Opportunity

1. I believe that an opportunity exists in the midtown food market.  Specifically the late-night midtown food market.  Midtown lacks a chicken restaurant. 

2. The unmet need is the need for a good chicken option for people who go to midtown.  Think about it: there's Relish (burgers), Jimmy John's (sandwiches), Pita Pit (wraps/pitas), Burrito Famous (Mexican), and Italian Gator (Pizza).  There are other options close by as well but no primary chicken restaurant.  Any UF student has this need because of midtown's convenient location close to campus; however, students who patronize the bars at midtown have even more of this need.  Let's face it: drunk college kids like to eat at the end of the night when they have finished drinking.  I think many college kids would enjoy having a place to get tenders or a chicken sandwich after a long night spent at the bars.  This need used to be satisfied by The Coop; however, The Coop closed a few years ago.  I do not believe there are any attempts in the works to satisfy this need as of now.

3. The prototypical customer is anyone in the UF community, so I interviewed three different students who use midtown in a variety of ways.

4-1. The First Student is a fraternity member who enjoys going out on the weekends and getting a late night snack after a night of drinking.  I told him about the need, and he agrees with my addressed need of a chicken place at midtown.  When I asked him when he experiences this need, he said that after going to the bar he enjoys hitting the eateries at mid so he experiences the need when he wants chicken but can't find a place to get some.  He is a senior at UF, so he said the Coop used to be around when he was younger, so he's had it since the Coop closed.  He addresses the need by eating at the other restaurants as well as ordering food on UberEats, which he claims takes long and costs more than walking in and buying food, and he thinks that his current solution will cease to exist if Midtown were to add a chicken restaurant.

4-2. The Second student is a girl who does not go out frequently, and she uses midtown explicitly for food.  She pointed out that she wishes there was a chicken restaurant as well.  She said she really wants a place to get chicken tenders, her go-to studyfood item, when she leaves live Study Edge reviews.  She mentioned how easy it would be to walk out of Study Edge or Lib West which is very close to Midtown to get her chicken, when now she has to wait to catch the bus back to her apartment near sorority row, then hop in her car to go to Zaxby's on Archer or Popeye's on Main St.  She has always had this need, since she's only a freshman.  She first became aware of this need because it first took her an hour from the time she left the library to get her food from Popeye's, which is only about 15 minutes from her apartment.  The process infuriates her because if she had a place to get tenders at midtown, she could buy them then hope on the bus and be eating within 10-15 minutes.

4-3. The Third prototypical customer is a missionary from my church, which is on the same block as midtown.  His need is for catering chicken to the students who are involved with the student group at the church.  He becomes aware of this need when they have to continually order pizza or sandwiches, which they do because those places are so close to the church.  He wants to change up the food he serves, and said a tray of chicken would be perfect for his students and logistically smart for the church because he could walk to the chicken place at midtown to pick up the large order.  He's had this need since his students have jokingly complained about them serving the same food over and over.  They tried to address the need by ordering burgers, but everyone wants different things on their burgers so it is very hard to keep track.  He does not like ordering burgers and thinks chicken would be a great solution.

5. Now I will reflect on what I learned from interviewing potential customers, I must admit I learned so much and see the need much clearer now.  My first interviewee had my perspective on the need, which is that drunk kids want to be able to have chicken after going out.  However, interviewing the two other customers changed the opportunity completely.  With the girl who wants the chicken while she's studying, I now realize how much having a chicken place would make so much logistical sense to anyone who lives within walking distance.  Students won't have to drive or scoot far away to get chicken! Business during the day will change drastically.  As for the missionary, he opened up a whole new aspect of the potential business--catering.  Catering would add so much more revenue.

7.  In summary, I have a much clearer picture then I did previously:

a. My original opportunity hasn't changed, it is still fully there, but it's expanded drastically from what it was in the beginning which was a place for drunk kids to get chicken at night.
b. I believe the new opportunity is much more accurate, because only planning to solve the need for nighttime business is too narrow to be successful in the long-run.
c. I think adapting to your customer's needs is crucial to the success of any entrepreneurial venture.  Any entrepreneur needs to know his market.  Staying firm is stubborn and will not lead to positives over time; however, starting small so as to not take in large costs before your business becomes a success is important as well.