Forming An Opportunity Belief

Opportunity Belief:

I believe that there is an opportunity to add a restaurant on campus that serves healthy food. The unmet need is healthy food options on campus for students. Many students at the University of Florida have this need as college is a time to fend for yourself. Students make decisions on what to eat on campus based on what is around them, and with no healthy food options, students are bound to constantly eat unhealthy foods. The need has existed since these unhealthy restaurants, such as Chick Fil A, Panda Express, Pollo Tropical and Wendy’s, were added to campus. To meet this need today, people are making their own food at their homes when they want to eat healthy. I am 70% sure that this opportunity exists because I know that many people would like healthier options for food on campus, but I’m not sure if the people that constantly make food for themselves at their homes feel that this need exists. There are a few “healthy options” for food at each restaurant on campus, but there is not a restaurant that you can visit with the mindset that you will for sure be eating healthy and you will have many options. 

Questions:

1. When looking at a food menu, are you at all inclined to look for healthier options?
2. Have you had an issue with the lack of healthy food options on campus?
1. If yes, is this issue experienced very frequently or only sometimes?
3. How long has it been since you first realized that you would enjoy a restaurant with healthy food items on campus? If you have not ever had this realization, why do you think that you have not?
4. How are you currently eating healthy foods (if you are at all)?
1. If you are choosing to eat healthy foods outside of on campus options, do you feel that you are satisfied with your current situation? 
5. If there was a healthy restaurant on campus, how often do you think you would visit it?

Prototypical customer #1: First year student; lives on campus; no meal plan

1. I am definitely inclined to look at healthy items on food menus. I try to eat healthy as much as I can. 
2. Yes, I hate that there are barely any healthy food options on campus
1. I notice this all the time. Every time I walk home from the library or a class, I have to pass Chick Fil A. It’s killer. 
3. Since I moved into my dorm in the fall, I have wished for healthier food options on campus. It’s never not been an issue for me.
4. If I eat healthy food, I buy it from the grocery store. I make my own food in the kitchen at my dorm when I want to eat healthy. 
1. It’s not the worst thing ever to have to make your own food, but having healthy food options on campus would make my life so much easier. I wouldn’t have to cook at all and I would always be trying something new at the restaurant. My parents give me money for food and I would rather spend it on a healthy place instead of all of the Chick Fil A that I buy. 
5. I think that I would visit the restaurant at least 3 times a week. I eat on campus at least 3 times a week, so I would be changing out those restaurants with the new, healthy one.

Reflection:

After talking with the first prototypical customer, I see that students like this would really take advantage of a new, healthy restaurant. I think three times a week is a lot to potentially eat at this place, which would solidify at least some customers. Although this person said that they eat healthy food when they make it at their dorm, it is apparent that it is easier to eat out if you’re going to spend the money anyways, especially when analyzing how this person gets money from their parents for food. 

Prototypical customer #2: First year student; lives on campus; has a meal plan

1. Yes. I know that I should be eating healthier, so a lot of times I look for healthier options.
2. It does not really bother me because I have a meal plan. There are a few options in the dining halls that are better for you than Chick Fil A, which is right next to it, so I eat those. I don’t really eat at other places on campus other than the dining hall.
3. I have never really felt that campus needs a healthy food option, but I like I said, I never really go to eat anywhere other than the dining halls. 
4. I choose the healthy-ish options at the dining hall rather than the pizza or french fries. 
1. I eat almost every meal throughout the week at the dining hall. Sometimes I go to the store and buy lettuce and vegetables to go into a salad, but it’s rare. 
5. I don’t think that I would really ever go to a healthy restaurant on campus because I do not eat outside of the dining halls. I have flex bucks that go with my meal plan, but I save those for days when I need coffee before class. 

Reflection:

After talking with the second prototypical customer, I realized that the students with meal plans would not really utilize a new, healthy restaurant on campus. Although many of the meal plans come with flex bucks, there is no guarantee that a student will spend it on a new restaurant if many of them are already not spending them at the restaurants that are on campus. This changes the amount of potential customers that I have because a lot of students that live on campus have meal plans. If meal plans weren’t so popular among students living on campus, I wouldn’t be so worried.

Prototypical customer #3: Second year student; lives on campus; no meal plan

1. Honestly, I just find what sounds good to me, but the majority of times the things that sound good to me are healthy options because I do not like most of the basic foods like pizza, spaghetti, salsa, ketchup, etc. (I don’t like tomatoes/ tomato sauce).
2. I have kind of had an issue because I am frequently in Reitz Union and almost everything there is unhealthy, but I mainly eat at my dorm and cook my own food. 
1. I only experience this sometimes. 
3. I always knew there was not really healthy food on campus, but it hasn’t been a huge issue to me. I would like to try it if there was a healthy restaurant added to campus. 
4. I make most of my meals at my dorm, mainly because I am so picky. I like having the option of making my own food because I know what is going into it. I guess I eat a lot of healthy foods at my dorm.
1. I am fine with my situation of cooking my own food because it’s not that difficult to make your own food and it saves a ton of money. 
5. I would maybe try the restaurant a couple of times, but I wouldn’t go there a lot. I never eat at restaurants because I don’t want to spend the money on it, so I wouldn’t really need a new restaurant added to campus. 

Reflection:

After talking with the third prototypical customer, I realized that more people are making food at their homes and dorms than I thought. I had the mindset that everyone eats on campus, but now I am realizing that might not be the case. It does cost extra money every time someone eats on campus, so maybe people only eat on campus due to the convenience at the moment. 

Summary:

Overall, my opinion on this specific opportunity has changed. I thought that it was completely necessary for a new, healthy restaurant to be added to campus, but after talking to three people with slightly different eating habits and situations, I see that maybe it wouldn’t change student’s lives that much. Of course, I only talked to three people and to get a full understanding of the student population’s overall opinion, I would need to talk to a lot more people. 

My original opportunity is still slightly there, but I would not invest in a new restaurant on campus because of the responses that I received. I believe that I have a more accurate representation of the opportunity because I am not basing it off of just my opinions and views. I was making the opportunity based off of what I thought that campus needed, but I realized that it might not be that beneficial to the majority of the students that go on campus. I think that entrepreneurs should definitely ‘adapt’ their opportunities based on customer feedback. If I would not have gotten these new opinions from the interviews, I would have thought that everyone felt the same as me, which is not true. Customer feedback seems to be very important because without it, an entrepreneur could think that everyone looks at a situation like they do.