Forming An Opportunity Belief

Forming An Opportunity Belief

1. With a increase in demand for off-campus living, I believe there is limited thought regarding garbage removal and disposal in buildings and sometimes this leads to an influx of bugs and rodents, foul odors and piles of trash in hallways throughout the apartments. I believe there should be a separate trash removal service hired by each apartment complex to manage and maintain the trash throughout the whole apartment.

2. The problem is the space allotted in the design plans for proper garbage disposal in apartment complexes and the mistreatment and careless effort from the establishment staff to remove trash efficiently and properly sanitize after the removal of garbage. Anyone who lives in these specific apartment complexes will tell you the same thing, but collectively the residents continue to ignore and maneuver around it. Having an abundance of residents who together create a lot of trash, apartment complexes know that this has been a continuous issue and is only being handled when brought to the tipping point. Currently, residents either take it upon themselves to walk to the actual dumpster to discard their waste or to leave it in the trash room when all of the shoots are full. This acknowledges to other residents to throw their trash on the ground as well, leading to large pile ups which cause animal problems and a foul smell throughout the hallways. Having a group of people come throughout the week to check any issues with waste or disposal, would remove the problem with trash rooms causing foul smells, would limit attraction for bugs and rodents to come and ultimately would result with a cleaner version of the original method implemented to handle garbage responsibilities.

3a. Amanda G.
3b. David C.
3c. Bryn T.


4a. Amanda G. Freshman, F
Do you live in an off-campus apartment complex? Do you have designated areas for trash disposal around your apartment? If so, do they fill up relatively quickly and what do residents typically do when they are full? Are you happy with this current method?
Yes, I live in an off campus apartment called The Nine at Gainesville. We have one designated area for all trash disposal throughout all residents who live in both buildings. During busy weeks, trash typically fills up quickly, like in 2 or 3 days, as there is only one trash room and my roommates and I just pile it onto the dumpster outside or leave it on the floor in the trash room. It gets annoying to walk to the other building to dispose of trash and when it's full, it's annoying to lug around a bunch of bags from building to building. 

How often do you see management or any staff member working to "fix" the issue of piled up trash, clean trash exposed on the floors or mask the smell of trash throughout the hallways? How often, if ever, does the trash room get cleaned? How often does the trash get taken out per week in your apartment complex? Do the complex have an issue with bugs or rodents?
I rarely to ever see management clean the trash problem, it's usually maintenance whenever they come and that usually happens at nighttime. The trash room is never cleaned, it always smells so bad and no one wants to be near the room. The trash people come once or twice a week, early in the morning and if theres trash in the room it doesn't get picked up. I believe this is what causes all of the cockroaches and bugs in the apartment but it could be because of other things.

Would you be willing, if required, to pay an extra 5 dollar fee on top of your rent to have your trash chute and room cleaned at least twice a week? To have people make sure the room is clean and spacious, make sure there is no foul smell or bugs and rodents running around and also to make space for more trash to come later in the week?
I feel like we should not have to pay any extra fee as we already pay so much money to live in this apartment complex and the management should be responsible for cleaning or hiring people to take care of the trash problems and room in the apartment complex. The idea sounds like it should be already apart of every apartment and would fix many of the problems that The Nine has. 


Lastly, would you be willing to pay an additional 5 dollar fee (10$ total addition) monthly in order to have your trash removed from your room at least twice a week and to have the ability to have access to cleaning opportunities for your apartment, extermination opportunities for pest control and a dry cleaning/clothing cleaning delivery service?
I would definitely pay an extra 5 dollar fee to have this service as The Nine charges 50$ a bag to be picked up but does offer complementary extermination for pest control every Friday. A clothing cleaning service would be beneficial because there is no way to dry clean at The Nine and people don't want to leave or drop off clothes. 

4b. Charles B. Freshman, M
Do you live in an off-campus apartment complex? Do you have designated areas for trash disposal around your apartment? If so, do they fill up relatively quickly and what do residents typically do when they are full? Are you happy with this current method?
Yes, I live off-campus at the apartment complex Social 28. We have a trash room and chute where we throw our garbage down. The room is gross and smells but it doesn't ever cluster with bags too much. When it's full, I just push harder till it fits and closes. I like how their is a room on each floor to throw out trash but it gets nasty over time. 

How often do you see management or any staff member working to "fix" the issue of piled up trash, clean trash exposed on the floors or mask the smell of trash throughout the hallways? How often, if ever, does the trash room get cleaned? How often does the trash get taken out per week in your apartment complex? Do the complex have an issue with bugs or rodents?
Management is never around trying to fix any of the issues, especially related to trash. The first floor trash rooms are gross and full of trash but the other floors are not as bad. The trash comes once a week and clears enough room to be filled with trash until it comes again. There is A LOT of bugs in the apartment complex and in my apartment. I keep raid in my room and have traps set up around the apartment. 

