Assignment 30

After looking through my old posts, some of the more memorable ones are ones about self reflection, and seeing where I am, what skills I have that set me apart from everyone else, and where I hope to end up. Self reflecting was formative because it forced me to consider things that I don't usually think about, and this gave me better insight to myself. I enjoyed hearing people talk about me as well, so doing the assignment in which friends gave feedback on what makes my human capital unique was great to hear. I'm proud of the work I did to research this project and interview so many people I didn't even know about it. I definitely have more of an entrepreneur mindset because I took the initiative to speak to so many people about a topic I really didn't know all that much about. I would recommend future students to choose a topic they care about, because to do well, its important not to procrastinate.  It will make the research much more enjoyable. Also doing the work ahead of time will help keep them sharp and as a result more interested in the material because they have more time and consider what they are writing about and reflect on how their new ideas will help or hurt the company.

Assignment 29

In this Assignment I will start by talking about the opportunity of my business plan. The  opportunity has to do with solving the needs created by patients who are suffering from repeated bodily physical pain. This may include, but is not limited to back pain, ankle pain, knee pain, elbow pain, and neck pain. The similarity that all these types of pain have is that they are felt by the individual, and cause significant pain or discomfort that lessens the quality of life for the patient. This means that the person experiencing the pain cannot enjoy simple things such as walking, turning their head to look around, stand up, or bend over without putting so much stain on their body the the action becomes something that they almost entirely avoid. There are a few ways these people can look for treatment. The most common one is in the hospital. However, doctors that work in hospitals are often not sufficiently trained in chronic pain because they did not go to school to specialize in these areas. As a result, surgeries to alleviate the pain are over diagnosed, when in many situations it is not a surgery that would be most beneficial for the patient. Also, this problem is compounded because doctors often over prescribe narcotics to alleviate the pain that the patient is feeling. Narcotics help numb pain , so while it does help the patient feel better in the short run, in the long run it is not a sustainable course of action because of the long term health effects that narcotics provide. Also, this does not really fix the problem, which is the reason that the pain exists. Instead, it tends to focus more on blocking the pain itself, which is not ideal for a long-term solution. This opportunity provides a way for patients who suffer from this chronic pain to seek help by  targeting the source of the pain instead of the pain itself. This provides healthier, deeper solutions and reduces the possibility that the pain will reoccur. The market to which I am selling to are older, ideally wealthier people who have pain. Many doctors are already moving in this direction to help patients, but the vast majority are still comfortable working in hospitals, making it the perfect time to look into pain clinic options. In this situation, the patients are not loyal to the hospitals at all, but rather to wherever they will receive the best service for their health. This is important to keep in mind because we must keep in mind that the number one priority should always be to provide the best possible care for the customer. This is a great opportunity because it is ahead of the curve. With hospitals becoming more and more expensive, sometimes charging 50 dollars for a single Tylenol, people will start looking for other solutions.  This is a very practical solution that appeals to customers both because of its high level of service and also because of its more personal care. In addition, my business will to its best to optimize reactive care whenever possible, while still attempting to promote preventative care as well. 

This is an innovative business concept because not many people have done it yet. We are on the early side of providing people with high quality care on a smaller scale that specializes in individuality. We are selling a solution to pain. While the cost is complicated because the cost is dependent on the amount of visits, the difficulty of solving the pain issue, and the results of how successful we are, the cost system would be based on typical rates that hospitals charge for similar nerve block procedures, injections, and surgeries. However, our costs would be reduced because the smaller scale pain clinic means dealing with less bureaucracy.

I received helpful feedback on my last assignment. Tommy and Brooke were helpful because they pointed out the differences between reactive and preventative care, as well as why preventative care may be hard to execute in the scenario. I had to rethink how to structure my market because of these comments but I think that this will be helpful because I can target a more narrow group of people that are looking for specific solutions. Because of this feedback I thought about what my customers were looking for and changed my market structure to better target patients that were suffering from pain, meaning its a reactive service as opposed to a a preventative one. This more narrow focus will help me be more efficient in helping my customers. 

Assignment 28

I believe that my personal exit strategy depends greatly on the success for failure of the company while it exists and grows. Personally, if the company is still showing massive improvement in 5 years, as it rapidly expands and develops I believe that I would be much more unlikely to sell the company that if I were to grow it quickly in 3 years and then have it either sit or grow slowly during the next two. For this reason I believe that my strategy would be dependent of the relative success and current growth rate if the company in 5-7 years. Although after having it for a long time, I am certain I would begin to catch feelings for the company, it would make economic profit scene to sell it one it begins to peak and level off, if the offering price is good and if the company would be in good hands after I leave the company. I would like to ensure the ideals upon which the company were founded stay after I am gone, regardless of the price it is sold for. I am selecting selling the company after many years because it is the option that would bring in the most profit and help support my family. This exit strategy has affected my outlook because it is one way in which I could easily and quantifiably measure the success of the company.  I would use this money to invest in the future of my family and also buy a boat.

