Venture Concept No. 1

The opportunity I have found is in regards to the meal plans not only here at the University of Florida, but at all universities, colleges or even high schools who's students are unhappy with the food they are being served. Changes in our society and environment include an increasing standard of living. Many students at prestigious universities are very used to their parents' homemade cooking or eating out at a restaurant. Students want better food and especially for the price they are currently paying. This market is focused mainly on students aged 18-24 who live on college campuses or near college campuses. The need is food and these students want better food than they are being served in the dining halls. The price they pay and the amount of students who pay it show that there will always be students who need or want dining hall food. Along with this, not all students know how to cook for themselves, and might not be able to afford going out to eat everyday. This opportunity is very big because it can be expanded to other universities across the country. This window of opportunity will be available until someone, like myself, recognizes this opportunity and the complaints of students and takes action into creating a better meal plan for students to enjoy.

Currently, the meal plan provided at the University of Florida for 7-day unlimited access is $2235. This is overpriced and definitely not fair for students and parent's of students to be paying because of the many complaints of quality and variety that I have received from interviewing. However, I do not plan on changing this price. The need for a meal plan will always be there, but the quality and variety of the food can be changed. Therefore, I want to make the quality and variety of the food better by gaining strong connections with local producers who can provide the food at a cheaper cost. I plan on expanding this to other universities and schools in order to expand my business idea and possibly may create a buffet style restaurant for non-students to eat at if it is a success. Along with changing the variety and quality of the food, I plan on hiring new staff members in order to fix the complaints that students have had with the service.

Students would be very enticed when offered better quality and variety of food at the same price they are already paying. Given the complaints of the students when interviewing, I have no problem in saying and believing this. Getting the students to switch would not be that hard because it is something that many students need, but getting the university to switch over to my company and idea might be a challenge. The competitors are current food companies who are running the dining halls now, such as fresh food company. Their weakness is that the students they are serving are not satisfied with the quality and variety of the food, and especially for the price they are paying. Distribution of food plays a big part in my business concept, the food would need to be taken care of with refrigeration when transported from farm to dining hall. Customer service will play a part to answer the questions of students or parents and also respond to any complaints or ideas to make my opportunity better. For my product, I will need to employ managers, chefs, servers, distributors and customer service representatives. Managers will be in charge of running the dining hall and checking the food quality, every other job is self explanatory. Only about 150 employees will be needed for all of the jobs offered.

My most important resource would be connections for this venture. Without the connections to farmers and distributors, there is no way possible that my venture will make money and become successful. Having good connections in the food industry will make my business more successful than others'. What's next for my venture is to expand to other schools. This is the easiest way to expand my company if I am successful at stage 1 here at UF. In the next decade I hope to learn from the mistakes I made, provide better quality and variety of food to millions of students across the country and hope to have created a successful business.