Would you be willing, if required, to pay an extra 5 dollar fee on top of your rent to have your trash chute and room cleaned at least twice a week? To have people make sure the room is clean and spacious, make sure there is no foul smell or bugs and rodents running around and also to make space for more trash to come later in the week?
Yes, I would 100 percent pay an extra 5$ fee to have people clean the hallways and trash room every week. The only problem with this apartment complex is the how dirty it is and how gross having trash and bugs throughout the garage and hallways is. No one is here to take care of any of the amenities either.  


Lastly, would you be willing to pay an additional 5 dollar fee (10$ total addition) monthly in order to have your trash removed from your room at least twice a week and to have the ability to have access to cleaning opportunities for your apartment, extermination opportunities for pest control and a dry cleaning/clothing cleaning delivery service?
I feel like I would just pay for one of these services and to be honest I would rather pay for this one because it benefits me directly and is more advertised to help out me then how clean the apartment complex generally is. 


4c. Bryn T. Senior, F
Do you live in an off-campus apartment complex? Do you have designated areas for trash disposal around your apartment? If so, do they fill up relatively quickly and what do residents typically do when they are full? Are you happy with this current method?
Yes, I live off-campus at the apartment complex called 2nd Avenue Centre. There are designated areas for trash disposal and they fill up very quickly throughout the week. Residents typically will walk their trash down to the separate dumpsters when the shoots and trash room fill up fast. No, I'm not happy with this alternative method but there is no other options unless you want to pile trash up in your room. 

How often do you see management or any staff member working to "fix" the issue of piled up trash, clean trash exposed on the floors or mask the smell of trash throughout the hallways? How often, if ever, does the trash room get cleaned? How often does the trash get taken out per week in your apartment complex? Do the complex have an issue with bugs or rodents?
The staff members try to assist as much as possible to allow more room for trash especially on weekends and game days. There are always air fresheners being sprayed by residents in the hallways so that there is no smell from the trash rooms. The trash comes once a week and no we do not have any major issues with bugs and rodents in our apartment. 

Would you be willing, if required, to pay an extra 5 dollar fee on top of your rent to have your trash chute and room cleaned at least twice a week? To have people make sure the room is clean and spacious, make sure there is no foul smell or bugs and rodents running around and also to make space for more trash to come later in the week?
No, the apartment makes it easy to throw out your trash even though it may be dirty and gross at times. The apartment should take care of the mistreatment of the trash rooms and shoots but I would not pay extra to handle it. 


Lastly, would you be willing to pay an additional 5 dollar fee (10$ total addition) monthly in order to have your trash removed from your room at least twice a week and to have the ability to have access to cleaning opportunities for your apartment, extermination opportunities for pest control and a dry cleaning/clothing cleaning delivery service?
I would pay an additional 5$ monthly to have our trash picked up, to have pest control on demand and the opportunity to have room cleaners and dry cleaning picked up and delivered to your door. I would be willing to pay more to have my dog walked also but I could only wish right!

5. / 7. Reflection and Summary:

What did you learn about your opportunity? What was the most surprising thing you learned about your opportunity? (You may reflect after each iteration or you may simply include a single reflection that captures all three iterations.)

After all three interviews with residents of off-campus apartments, I realized that there is an opportunity to carry out this belief because of the constant issue of garbage and it's removal in apartment complexes. Although, there would need to be adjustments in order to appeal to all residents and complexes because some have problems that others don't face. What surprised me the most is that not one apartment complex took any noticeable different approach to handling the garbage and waste removal in their designs at all and this is why they all seem to share similar issues.  

It's very likely that your opportunity belief changed between the outset and as a consequence of your customer interactions. Three questions:

How much of your original opportunity is still there?

I would say about half of my original opportunity is still there because of the consistent problem of all trash rooms being gross, producing a foul smell and in need of a cleaning service/monitoring service. The other half of my opportunity fell through when I found out some apartment complexes offer or include some of the amenities I was asking residents. 

Do you believe that your new opportunity is more accurate than when you started?

Yes, I believe that if I were to approach this opportunity again I would know exactly what to offer in order to assist and accommodate all apartment complexes and their flaws to encourage more residents to hire this team. Each apartment has different flaws and benefits and once you hear each specific one, you can narrow down the services you offer to those residents. 

How much do you think entrepreneurs should 'adapt' their opportunities based on customer feedback? (In other words, is there a trade-off between adapting and staying firm?)

I believe there entrepreneurs NEED to 'adapt' their opportunities based on customer feedback as those customers are usually going to give best advice and will list any problems with it. Also, entrepreneurs are trying to adapt to you and what works best so listening to the people interested in the product helps improve and receive feedback on the well-doing of the opportunity. There is a point where customer feedback may be bias and an entrepreneur needs to realize this so that they know when to adapt to feedback and when to stay firm with their beliefs.