Assignment 26

Although I have had a successful semester overall, one area in which I fell short was in the racquetball intramural tournament a few months ago. I played with my friend James and we started off the tournament really well, winning decisive victories over our first 4 opponents. We let our easy victories get to our heads, and once we made it to the finals we were severely overconfident. This proved to be our downfall as we did not warm up or prepare for the final mentally, because we assumed it would be an easy road to win the championship. After the first couple points we could tell something was wrong as we were missing easy shots and playing with really poor movement. We made a brave attempt at a comeback but we fell short and lost ion a close game. While this failure was a bummer in the moment my friend and I realized why we played badly and decided we would not underestimate teams in the future. This is key because it shows that we did fail, but that failure should be seen as a positive, not a negative because of the way in can improve you when you learn from your past mistakes. For this reason I am much more likely to take a risk in the future.

Assignment 27

For the third reading assignment, I read the book The Art of Social Media: Power Tips for Power Users by Guy Kawasaki. This was a really interesting read that seemed extremely relevant because it made a lot of connections to things we experience in our daily lives. The book was centered around specific ways that organizations can effectively use Social Media to convey messages about its products as well as the ideals the company represent. In the contents of the book were embedded several of the selling and entrepreneurship ideals that we have been discussing all year. For example, The best ways to reach the customers immediate issues was discussed, as well as how to reach the customers on line in a way that addressed their most immediate problems. An exercise that the class could do would be to all go online and find three real examples of social media marketing, and then choose 2 of the most effective advertisements and discuss what they did well to promote their company. One surprising thing I picked up from the text was the idea of planning our the posts you are planning to post well in advance. This is a unique takeaway because I had not previously considered the implications of this strategy. I also had never thought about this before, as I usually view social media as being posted in the spur of the moment. 

Assignment 24

In this Assignment I will start by talking about the opportunity of my business plan. The  opportunity has to do with solving the needs created by patients who are suffering from repeated bodily physical pain. This may include, but is not limited to back pain, ankle pain, knee pain, elbow pain, and neck pain. The similarity that all these types of pain have is that they are internal, are repeated, and have to do with  movement. This means that the person experiencing the pain cannot enjoy simple things such as walking, turning their head to look around, stand up, or bend over without putting so much stain on their body the the action becomes something that they almost entirely avoid. There are a few ways these people can look for treatment. The most common one is in the hospital. However, doctors that work in hospitals are often not sufficiently trained in chronic pain because they did not go to school to specialize in these areas. As a result, surgeries to alleviate the pain are over diagnosed, when in many situations it is not a surgery that would be most beneficial for the patient. Also, this problem is compounded because doctors often over prescribe narcotics to alleviate the pain that the patient is feeling. Narcotics help numb pain , so while it does help the patient feel better in the short run, in the long run it is not a sustainable course of action because of the long term health effects that narcotics provide. Also, this does not really fix the problem, which is the reason that the pain exists. Instead, it tends to focus more on blocking the pain itself, which is not ideal for a long-term solution. This opportunity provides a way for patients who suffer from this chronic pain to seek help by  targeting the source of the pain instead of the pain itself. This provides healthier, deeper solutions and reduces the possibility that the pain will reoccur. The market to which I am selling to are older, ideally wealthier people who have pain. Many doctors are already moving in this direction to help patients, but the vast majority are still comfortable working in hospitals, making it the perfect time to look into pain clinic options. In this situation, the patients are not loyal to the hospitals at all, but rather to wherever they will receive the best service for their health. This is important to keep in mind because we must keep in mind that the number one priority should always be to provide the best possible care for the customer. This is a great opportunity because it is ahead of the curve. With hospitals becoming more and more expensive, sometimes charging 50 dollars for a single Tylenol, people will start looking for other solutions.  This is a very practical solution that appeals to customers both because of its high level of service and also because of its more personal care.

This is an innovative business concept because not many people have done it yet. We are on the early side of providing people with high quality care on a smaller scale that specializes in individuality. We are selling a solution to pain. While the cost is complicated because the cost is dependent on the amount of visits, the difficulty of solving the pain issue, and the results of how successful we are, the cost system would be based on typical rates that hospitals charge for similar nerve block procedures, injections, and surgeries. However, our costs would be reduced because the smaller scale pain clinic means dealing with less bureaucracy.

The small scale of this business will appeal to customers because they will receive more personalized care. Hospitals are our competitors, but many patients will seek us simply because they care about their own well being much more than any loyalty they may have to a specific hospital. While the number of employees depends upon how many customers we receive, I would expect to start with anywhere from 1 or 2 doctors, working together with 1-3 assistants. This should be enough to see anywhere from 50-70 patients on a weekly basis. However, as we get more customers I would expect this number to go up. The doctors are the most useful resource we have because of the value they bring, and how hard they are to replace. Following up with patients and increasing how many customers we have to grow the business are two future goals that I would like to have. In the next 5 years, operating with anywhere from 3-5 doctors and 5-10 assistants is where I would like to be.

