8A: Solving the Problem

Charting to a Solution

• The Opportunity
• This opportunity as I had discussed back in my 7A post is about capitalizing in the health care market, in which I talked about senior assisted living and nursing homes providing inadequate services for their patients and to go along with that sub-par service an expensive price point for that care. There's an opportunity to reform this broken system and reap untold profits due to the lack of competition compared to virtually any other industry.

• The Solution
• As I had also discussed back in my 7A post, there truly isn't an easy or spontaneous solution to this problem / opportunity. Nonetheless the solution to this problem is to increase the quality of care while simultaneously reforming the pricing of assisted living. The way I think of accomplishing this is to created a standardized nursing school or course for the explicit purpose of training people to help the elderly that introduce workshops that prepare nurses for the problems they'll encounter while assisting seniors with either unsound mind or body. This means that the elderly in the care of homes are better cared for, and thus the quality of life adjustments could be used to justify a high price point, but not one that current for-profit run facilities use.

7A: Testing the Hypothesis, Part 1

The Beginning Steps of a Hypothesis

The Opportunity: After a bit of thought, I realized that the best opportunities start to help a problem in the present and become a pillar for solutions in the future. To put my opportunity into a statement best: "Nursing homes and care-wards are unable to provide the adequate care necessitated by the physical and mental limitations of the elderly as a result of the insurance policies of corporate run hospice/nursing homes."

• The Who: Nursing homes and care-wards.
• The What: Ineffective care for aging Americans.
• The Why: Insurance policies of for profit nursing homes.

Testing the Hypothesis:

• The Who: By extension of the problem, the "who" also includes the elderly who need to be placed into assisted living. 
• The What: I would wager that any patient in a nursing home faces the issues of inadequate care at the hands of programs that can be provided by the home itself, or by the staff. 
• The Why: One of the many "whys" for the failures of nursing homes is their payment policies relating to an absurd monthly price-point for the purpose of covering all patients care plans, while in reality they take those insane profit margins and do the bare minimum under contract to keep their customers healthy. But this "why" isn't exclusive to the for profit insurance policies specific to elder care, but also the training provided to the nurses / staff being insufficient to help these patients when they might be under duress or suffering from something.

Interviews:

In each interview I read the opportunity statement off, and after giving opinions on it I ask numerous questions relating to the who, what and why.

•  Interview #1
• "I think it's a well thought out idea, especially when you consider the aging boomer population getting older and with the younger generations dealing with a market left in turmoil cheaper and better care for seniors is going to be a must. Your who definitely seems on the money but the why seems a bit shaky, as I think there might be larger problems that go into contributing to the what."
• Interview #2
• "Seems like a fairly generational problem, but there is room to make a business opportunity around a reform like this. I think the who should include more than just nursing homes, but also the patients affected, and on a side note I feel that there really is no easy solution to this."
• Interview #3
• "This seems like a very eery problem, as in one that is going to sneak up on a lot of people in the later walks of life. I can say for certain I want to be cared for better than what a lot of those elderly get at those homes. The Who and What seem pretty good, but the why could also be in part to the lack of competition major nursing home companies lack."
• Interview #4
• "The opportunity is there but I don't have much firsthand experience with it as my family never used one of these care services before. As for the who though, I think it's not as cut and dry as you make it out to be. I think the profit margins for a better care systems would be weaker depending on just how many elderly in the next generations need this service."
• Interview #5
• "Altogether seems like a venture that could yield quite well assuming the solution to each of your why's isn't as monumentally difficult as it looks to be on paper. Making a better care system seems like the solution to go for when you mentioned your What, but tackling it at such a broad scope seems pretty difficult to go on.

Reflection: I feel like after going through the interviews that the opportunity surely exists, but it would take quite a while to make a thorough solution and on top of that, it would seem extremely difficult to draft the resources to make one. All in all it definitely exists, but to make a full blown solution work well it seems a tad out of reach.

