20A – Growing Your Social Capital

Domain Expert: Todd Frank
Todd Frank is a treasurer for a big-time steel company in New York. He also works a lot with construction. He has dealt with the business of large buildings and areas in which they also have been in touch with parking garages and lots. He knows how crucial these are too many big-time areas and knows they can be a great impact in certain places and make the areas more likely to have visitors.

Market Expert: Joe Fradella
Joe Fradella is a parking lot manager at Yankee Stadium back in New York. He also runs a few other parking lot locations in the city and on Long Island. He is very familiar with how to operate such parking lots and knows how in certain areas parking lots like these can make some big money and make a positive impact on the community which also helps with the business.

Supplier: AJ Rozza
AJ Rozza owns his own construction company and has dealt with all types of projects ranging from street work to parking lots/garages to skyscraper renovation. He would be the guy to call to design these lots and make them look appealing to anyone looking to park, easy to navigate inside them and place them in the proper areas, in which they would attract the most people and create the most opportunity for business.

Reflection: I have always been one to network, not only for my own benefit of meeting people who can possibly help me with a job in my career in the future but to gain knowledge from professionals who have been doing what I want to do for so long. It is always good to expand your network web because you never know when it can help you out later in life and it is also good to gain some insider knowledge on everything. I still follow this to this day, "It's not all about what you know, but is all about who you know", this was told to me by one of the most successful people I know who's been working on Wall Street for 20 years. 

19A – Idea Napkin No. 2

1. You 

My name is Nicholas Scibilia and I am a Sport Management major here at UF. I have always been told I have the traits you need to become successful and that is my confidence and drive. I have no doubt in myself when I am working toward something that somehow I will get it done, and when working toward my goals I always know I will eventually achieve them and work non-stop until I do. I also believe that I will achieve my dreams in life and can't wait to work toward them until I get them. 

2. What are you offering to customers?

I am offering to customers an area to have their cars parked with tolls to get in and be able to park their cars when visiting friends in other apartments or even just going somewhere and street parking isn't available. 

3. Who are you offering to? 

My product is for anyone who is in the Gainesville area, whether they are visiting or living there, just anyone in need of quick parking for a cheap price. 

4. Why do they care?

They care because there is little to no guest parking at apartment complexes and the street parking in this city is absolutely atrocious, there are barely any areas with street parking and when there is it's on a street where there really shouldn't be any because it's too narrow.  

5. What are your core competencies?

My core competencies are my ability to get tasks done and my passion for what I am doing and why I am exactly doing it. I am a very hard worker and get the job that's needed to be done finished properly, and I am passionate about this because I live through this and know there needs to be a fix in this parking situation in this city; which ultimately gives me an incentive to work harder on my projects.

18A – Create a Customer Avatar

Since my marketing segment is based around students at UF that live in off-campus apartment complexes and use the parking garages owned by such complexes, I see most of my customers being the ages of 18-23 years old. Most likely have some sort of vehicle whether it's a car, scooter, or both, they likely have to park it by paying to use their complexes parking garage. For the most part, I am assuming that these students aren't driving luxury high-end cars and have the usual scooters seen here in Gainesville. Most people driving smaller vehicles from what I have seen such as a Nissan Altima type car, a few trucks here and there, but for the most part a smaller car. My Avatar would most likely be a younger looking male or female, with orange and blue attire to represent them as UF students.

I have basically everything in common with the customer avatar, I am basing my segment in general off of my experiences and clearly others I have heard from and interviewed. I am a 20-year-old student at UF, I have a scooter and a car here, parking at complexes is handled very poorly; especially from the "main" most popular ones and something needs to be done. 

16A –What’s Your Secret Sauce?

What's your secret sauce?

1. Hardworking- I believe that I always work intensely to achieve my goals in everything that I do, and I don't ever stop until I fully complete the tasks at hand.

2. Open-Minded- I believe I have a big mind and I don't necessarily have a preference for a lot of things, I am usually intrigued to hear out all list of options for most things I am involved in

3. Empathy- I believe that I build strong relationships with everyone I encounter. I think that I have the ability and mind to connect with anyone and everyone because I always am able to hear anyone out and understand to the best of my capability their story and what they think about things.

4. Honesty- This one I truly believe just explains to me. I am a very honest guy, I always tell the truth because the truth is what your life is going to be. I always believe that the honest path is always the successful way to go, even if it doesn't seem like it right away, it eventually pays off and is.

5. Courage- I believe that having courage is very important in multiple ways, especially in this modern era. Having courage physically, mentally and emotionally is very important because it shows that you trust yourself and your gut feeling in every situation, which to me means a lot and I can say I 100% have that.

Conclusion: I believe everything that my family and friends have said describing me are exactly how I viewed myself to be and that is something I believe to be truly amazing and truly know who I am and what my worth is.

15A – Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 2

I have now decided to Interview people who have not moved out of their apartment complexes since they arrived at UF, rather than interviewing people who have lived in multiple.

Interview 1- 23-year-old student
He believes that moving out of a place you're already moved into is too much of a "hassle". He thinks the easier and better way to deal with it is to ignore the problems with the place as much as possible and just stay put; rather than getting up and moving into a new and improved place.

Interview 2- 21-year-old student
She thinks that these "problems" are annoying but in reality, it is to make sure your living environment is strictly for residents only, and for the prices, we pay most places are cheap with all of the "amenities" they have to offer students living off-campus.

Interview 3- 20-year-old student
She has never even noticed any issue or annoying thing about her complex and when she heard people complain she was genuinely shocked.

Conclusion: I feel like a lot of these interviews were similar, but it was cool to see both sides of people who really pay attention to the little things when living somewhere and the people who just ignore it and don't mind the place at all.