Assignment 25

In terms of growing the business plan and coming up with potential ways we could grow in the future, talking with customers was really helpful. For example, one suggestion I had was to come up with a system that routinely checks in with past patients to make sure they are doing well and are free of pain and healthy. This is important for several reasons. Not only will it make sure our patients are doing well, but the fact that we reach out will promote a positive image for the company and ensure that our reputation spreads in a positive way. This will be likely to increase the amount of repeat patients who feel comfortable with our system and wish to come back in the future. \

Also, another idea which builds off something we were already going to do is working closely with our local hospital. While this hospital was already going to send us referrals and support our business, we could increase the effectiveness of this mutual cooperation and advertise more heavily inside the hospital itself in the form of flyers and representatives that can easily access potential customers.

We are primary targeting older, wealthy patients because they are more likely to get injured and are easier to collect money from than people with bad insurance or medicare. Young, lower income people are a radically different group. We could appeal to them by not having a full pain surgery on them, but instead have cheap flu shots that would help them stay healthier from sicknesses. This is low cost and does not take up much time. After talking to people, the only suggestion that seemed to be a potential option was to help these people not necessarily in the form of medical service, but by offering information sessions and internships.

These information sessions could be really helpful because they would educate the younger generation on medical facts and help promote the image of the company as well.

Assignment 23

1-Doctors- very valuble, rare because there are not that many doctors out there, not easily imitable because of the resources required, however doctors in hospitals are a close substitute.
2-Organisational System that allows patients find doctors. Somewhat valuable, may help some people. not rare, these are common. Are easily imitable. somewhat non-substitute.
3-Pain Clinics- very valuable. Pretty rare, not that many around. Not easily imitable. Hospitals are a substitute
4-Online Registration- valuable, facilitates time for patients. Not rare, this is common. This is also imitable. Coming in person is a substitute, but less efficient.
5-Medical Equipment- Valuable, this is necessary. Not rare, this can be obtained easily. Imitable, can be  copied. No substitutes.
6-Hospital's Referrals- Rare, helps raise credibility. Rare, not many have this. Hard to imitate. Non-substituteable.
7-Word of mouth to advertise- valuable, raises credibility. not rare, many companies have this. Hard to imitate, this is unique, substitute is online advertising.
8-Professionalism- Valuable, not rare. This is imitable, but to close substitutes.
9-Accessible location- This is valuable for patients, not rare. This is also imitable and there may or may not be close substitutes.
10-Personal one on one care- Very valuable, somewhat rare. imitable, but no close substitutes.

My top resource are the doctors that will work at the clinic. These are rare, valuable, hard to imitate, and there are not close substitutes.

Assignment 22

https://youtu.be/4dlLCxCuL24

I was really exited about the feed back I received and think I was able to use it to improve upon my last 2 pitches. I made sure my fan was completely still before starting, and dressed professionally, and also made sure that the camera was at a little bit of a higher level, and held horizontal.

Assignment 21

For the second book of the semester, I am writing about Peter Drucker's book Innovation and Entrepreneurship. As the title suggests, the book discussed Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the business world. However, while the introduction seemed to focus more deeply on the extent to which the economy affects these two factors, the book later transitioned to a more in depth discussion of how they are affected by society in general. Much of what Drucker talked about in his book correlate with what we talk about in class. For example, he discusses the importance of starting small before starting big, and how to become an effective leader as an entrepreneur. A suggestion for an activity the class could do would be come up with 3 of the most specific niche markets that exist in Gainesville today. I was pretty surprised when Drucker mentioned that that these formulas apply not only to small start up corporations, but large corporations as well.

Assignment 20

1) My dad is a doctor, and I used him as my first expert in the industry because he has a Phd is the medical field, and is currently switching from working in a hospital to opening up his own pain clinic. My dad did not ask for anything in return for reaching out to him, but he gave me the names of several other people in the industry who could be useful in the future.

2) Tom Savage is a physician who works in Tampa, Florida, and is an expert in the market. He understands how the supply of customers in regard to medical care works because he specializes in patients with medicare, and understands how payment for bills with people who use medicare works. My dad met him through a business meeting, and he was more than happy to give me a quick phone call and discuss the efficiency of hospital work vs pain clinic work

3)Linda Rowdy works for a company which distributes a variety of medical equipment for hospitals in northeast Florida, and as a result constitutes as my expert supplier. I found her through my father, because she distributes a significant amount of the goods his hospital uses. She didn't ask for anything in return, but was really kind and helpful during our conversation.

This was different than other interviews I've done because the conversation was much more focused on a specific topic.

