Venture Concept No. 2

Opportunity
The opportunity I found is that students who pay for the meal plan are extremely dissatisfied with the quality and variety of the food served, as well as the people serving the food. Even just today I was dissatisfied because of the mood the server was in. We live in a society with an increasing standard of living, everyone always wants the best thing. In this case, students want better food and better service without having to go out to eat at a nice restaurant every night. This market is defined geographically by the University of Florida and demographically by students who live on campus. Customers are currently satisfying this need by their current meal plan, but many students have cancelled their meal plan coming into the second semester because they were not satisfied. Most students are loyal to the meal plan because not all students know how to cook, making it a necessity for some. This opportunity is huge because of the many dissatisfied customers that I have interviewed, and also by the feedback in my posts promoting my idea. This opportunity will be available until someone else fills in the need that students currently have.

Innovation
Currently the unlimited all access meal plan at the University of Florida is $2235. This price is ridiculous given the feedback from customers. Parents and students shouldn't be paying this much for food that lacks quality and variety. With my service, I do not plan on changing the price. I would much rather change the quality and variety of the food, along with hiring a new friendlier staff. Instead of making it cheaper, I plan on making it fairer for those paying for it. The need for a meal plan will always be there, so it is only a matter of time before someone steps in and updates the quality of the meal plan. If successful, I plan on moving off campus and creating my own buffet style restaurant mimicking the food served on campus. Many people love a good buffet, and if I can offer the food at the same price to adults as students, I'm positive it will be successful.

Venture Concept
Students would definitely be ready to switch to better food and service. Since the meal plan is paid through to the University of Florida, my only difficult task would to propose my idea to the university and hope they accept it. My competitors are people currently in the industry such as fresh foods who currently runs the dining hall. Along with fresh foods, other who may be trying to enter this industry would also be competing with me. Distribution is very key to my business. I want to locate local producers to purchase good quality and variety of food, that way my prices for the meal plan will remain the same price. Using local producers will help keep costs low. My business organization would include around 100 employees, with jobs such as: managers, servers, chefs, distributors and janitors.

Three Minor Elements
1) My most important resource are my connections in the food industry. Knowing local producers will definitely help make my opportunity come to life.

2) I plan on moving to different campuses all over the country who's students are also dissatisfied with their meal plan. After this, maybe even creating a buffet style restaurant if my meal plan idea become successful.

3) In 5 years I plan on being close to selling my venture concept, after reaching out to many different universities all over the United States. As an entrepreneur in a decade, I want to be involved in other businesses and hope to create multiple successful businesses.

Summary

I learned from my feedback that everyone is supportive of my idea. A lot of students are dissatisfied with the meal plan and some even shared stories of bad times they have had from the food in the dining hall. I changed my venture concept only slightly, including the needed change in service from what some students have said, and from my experience today in the dining hall.