idea like this is very necessary considering the growing traffic in Gainesville by the year. The situation as it is now is currently so bad and I have personally never seen anywhere with parking as bad as in Gainesville. With a plan like this one that maximizes space and prioritizes convenience, I find it to be a big step forward in making Gainesville a parking-friendly place.

2. When looking back at the comments I've received on my first venture concept and on my "what's next" assignment, I got the general consensus from my peers that the opportunity I had envisioned was fairly well thought out and that all the details I had thought of went well together and would do a good job of serving the community. I also got some feedback from one of my peers that I should add a section mentioning my competitors and the benefits I have over them.

3. Based on the feedback I have received, my venture concept seems to be fairly coherent and well thought-out. As such, I've kept the foundation the same. Moreover, based on one of the peer reviews I have gotten, I decided it would be best to add in a section talking about the potential competitors I

will have in my industry. I have added a section within my concept addressing this.