Assignment 19

I am a 20 year old college student at the University of Florida. I spend my time studying for classes and hanging out with my friends, building social capital. Also, I enjoy working out and studying a variety of subjects outside of class. I am offering a pathway for patients who have chronic pain to find long term help at a pain clinic as opposed to a hospital and narcotics. I am offering this solution to anyone who has pain and would like to be treated, but will most likely fall heavier on the older generation, as they are more prone to suffer from this type of pain. They care about this solution because with it they will be able to lessen their own pain and become happier and live better lives. This is relatively new to the industry, so not many people are even aware this is an option, which means it has the potential to reach a large market.
The feedback I received was positive, but I decided to apply the part about going more into detail about the demographics of my ideal customer.

Assignment 17

Link- https://youtu.be/vwVu3NfnVko

I believe that the most of the feedback was very helpful. I was told that I should pronounce words a little bit clearer, and have a little bit more energy when I deliver the elevator pitch, which seems like helpful advice, which I tried to improve the second time around. I did not receive any feedback that I think was silly or unnecessary. I attempted to incorporate the bits of advice into my second video.

Assignment 18 A

My typical customer is a 65-70 year old woman who fell down the stairs while taking her cat out for her morning meal. This woman is blonde, with kind blue eyes, and has her hair up in a bun. Her skin is a little wrinkled, but she still seems to be younger than her actual age. She has a lot of energy, and is very social at the local YMCA, interacting with both adults and children. She wakes up early and goes to bed early, and drives a little blue Honda Civic to get to the library, where she works as a librarian for fun 5 times a week, and reads stories to children. Her favorite book is "The Little Mermaid" because the girls that she reads the story to love it.  In the evenings, the returns home to her loving husband who works as a mailman and they watch Jeopardy together. They love westerns, and watch some romance movies as well. They both are in the center politically, but lean right because they feel these policies help them live a more comfortable life. She has 2 children, aged 32 and 26, and is soon to be a grandmother to a pair of twins.

While this avatar is significantly different than me in several ways, we do share some things in common. While some of the things we share in common are coincidence, I subconsciously posed some of my own values on this Avatar, because I created her. For example, we are both right leaning politically, love Jeopardy and Westerns, and loved going to the YMCA.

Assignment 16A

5 ways my human capital is unique:
1) Willing to put in long hours of work that most people are unable to do
2) I am comfortable not understanding how to do something at the begging, I am wiling to learn.
3) I speak English, Spanish, and French.
4) I am able to work on several projects at the same time. While I am not good at multitasking, I am good and focusing hard on one task at a tie to make sure everything gets done.
5) Sociable personality that allows me to get along well with almost anyone right off the start.

link- https://youtu.be/cflIS8G_6dI

I see myself as hardworking, diligent, and energetic. After listing to these people who know me well describe positive characteristics about me, I feel humbled that people whom I care about value me so highly. There were a few characteristics that I did not see in myself, for example being emotional, however most of the characteristics I do see in myself. I think some of the disparity is a result of me acting a certain way when I am around different people. For the mostly part I do think the interviews were accurate. I would also include organized and emotional in my first 5 characteristics.

Assignment 15

I found 3 people to interview about using pain solution clinics as a transition from hospital narcotics. Two of the interviewees are family friends of my mothers, and the third is a mutual friend of my roommate. When it comes to medical well being, all three interviewees originally stated that price is one of the most important factors, if there is a drastic variance in the cost. However if the prices are relatively close, health is something so important that most of the people I interviewed claimed that they are willing to pay a little more if it does result in better long term health. While style is not a big concern, (efficiency is more important than flashy looks for medicine), quality is something that everyone was very interested in. Quality must be very high if patients will consider it and if hospitals will refer their patients to these clinics. In this system, the most common way of paying for the service will be through insurance and medicare. This is both a good thing and a bad thing. It is good because more people will come for the better service if they are less responsible for the payment. However, dealing with medicare from certain patients can definitely be a struggle. For this reason, payment does not come right away, but takes several weeks to be processed and sent out to the doctors. When looking back on the effectiveness of the purchase, the potential customers would look primarily at one thing- how effective the treatment was. Similarly, reflecting on a bad purchase would be if they received poor treatment, and the pain that they felt was not significantly made better. In summary, the three people I interviewed felt similarly about the ideals of treatment, and felt the same way about why they want it. Health is a primary concern for so many people because it effects their everyday lives, and determines how they are able to interact with the world. Because of this date, I can determine that there is little shortage of people who need this service at one point or another, because people are always getting injured. Also, I determined that  people are also usually willing to pay a little extra for superior care, but not all the time. 

Assignment 14

The most useful behavior to keep up with the class requirements is a good sense of time management. There are many assignments, and not waiting until last minute to finish everything will reduce stress and ensure greater quality. There's been specific classes that have been challenging in college, and I've done very poorly on the first exam. However, after collecting myself, I was able to look ahead to the next exams and focus on studying harder and did well on them. I have become more tenacious in the last two months because I've had to adjust to being on a new campus and meeting new people while still upholding good grades in class. Tip one would be lay out a clear schedule. Tip two would be to make sure you stay busy. Tip three would be don't be afraid to fail.

