The Mind of Babington

1.  -  I found my first economic opportunity from the following article:

http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/18/opinions/no-financial-stability-today-conway/

This article describes the transition in our job market that is making it more difficult for people to live financially stable lives from every day jobs. This is occurring for many reasons including reduced benefits, jobs being moved overseas, and the transition to a "shared" economy. I believe that the shared economy will continue to grow and become increasingly prevalent in the near future. As a result, I believe that there will be an increasing need for companies, websites or establishments that provide an established link between freelancer and job opportunity, therefore the prototypical customer would be freelance or gig workers.

 I believe this is a relatively easy opportunity to exploit compared to most business opportunities since there are no tangible services or products provided; the product could simply be the website, which doesn't require much overhead maintenance compared to a typical brick and mortar type of business. These types of opportunities where a company is simply acting as a link between two markets are becoming more common as the shared economy grows. Uber is a great example of this type of model. Uber does not provide any real services or products that require inventory maintenance, etc. They use an app as a link between people who want to drive and people who need a ride. Airbnb is another great example.

This opportunity most likely stuck out to me because I happen to use services like Uber and Airbnb pretty often, and my job deals with selling on Amazon, which also has some aspects of the shared economy, so this aspect of the shared economy was already in my mind, so I am realizing now that there is going to be a greater need for companies/websites who can serve as a link between freelancers and those who need their services.


2.  -  My second economic opportunity also has to deal with the economic trend towards the shared/gig economy mentioned in the previous example. However, the previous opportunity was mostly for a website linking all kinds of freelancers and employers, but this opportunity is a more specific example of exploiting the gig economy.

I believe that there is a great opportunity for a company similar to Uber, but for yard work. For instance, you can create an app where people who are interested in providing yard work can apply and be approved and whenever they are free to do some yard work, they can log in to their app account just like Uber drivers and if someone in the area requests, then they can accept. I believe many young home-owners would be the best customers for this type of app, but it would be useful to anybody because they could quickly find someone to do lawn work, it would be cheaper than typical prices, and they would be able to see customer ratings and reviews for each worker.

Maybe the app could be called Momi, pronounced like "mow,"-"me." It's a short name and easy to remember, plus if they pronounce it like I just mentioned, then there is already a linguistic/psychological primer, so whenever a homeowner or home manager who has heard of the company thinks they need their lawn mowed, their mind will be much more likely to remember Momi.

I realized this opportunity is needed because when I was managing a home that was being rented out to other college students, finding lawn work was a pain sometimes, especially in the summer, so I often had to resort to people posting on Craigslist, but it does not provide any idea of what type of person will be showing up. However, this app would provide reviews, ratings and background checks when the service provider is first applying. I believe this would be a relatively easy app to create and manage.


3.  -  My first regulatory opportunity was found here:

http://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/regulatory/energy-regulatory-outlook.html

This article highlights some of the important regulatory trends occurring this year. One of which is an increasing need for cyber security in many businesses, including those in the energy sector. The article states that the CFTC recently approved regulations that will require companies to adhere to additional cyber security requirements. This will include additional security measures as well as routine services provided to test and evaluate the security of the companies' information. Therefore, there is an opportunity for companies to provide these additional cyber security measures or to provide the service of evaluating them. The prototypical customer is any company that stores sensitive information.

This opportunity could be very difficult to exploit depending on the level of expertise one has or acquires from others regarding cyber security. I most likely realized this opportunity because I was recently reading about the enormous cyber security breach that impacted Target in recent years.


4.  -  https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/us/Documents/finance/us-outlooks-top-regulatory-trends-for-2016-in-banking-reg.PDF

In this article, many regulatory trends are shown, including new regulations that will require financial institutions to more thoroughly measure risk. A big reason for these regulations is a move toward prevention of faulty loans, similar to the ones that led to the housing crisis in 2007-2009. There is an intrapreneurial opportunity for anyone already working within a financial institution to provide new measures of risk and alternative forms of risk analysis as well as an opportunity for any entrepreneur to provide these risk measurement services. This would be hard to exploit, but could be profitable.

I believe I noticed this opportunity because I recently watched the movie The Big Short, which is about the housing market and financial crisis caused by bad loans that were given due to poor risk assessment.

I believe there's an opportunity for restaurants with more healthy food options in the east Orlando area. I personally have had trouble finding any healthy options that are within a 20 minute drive from my home for the past year, so I assume that others who are looking for healthy food options in this area but don't have the time or skills to cook at home are in the same situation. Right now Chipotle is pretty much the go-to option in this area for healthier food, but that is the only place I can think of, and the line is always out the door with no matter what time you go.