6A: Identifying Opportunities in Regulatory and Economic Trends

Four Opportunistic Trends:

• Trend One: Biometric Security
• My mind first jumped to this opportunity after reading it from this specific article. Modern technology continues to evolve and find ways to assist and in some cases invade day to day life. Which is why I believe there exists an economic opportunity to improve antiquated homeowner security measures. With biometric enhanced doors and security systems perturbing all standard means of breaking and entering, I believe the customer base would be upper middle class suburban families all the way to the higher economic sector of things like banks and firms. It would be difficult to develop a standard U.I and servicing price, but it is heavily exploitable as there exists no current market for it. I saw the idea for this opportunity since I've always been pretty into security systems and wanting to make a futuristic one.
• Trend Two: Biodegradable Straws
• This specific opportunity relates to both economic and regulatory changes, but I would argue more towards regulatory (Source here). With topics like global warming steadily rising in our society and talks of renewable energy being the way forward, many fast food companies and restaurants alike will have to comply with upcoming policies, and marketplaces more inclined to shop conscientiously with green companies. McDonalds is even moving away from plastic straws and onto paper straws shortly, which proves that this opportunity exists on a huge scale. This products primary customers would be dinners and people going out to eat, and with shareholder backing a full on production of paper straws would be very easy to accomplish. The reason I saw this opportunity is because of the devolving politics and the increasing pressure from top scientists warning of humanity's consumption, and plastic being the biggest contributor.
• Trend Three: Smart Glasses
• The economic opportunity I identified through here and brief look at the current generation smart devices. The technology is there to create smart devices in the form of TV's, Refrigerators, and even watches, so it's a natural extension to go to something like glasses.  The customer base would essentially mimic the current buyers of smart tech but for those with a need for glasses or hands of displays. The endeavor would definitely be difficult due to the ability to make the chips and a passable U.I , but it is doable with effort and backing. I saw this opportunity due to the equally cool but less tech heavy glasses like the SnapGlasses, and realizing the only thing necessary was innovating a unique processor for the features.
• Trend Four: Waste Vaporizer
• This regulatory opportunity definitely follows along with waste disposal regulation, and takes a spin on it with some innovation. The opportunity surely exists as detailed in this article, and talks about using plasma to vaporize trash and convert it into gas. The opportunity surely exists due to the fact that American landfills are as polarizing as they are full. Customers would be the solid waste authority and other government waste disposable agencies. The opportunity is unimaginably hard to realize due to the process being incomplete, but with proper research and implementation the profit margins would be inconceivably high. I realized this opportunity as early as when I went on a field trip to the dump and they spoke on the need for technology to assist with human waste.

5A: Identifying Local Opportunties

5 Local Opportunities

• "In High Demand- Florida Contractors Say They Anticipate a Shortage of Constructors"
• Link
• South Florida contractors are actually facing an employment shortage they've never anticipated. Wages are on the rise and profit margins are the highest they've ever been but 80% of most Florida contractors are facing employment shortages. This is being caused mostly by the decreasing lack of white collar workers emerging from more recent generations. The most affected party in this ordeal has to be the Association General Contractors; needing 1/3rd more of a work force for upcoming projects.
• "Arguments- for and against buying gold - The Savage Truth"
• Link
• The article details both the pros and cons of getting involved in the gold industry; including purchasing and selling gold. The current trend in the gold economy is at a low point for buying and selling, and investment through gold can't current collect interest either, but if you enter the industry you can take stock in the Gold Exchange Economy and diversify your earnings with bullion. This problem mostly affects the Gold Sellers / Buyers in America.
• "Language school closes Fla. branches - Hundreds of education visa holders stranded."
• Link
• One of the most prominent Florida companies known for providing educational opportunities in the form of english learning schools for immigrants with educational visas has closed up shop, causing the displacement of all of their students, leaving their citizenship and their wages up in the air. Pre-paid tuition isn't being refunded and teachers are missing out on their paychecks, but the truly afflicted party in this situation are the poor immigrants who may have their visas rescinded should no other institution accept them.
• "New developments designed to 'make a dent in the crisis' of affordable housing."
• Link
• Following the housing crisis of 2013 and 2015, many people are still hurting from the loss of their home's property values and like-wise many people still cannot afford to find a place to live in general. Luckily, the South Florida company Housing Trust is has 4 projects underway, and one recently completed in Broward County. The 55 year old and older 6 story development is some of the most affordable housing in the area and due to the utilities is touted as "recession-proof". The housing problem affect most every Floridian looking to find housing and companies like the Housing Trust are starting ti make a dent in the problem.
• "Florida leaders blast Airbnb over rental ban - Services withdrawn from Israeli settlers in West Bank"
• Link
• This business dealing with Airbnb has created a social media disaster. After Airbnb decided to withdraw listings in West Bank, a providence on the Israeli disputed territory, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and other Florida government employee's blasted the decisions as anti-semitic. The problem comes in the form of Airbnb seemingly never having done something so rash before, and disenfranchising jewish homeowners. The afflicted parties Airbnb and the Jewish community are at odds with each other over this, and I can see an opportunity for other home-based services to jump at the opportunity to overtake Airbnb over their costly decision.