Assignment 13

I read the book Lost and Founder, by Rand Fishkin. The thing that surprised me the most is how common failure is. His companies failed from setbacks on numerous occasions, and he writes that this is extremely common for entrepreneurs. The thing I liked most about Fishkin was the fact that he was able to acknowledge his own incapability and willingly hand over the power of CEO to someone else when he realized that he could not continue leading effectively. The thing I liked most about Fishkin were his reasons  for writing the book. He says that he wrote this book to help other founders of companies to avoid making similar mistakes and pitfalls. Fishkin did encounter plenty of failure. He suffered from numerous setbacks,  but after years of trial and error succeed and conquered the obstacles. The fact that his company Mod, was worth $45 million lends credibility to Fishkin's competency. Something that left me confused were the sections talking about the specific process and technicality of the CV. The first question I would ask is in his opinion, what does the typical reader of his book look like? are they old, young, decisive, dedicated? Also I would like to ask what are some of the best ways to raise revenue from VC's when seeking an investment. I think Fishkin's definition of hard work is persistence. This is an important skill because the entrepreneur will experience failure, and the ability to work through it consistently takes hard work. I do share that same opinion because if you process the personality trait to fight through failure, hard work must be manifested. 

Assignment 12

For my business proposal, the marketing segment that I am choosing to work with are patients who recently endured an accident (car or injury) and are in the process of recovering. The three people I interviewed are all patients my father currently has. These people are acutely aware of the problem they have because they are currently seeing a doctor to get better. Due to the similarity of the situation, all three patients realized that they had this problem at about the same time, immediately following the accident, or in the days following. For Shannon, the first patient, she suffered neck injuries after a car accident on September 14th, and realized that this was a reoccurring problem after the pain would keep returning. After being referred to a pain management office, she started undergoing treatment and found that was extremely effective. She looked for the hospital for help, because this is a common place to look for pain relief. Tom Array was in a similar situation. He broke his ankle a few months ago, and although it was supposed to have healed, he still felt pain going up stairs and in the mornings. Tom searched up his options online, and while he realized he could probably go to a hospital and receive narcotics that would most likely make his feel better, a pain management solution would be a better  option because it specifically targets the source of the pain. Finally there is Linda Guzman, who is an elderly woman in her 70's. She fell coming down the steps to her porch and broke her leg. She went to the clinic after being referred there by a friend. In conclusion, while all patients have pain problems, there is no shortage of ways in which they heard about this pain clinic. The pain for all parties involved was significant, and they were anxious to find a solution as quick as possible. Based on their results, I can determine the best ways to advertise the business would be to form an online presence, which comes up when people search for pain solutions, and make patients have a good experience here so they are willing to refer friends at a later date.

Assignment 11

I am a 20 year old college student studying business at the University of Florida. I've had plenty of experience working a variety of jobs the last few years, many of which I've done while taking a full schedule in college. Doing these together has made me a good time manager to make sure I have time to complete everything and work well under stress to meet deadlines. The business of treating patients without narcotics is not something I have specific knowledge about doing. However, this is such a significant problem that there is a need for en entrepreneur to facilitate this transition for doctors from hospitals to pain clinics. This would be a big job because it requires communicating with doctors and hospitals, and find a way to link patients between the two.  This idea provides long time healthcare service to patients, as opposed to temporarily helping reduce their pain. This idea would be offered mostly to older people who have recurrent joint pain or something similar. It also serves patients who have been in an accident and have associated pain as a result. Customers care about this service because it will cost less that repeated use of narcotic painkillers and have less to worry about if the source of the pain is solved. Although some doctors have begun using this method to help patients most hospitals have not yet caught on because doctors are comfortable where they are and do not have a pressing need to change the nature of the industry.
          These ideas fit together well because there is a real problem that has the potential to help millions of patients in the US reduce their pain and get on the road to recovery quicker than with narcotic painkillers. An aspect that does not fit in perfectly however is the fact that many doctors are unwilling to change their positions because they are comfortable with the position the already hold.

Assignment 10

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1m_4Josjufw

Assignment 9A

The opportunity I originally explored was the transition of hospitals using narcotic drugs to using other forms of treat that more directly target the cause of the pain as opposed t o addressing the pain itself. This opportunity would reduce costs for hospitals and help patients receive better care. The "who" who would benefit from the opportunity are specialized doctors who would transition to serving this specific type of patient. My dad has been a doctor for 20 years and has begun moving in this direction. However many of his colleagues do not see eye to eye and are skeptical of the move.  The "who" who should be supportive of this transition are doctors, however some are opposed to this for reasons I did not entirely predict. For example, one group of doctors are against it not because they think it won't work, but rather because they are comfortable where they are in their careers and with how much money they are currently making. A separate group of doctors (who are all older) are against the transition itself because they see no problem with the current situation and way of doing things. I believe that because this group is older, they are traditionalists who do not like change. However, it is a factor I did not anticipate. The "what" is very specific, because many patients would not be able to immediately distinguish the difference between treatments because in the short term both solve the problem. However this solution only manifests its benefit in the long term.

