Forming an Opportunity Belief

1. An opportunity exists in my large apartment complex. There is one dumpster on one end of the complex that everyone must use. No one likes to take their garbage bags and walk a quarter mile and back just to dispose of their waste. The opportunity lies with a company willing to pick up the trash door to door so no one needs to be inconvenienced.

2. Unmet need: There is only one dumpster and it is located inconveniently to a majority of the complex.

Who has this need: My entire apartment complex and most likely many more.

Where did it come from: It has been around since apartment complexes have been around.

What is being done now: People are walking to the dumpster to dispose of their trash.

3. Prototypical Customer: The people who live in the same apartment complex as me.

4. Person 1:

Aware of need when: “When the trash needs to be taken out.” (daily)

How long has it been a need: “Since we moved into the apartment.”

When did you become aware of it: “After a couple weeks of walking to the dumpster.”

Why: “Its time consuming, tiring and annoying to do.”

How are you addressing it now: “Walking the trash out myself.”

How satisfied are you with your solution: “3/10. Extremely annoying and not worth my time.”

How satisfied would you be if you had someone take out the trash for you: “8/10. That would be very useful and would great.”

Person 2:

Aware of need when: “When the trash bins are full”

How long has it been a need: “Ever since we had trash to throw out!”

When did you become aware of it: “When we moved in and realized how far away the garbage dumpster was from us.”

How are you addressing it now: “We have our children take it out for chores but they forget a lot.”

How satisfied are you with your solution: “They get the job done but not always in a timely manner.”

How satisfied would you be if you had someone take out the trash for you: “Oh, we’d like it very much if someone were to take out our trash from our front door.”

Person 3:

Aware of need when: “When the house starts to stink and i need to take them out.”

How long has it been a need: “For as long as we’ve lived here.”

When did you become aware of it: “As soon as the trash started to make the house smell and I was too lazy to take it out.

How are you addressing it now: “I take out the bags on occasion if I feel up to the task.”

How satisfied are you with your solution: “Not very. It’s something I don’t like to do.”

How satisfied would you be if you had someone take out the trash for you: “That would be great! But we don’t have any extra money to pay for services like that.”

5. What did you learn about your opportunity? What was the most surprising thing you learned about your opportunity?

I learned that I am not the only one who shares the mindset of how annoying it is to walk the distance to the dumpsters, but there are some things to consider. While most are inconvenienced by the way they are disposing their waste right now, some people are unable to afford any extra service.

6. Repeated steps 3, 4, and 5.

7. How much of your original opportunity is still there?

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

How much do you think entrepreneurs should 'adapt' their opportunities based on customer feedback?

There is definitely still an opportunity in my original idea, but it may have to be altered in order to keep it a possibility. For instance, instead of everyone paying an individual fee, the complex may need to add that as an amenity, in order to keep the residents happy. Therefore the service would be included in their rent fee and the residents would no longer be inconvenienced.

After taking this into consideration, I strongly believe that an entrepreneur should adapt their opportunities based on customer feedback. If you don’t find out what they want or how to do it in a way they can afford, then you won’t get anywhere, no matter how good your idea is!