4A: Forming an Opportunity Belief

Breakthrough to the Opportunity 

Opportunity Identification is what I think separates the gifted from the great, so if I want to realize my full potential it makes sense that I should be able to identify a grandiose opportunity. That being said; I think what I can identify as an opportunity is that with an aging baby boomer populace we will be far more in need of qualified nurses for these people making way for the refinement of the medical school industry; which is long outdated for the modern world in which people need to be able to join this work force to provide in full for the elderly. The only thing that is being done to perturb this need is under-qualified nursing homes taking care of an increasing number of senior citizens, which makes room for an opportunity to create nursing programs that only take into account the vital details of assisting the disabled elderly and don't take 4+ years to complete on a bankrupting tuition.

Interview 1: 

• To what scale does this problem affect you? Are the solutions available satisfactory?
• "Yes, my 91 year old mother is in assisted living, and the programs in place for her don't really meet her needs or mine."
• Do you see a need for the services for the elderly to be increased, and would the economy suffer for it?
• "Absolutely, with medicaid and the like taking effect shortly on my generation, I think theres room to improve the systems in place for a profit."
• Reflection: None of the responses I received were too off base from the predictions, someone going into their old age would like to be taken care of properly, and she was able to recognize the coming need for the refinement.

Interview 2: 

• When did you become aware of the growing need for assisted living, and what experience if any do you have with this problem?
• "Well, probably when quite a few of my colleagues began experiencing the nature of finding homes for their aging parents, and while I consider myself lucky for my parents being able to live comfortably on their own just fine, I realized this is a problem many people are going to have to go through this without any sort of plan ahead of time."
• When you look at the nursing staff that work in these places, do you consider the elderly's experience to be good enough; as well as the price point of their care?
• "Again, going off of my earlier comment I can tell you that many of my friends parents are in these homes and the stories that can be brought up about the care they receive can be mixed. It seems that the higher you go the more comfortably your folks can be, but the price can extend beyond 50,000$ a year in some cases, so it really is just a mixed bag?
• Reflection: While not personally affected, he seemed to be very aware of the situation unfolding within his generation, and seemed appropriately in line with the need for more institutions to have better equipped nurses at a lower price point.

Interview 3:

• What familiarity do you have the assisted living community, and what would you like to see change about it?
• "My mother is actually in assisted living, so I am very in tune with it, and I wish I could change everything about it. It's honestly not affordable to make sure both she and I can live well; and I find myself wondering just how the price can be justified when the nurses constantly lose possessions in laundry, and can't seem to keep my mother healthy enough to stay out of the doctors office."
• Reflection: This boomer's answer is only confirmation to the fact that the elderly face 2 major problems. One is that the affordability just isn't there to keep the people in health and spirit, and the other is simply that some nurses aren't equipped for the care they need to be able to provide.

I really think most of the opportunity is there to refine a system in desperate need of new solutions for an incoming retiring baby boomer population; and the interviews really confirmed it. The interviewees really wanted to have their cake and eat it too. I think the price could definitely go down, and the quality of life of these places bettered, but not at the pace that they would see as being good enough. It starts with hiring more qualified nurses which increases price point; but with corporate oversight a profit margin would be workable; the average rates for a person could decrease, and the quality of care could increase.

3A: My Entrepreneurship Story.

My Entrepreneurship Experience

To be honest I never really had much of a handle on what Entrepreneurship was when I was younger; I more or less considered it to just being a door to door salesperson. The earliest moment in my life I could classify as being entrepreneurial was my elementary school assembly on Yo-Yo's. This school sponsored meeting was led by three entrepreneurs who had come to our school to tell us about what made their Yo-Yo's so unique in landscape where the average toy had to be explosive in nature to capture our attention. NED's Yo-Yo's was the name, and their lead designer spoke on about how he always felt that Yo-Yo's needed to be varied in skill level and application to really bring out the fun that modern toys lacked; which is why they designed 3 variations of Yo-Yo's for children of different ages and skill levels (each came with a manual and special steel container). Their assembly was an immediate success, and parents all over shelled out anywhere from 10$ to 100$ for a NED kit. I personally enrolled in ENT3003 since I am an IA student, but also did so this semester because I wanted to broaden my business horizons.