Inside the Boundary                                                                           Outside the Boundary 
Who: young doctors                                                                            Who: established doctors,                                                                                                                                    older crowd                         What: non dependent, single time healthcare                                     What: Narcotic healthcare
Why: cure patients in the long term                                                     Why: traditional, its worked                                                                                                                                 before

       

Assignment 6A

One opportunity that is pertinent towards economic trends is the fact that baby boomers are not retiring. A Prudential study brought to light the fact that over half of people aged between 45 and 75 were forced to delay retirement due to the recession. This in turn has caused millennials and the younger generation to adapt, due to the older generation retaining jobs for longer periods of time. This has given younger people the chance to develop new jobs in the marketplace, such as internet businesses or freelance gigs. Why I saw this opportunity is the fact that people and culture have adapted due to recent events to be more careful in their spending and decision to retire. The US debt crisis in 2011, fiscal cliff in 2012, and government shutdown in 2013 and 2019 have caused people to adapt towards a more tumultuous political and economic environment.

            A second economic trend opportunity is climate change is causing more natural disasters. In 2019, the United States Department of Agriculture started that food prices may potentially increase between 1 and 2 percent overall. This is so for multiple reasons, such as the fact that corn and soybean yields have dropped significantly due to high temperature, as they suffer negative growth effects with any temperature of 84 degrees Fahrenheit. Furthermore, rising sea levels have caused areas such as Miami beach to launch $500 million public works programs. This creates opportunities such as beach re-nourishment companies and temperature regulated green-houses. As issues relating to climate change continue to grow in occurrence, more opportunities will arise for people to exploit, as climate change affects all areas of society. Why I saw this opportunity is the fact that I live in an area in Florida near the beach, and I have seen the first hand effects of tidal erosion, and the profit companies have gotten in their efforts to re-nourish the sand dunes.

            A regulatory change that has brought forth an opportunity is the recent tariffs imposed by the Trump administration. The opportunity is the fact that the tariff has brought forth an attractive buying opportunity for certain stocks in the marketplace. Raymond James is quoted stating that Best Buy has a particularly strong buy rating, with shares down 3.74 percent on the week. Stockbrokers and investors can use this opportunity to make long term-profit and is easily exploitable due to the far-reaching effects of the trade war. This opportunity should be seen by most people, but the shortsighted nature of some make cause them to fear investing in such a turbulent marketplace.

            A second regulatory change is fact that interests rates have recently leveled off. The Federal Reserve currently has raised the federal fund rate to 2.5 percent. 2 percent is typically considered the so called Federal sweet spot. Furthermore as inflation is at its 2 percent target, and unemployment below 4 percent, the economy will continue its expansion phase out of the past recession. This means that the cost of loans overall has stabilized, and savers are earning more money on their deposits than they did in recession. This has created an overall all larger buying and selling opportunity in the marketplace, as confidence in the market has increased. Why I found this opportunity is the fact that I’m constantly looking for opportunity to save and gain capital in my personal finances.

Assignment 8A

The presented problem in the previous exercises are the immigrants that are detained at the boarder in the United States. Although it may be necessary, this is a problem because of the millions of tax payers dollars that are being spend to feed, clothe, and house people that are not contributing to the economy. A potential solution to this problem would be offering minimum wage paying jobs to the immigrants to work in factories or in agriculture while they wait for their pending approval to be passed. In this way, they would have something to do as they are detained while simultaneously contributing to the U.S. economy by producing manufactured goods or services at low cost to U.S. citizens. In order to prevent disrupting current U.S. workers, these workers could do a variety of jobs, so that no single industry is being dominated.

Assignment 7A

2) The who: Immigrants detained at the boarder 

The problem: They are stuck, detained at the boarder with nothing to do while they await clearance to enter the United States.

The Why: there are so many immigrants trying to enter the U.S. illegally that they cannot all be cleared quickly, and they must remain in custody until such point. 

3) Most immigrants that are caught trying to enter the country illegally are detained and are in this position unable to contribute anything productive to the economy or to themselves. Because this is cumulative, meaning that the more people there are the greater the problem becomes, it applies to all immigrants. The reason this is a problem is because they are being detained and cannot be productive members of society, and because of this require millions of dollars in tax dollars for temporary living, food, and clothing. Many people would argue this problem exists for different reasons. Some would blame the immigrants themselves for attempting to illegally break into a country, and claim that a solution would be to find refuse elsewhere, apply legally, or immigrate to another country. Others would argue that the United States is at fault for not developing methods with which to solve this issue more effectively. However, because of the large scale of the issue there is little either party can do to prevent its existence. Therefore the only response is to find a solution to mitigate the effects of the problem and attempt to solve it. 

4a) My mom immigrated to the United States from Latin America when she was 19, and did so legally, through a student Visa. She agrees that people immigrating here must be vetted through a process to ensure equality and practicality, and agrees that something must be done to increase the effectiveness if the immigrants currently waiting at the boarder, waiting to be approved. 

4b) Anthony is a 3rd year student here at UF, and while he was born and raised in the United States, he recognizes the issue at the boarder because of the amount of media coverage it receives. He says that "Everyone should have an opportunity to come to the U.S. and seek freedom.. it just seems right". While these are caring words, the he admits the issue of making sure the U.S. is aware of who is entering the country remains unsolved. 

4c) Sasha is a freshman at UF and has parents from Cuba, even though she grew up in Miami. When asked about the  problem going on at the boarder she argued that the responsibility lies with the U.S. government for not being sufficiently prepared to handle the influx of immigrants attempting to gain entry into the country. 

4d) 27 year old James graduated from FSU with a degree in political science and says that the issue is more complicated than the media makes it out to be,. There are rarely bad people, trying to hurt a group of people maliciously, he argues. More often it's oversight and inefficient bureaucracy that struggle to effectively execute legislation that  may help, or its people trying to do their best but passing inefficient laws because they lack understanding over a certain issue and the effects in may have in other areas. James argues the best solution would be to pass clear procedures to vet people as quickly as possible, and help relocate others who cannot enter the country, even if it does mean millions of taxdollars. 

4e) Dr. Ramos, a physician working in Missouri says that it is vital for immigrants at the boarder to have something to do. He says they, along with institutionalized prisoners suffer physiologically if they are left without anything to do for extended periods of time. He argues that allowing them freedom to roam around or give them tasks would help their mental health. 

5) Given these interviews, I see that while everyone wishes for the best, there are many different ways people see the same issue. Because of this difference in viewpoint, people have different solutions for the same problem. However, it did become clear to me that the amount of people detained at the boarder does pose a problem. both because of of tax dollars and because they have little to do while detained.   

Assignment 4A

1) I have a belief that a significant portion of U.S adults suffer from an opioid addiction, and that this problem is caused through street and prescription drugs, but is made worse by hospitals that mindlessly assign narcotics to returning patients instead of offering other solutions such as pain therapy, surgery, or other options that target the source of the pain instead of temporary masking the effect of it.
2) This opportunity creates a market for doctors who specialize in pain management to specifically target the source of the pain through means such as block surgery and therapy. The unmet need is a supply of knowledgeable doctors with the desire to provide fewer narcotics to patients. The people who have the unmet need are patients, who would be better off with a long term solution to this problem instead of repeatedly being given addictive narcotics. Also hospitals would support this because targeting the source of pain means fewer repeat patients come in, and there would be fewer drug-related crime accidents.
3) The most common customer would be patients referred directly from the hospital, especially when they are at maximum capacity and are looking to quickly discharge patients. Another group of customers are doctors, because they have to buy into this idea in order to take a place and profit from it, and help solve this problem.
4a) The first person I talked to was my father. My dad has worked as a doctor for almost two decades and has seen first hand the inefficiencies of narcotic drug prescription in the hospital. He talked to me about the high number of patients who repeatedly come back to the hospital, often times not to seek any treatment, but to receive more of the narcotics they've become addicted to. He believes that the exact nature of the need is a supply of reliable doctors who are willing to attempt working in a new type of environment, which could start within a hospital, and eventually transition to a separate clinic. Doctors are able to know their customers when they receive consults, meaning that patients schedule a meeting with the doctor to be diagnosed and see if they are a good candidate to receive this treatment. He explains that while perhaps many patients will seek help because of their addiction, others will not seek help, but will be directly referred from the hospital itself.
4b) Dawson Johnson is a 21 year old junior at Florida State University. Although we've never met before, I was able to interview him over the phone through a mutual friend. Dawson is relevant to this opportunity because of Adderall. While he does not have any disorder that makes him legally eligible for Adderall, he was legally prescribed it through a doctor because he "simply listed the common symptoms". He takes the prescription to study for several hours at a time before exams and do well on tests. Dawson does not agree with the program I had put forward with his own situation. He is not addicted to Adderall, but only takes it once in a while to help him focus. While he does not believe he has a problem, he believes that the fact he was so easily able to receive this prescription drug illustrates the fact that patients can often receive narcotics in hospitals by just listing the right symptoms.
4c) Molly Ungrady is a close family friend who suffered from a severe car accident several years ago, and was treated in the hospital. While Molly was treated and recovered from her physical injuries from the crash, she left the hospital with several prescription drugs to help[ reduce the pain once she was at home. While the pain was already gone, she continued to take these prescriptions and by the time they ran out she found herself craving more of them. While she didn't realize this was a problem at first after she returned to the hospital asking for more medication, and was referred to my father she slowly came to realize the extent of her addiction. She was allowed more of the medication, but under the supervision of another pain doctor she slowly took less and less until she became cured of her addiction. She tells me that this story opened her eyes to the possibility of other people becoming addicted to the same prescriptions she was given. Because of this she supports the idea of stopping the prescription of these medications in certain cases in exchange for other routes to wellness.
5) In certain situations, such as with Molly's I believe that this idea has tremendous potential to help people who unwillingly fall into this situation and seek help to return to normal life. However, after talking with Dawson, I believe that a weakness with the plan could be people who are addicted to the prescriptions so heavily that they do not wish to seek treatment because they do not want to lose the drugs that they are given. Finally, I believe it would be very effective as a preventative cure, in order to prevent patients from taking narcotics in the first place.
7) After this reflection, I believe that a significant portion of the original opportunity is still there. Many patients who actively seek help, as well as patients who could be assigned to try this alternate treatment as a way to lessen the reliance of narcotics would still be potential customers. However, a problem is that because of the years of training it takes to become a doctor, the market for this applies mostly to professional doctors who already have a reliable job. This could pose a problem because since many doctors are already well paid there is little incentive at first to try something different that may not work or be as lucrative. While I believe that these entrepreneurs should be open to customer feedback, they should be cautious, because many of the patients may give an dishonest opinion in this specific situation because of their incentive to keep taking the drugs they are addicted to.