The Class NED Boomerang Yo-Yo:

 

2A: Things that bug me :(

The Stuff That Bugs Me

1. Planned Obsolescence. The pacing of technology via Moore's Law indicates that by each years end, the capabilities of our devices should be doubled, yet so many corporations design their products to be inefficient the longer they are used in an effort to push consumers to buy each new iteration of their service / product.
2. Retail Quota. In the commercial retail industry employees are meant to not only service customers but also shovel keynote products onto them; and should the consumer decline the offer, the employee faces reprimands for the actions of the customer. The practice occurs to attempt to drive profit up but the failure lies in the fact that a quota system invalidates the integrity of the product pushed.
3. Commercial Furniture Screws. During the construction of furniture, many plants use uniquely designed screws to make their furniture, resulting in owners of the furniture being unable to unscrew or fix the furniture should such a need occur. It is the result of corporate greed in an attempt to urge people to buy another set / purchase the screw/ screwdriver through them.
4. Modern Car Dealerships. Most car dealerships of current will not allow a car to be sold or leased without the use of multi-mont payment plan rather than through a straight deposit via cash or check. The "why" is because the payment plans cause the dealership to gain more profit from the payment plan that quietly scams the owner.
5. Wet Wipes. Wet Wipes aren't inherently buggy, but the ones that advertise being flushable are. Some 90+% of these so called flushable wipes still clog your septic tank; and that just gives Huggies a bad name. Obviously this is done for corporate gain.
6. Inter-State Highway Traffic. For the amount of timing that takes place on these roads, you'd think they're would be more of a focus on accidents. Whenever an accident occurs, you'll surely be late by an hour but those same officers who are payed (mostly) by the tickets they give surely can't be bothered to assist the civilians attempting to bypass an accident.
7. Professor's Textbook Lists. Often times a professor would briefly mention a textbook required for a course on syllabus day, but lo-and behold! It's a book published and written by them! They force students who already pay tuition to go out their way to buy their material while taking their class. It's quite obviously done for monetary gain and ego building.
8. Facebook. Most users of this social network wouldn't even care that Mark Zuckerburg publicly sells their private information to corporations and those with the highest bid. The meat and potatoes of why Facebook does it is to please shareholders and fill their pockets.
9. Apple / Tech Companies' Cables. Many tech companies (but most notoriously Apple) design their phones/laptops to require brand new cables that are incompatible with standard ones forcing people to go and buy one to use their already purchased device. It's always done to increase profit.
10. Gainesville Parking. I understand that public service could always stand to be better, but UF is the bottom of the barrel in terms of parking. Decals cost an arm and a leg and good luck finding a spot in Fall/Spring. The reason it remains so poor is UF's commitment to keep a dilapidated, rustic campus.
11. Airport TSA. The security methods that are meant to keep us safe are the very things that cause an outrage when flying. The abysmal success rate of the TSA doesn't come close to making up for the waits it creates. TSA exists in the first place as a way to appease the public.
12.  Senior Citizen Discounts. Most restaurants and other places of business happen to include these, but the patrons who use them take an obscene amount of time ordering , complaining , or questioning things. In some cases it can result in more customers feeling poor than the people getting the discounts. These discounts are usually done to help public opinion.
13. Commercials. Commercial breaks are necessary for networks to remain afloat, but these networks also get payed by viewer count / cable. So why is it every show is infested with so many despite networks getting more than enough viewership?
14. Washing Machines. These detergent hungry, power guzzling machines often leak and have a multitude of issues. They are improper in their duties because of developer oversight.
15. Lightbulbs. From LED to standard wattage Lightbulbs are few and far between when it comes to what houses them. Without the correct stand any lightbulb you might buy could be worthless. This is done due to planned obsolescence. 
16. Pollution. With the tatters of the ozone layer and the greenhouse gases inhabiting our stratosphere, commercial production only increases. It is being done to fuel supply and demand.
17. News Outlets. Current localized TV houses either far left or far right viewpoints that usually cater to older baby boomers. This is obviously done to polarize news and spark new attention / gain new views.
18. Turlington-Pamplet People. It's already stressful enough to deal with classes, social lives, and making to to class on time, but these people don't care and will speak and hand you things whether you'd like to give them your time or not. It's always done to promote something or other.
19. Evangelicals. It goes right along with #18 , but the worsts are Televangelists, the preachers who use religion to shroud their greed with their on air packages. They're actions are done for money.
20.  Rent. Most Gainesville leases separate rent from utilities in larger complexes despite how easily grouped together they are. As for why, i'm not to sure; my best guess would be laziness / profit from lack of maintenance.

Reflection: I honestly didn't find composing this list quite challenging. I constantly ask myself how I would change society for it to work better as cocky as that sounds. Some problems were very similar but I felt the need to distinguish them to highlight just how much it "bugs" me.

Test Blog

This is to make sure that my post is public and I can depend on this platform.