Assignment 5A

Problem #1)

*Former SJSD whistleblower concerned about city finances

*https://www.newspressnow.com/news/local_news/former-sjsd-whistleblower-concerned-about-city-finances/article_97c8315e-d0a4-11e9-b2f0-270ead5239fe.html
*Beau Musser, a former CFO for the St. Joseph School District, feels that the city has conducted extremely poor oversight regarding the cities financing, causing hundreds of thousands of wasted taxpayers dollars. 
*The problem is the governmental fiscal irresponsibility in St. Joseph. 
*The people who have the problem are the residents of St. Joseph, who are paying taxes to an inefficient government that squanders their payments on poorly thought out and unnecessary spending. 

Problem #2)
*St. Joseph Police maintain safety at Drag Queen Story Hour protests
*https://www.newspressnow.com/news/local_news/st-joseph-police-maintain-safety-at-drag-queen-story-hour/article_085153a8-d422-11e9-9ae0-4f98f4143509.html
*During an event called the "drag queen story hour", police officers were in attendance to ensure that the protesters and counter protesters were able to do so peacefully and avoid conflict.
*The problem is potential conflict or violence between protesters and the drag queen story hour event.
*The people facing the problem are those who may become injured at the potential conflict.

Problem #3)
*Child molester given maximum 7-year sentence
*https://www.newspressnow.com/news/local_news/child-molester-given-maximum--year-sentence/article_9430919c-d0ec-11e9-a84d-6fec069d613a.html
*This article describes the situation surrounding a 24 year old child molester who stayed at the home of a family after being invited in and sexually assaulted a 9 year old girl in the same home. The article interviews the mother, who displayed understandable anger and the 7 year sentence the judge ordered.
*The problem is the fact that a child molester was able to enter a household and assault a 9 year old girl.
*The person facing the problem is clearly who was sexually assaulted, as well as the family of the girl, and to a lesser extent potentially the molester who was affected my alcoholism and lack of support from a loving family since a young age.

Problem #4)
*Albany woman who handcuffed, starved child pleads guilty
*https://www.newspressnow.com/news/local_news/albany-woman-who-handcuffed-starved-child-pleads-guilty/article_fa9446fc-d0da-11e9-83b7-effe7551a8af.html
*An Albany woman faces 15 years in prison after being arrested for kidnapping an 11 year old girl for over a year and keeping her in a cage, often times beating her, handcuffing her, and withholding food.
*This is a problem because the fact that someone is able to do this to another human being is disturbing.
*The child that was kidnapped and was kept in the cage is the individual with the most acute problem, although this also extents to the victim's family.

Problem #5)
*St. Joseph police officer charged with domestic assault
*https://www.newspressnow.com/news/local_news/st-joseph-police-officer-charged-with-domestic-assault/article_f8f4ddaa-d33e-11e9-af36-cbcf5416a87a.html
*The article consists of a story describing the criminal charge of domestic assault of a police officer in the St.Joseph police department after he inflicted visible wounds on a a woman
*Although the article does not specify if the officer was in uniform when the domestic abuse occurred, the problem can encompass police violence against members of the public.
*The people with the problem are the people who are the victims of police violence, as well as most police officers whose reputations can be tarnished by a select few group of officers who make poor judgment and make all officers look bad.