There are over 60,000 students attending UCF, which is a 5-10 minute drive from my house, so there must be a lot of health-conscious students experiencing this issue. Also, even though this is a college area, it is pretty densely populated in general, so there are still many neighborhoods in the area that are populated by non-students, so there seems to be a large customer base for healthy food options here.

I went to a popular food plaza right across the street from UCF and asked a few people to sit down and chat about the issue for a few minutes. You can find the recordings for these interviews here:

https://soundcloud.com/user-642057848

After talking to some students who attend UCF it seemed that they all agreed that there aren't any truly healthy options in this area. I'm not sure if they were mainly agreeing just because they didn't want to disagree with me, but I don't think they sounded biased from what I could tell. They also seemed to lean towards the fast-casual type of restaurant similar to a Panera or Chipotle style, but with more fresh ingredients. If there are any awkward moments, I apologize in advance; I'm really not a good speaker in general, especially with people I don't know.. but it's all good. Also, one of the interviewees was quite an interesting character, but I found it pretty entertaining. Hope you enjoy.

Of all the things in the world that bug me, these are the first 20 that come to mind:

#1 - The inefficiency of traffic, in Florida especially
         - The requirements of getting a license are far too little. You don't even need to know how to drive to get a license, period. When I did my final "driver's test," I never even left the parking lot.. literally. The whole test happened within a 50 foot parking lot. How can someone be expected to go on a highway or drive in stop-and-go traffic just because they can go 10mph back and forth in a parking lot with nobody else around? It's ridiculous.

#2 - Lack of Recycling
         - Caused by the lack of legislature needed to make recycling mandatory. In many countries, people get fined if they do not recycle. That's how it should be.. it's not that difficult.

#3 - The minimal number of electric cars being driven
         - This is because electric cars are more expensive and also because the oil/gas corporations lobby to prevent the switch to electric cars, lessening the amount of legislature being passed to initiate the switch.

#4 - Healthy food is so much more expensive than unhealthy food.
          - This is caused by pricing differences due to supply and demand, or the fact that it might actually cost more to produce foods that are organic, not processed, etc., or maybe a combination of both.

#5 - The U.S. public education system is not suited to prepare modern students for the real world.
          - The education system is still based off the education system that was created during the Industrial Revolution, which molded students into individuals who were suited to fit like a cog into the well-oiled machine of the American economic system. However, nowadays companies and the economy as a whole are completely different. Things like pensions will be a thing of the past, technology is causing more and more jobs to become automated, and technology is also taking away the need for the typical office setting for many reasons, including the fact that, for many jobs, people can work from anywhere. The public education system in no way prepares students for these types of situations, not to mention financial planning, budgeting, taxes, etc. - all the many areas of necessary adult life that are never covered in school.

#6 - Peer pressure prevents most kids and even many adults from staying true to themselves.
          - Not sure exactly what causes this, but there may be some sociological explanation, or maybe it stems from the evolutionary need to fit in to the "pack."

#7 - Inconsideration, referring to people not being considerate of others or not thinking of how their actions will affect others
         - Due to the individualistic nature of American society

#8 - News/Media and Entertainment mostly focus on negative occurrences or current events that are superficial in nature.
          - Unfortunately, due to human psychology, these aspects of society happen to attract the largest audience, which leads to more profit for the organizations in these industries who care more about money than creating a positive influence on society.

#9 - There are far too many car accidents.
          - This is due to the same reasons listed in #1 above as well as the fact that the driving age of 16 is too young because the road has to be taken with the utmost seriousness, and there is no way that any more than 25% of 16 year old kids in America are mature or responsible enough to be driving a vehicle that can easily put other people's lives in danger.

#10 - The war between science and religion leads to a divide between large segments of our population and causes discrimination on both sides.
          - Once people make up their mind about something, they tend to pay more attention to the statements that support their beliefs while ignoring statements that oppose their beliefs, causing an endless debate. For some reason most people assume that it has to be science or religion; I don't see why they shouldn't be able to coexist.

#11 - The terrible treatment of animals in the food production process and how it then affects the people eating the food.
           - The companies producing the food create their processes only with the aim of maximum efficiency for profit. This causes the animals to be more unhealthy, which then causes the people eating the food to be more unhealthy.

#12 - A large percentage of food goes to waste, especially from restaurants, etc.
             - This may be caused by sanitation laws as well as the reluctance of restaurants to undertake any excess expenses that this may cause.

#13 - The 40 hour work week is not the most efficient work schedule, but it is still widely enforced.
             - Not only has it been shown that worker's efficiency decreases dramatically as the day goes on, but they will then be more tired the following days, causing an endless cycle of unproductive and unmotivated work.

#14 - Health care in the U.S. is too expensive, causing many people to go bankrupt due to unexpected accidents that end up costing tens of thousands of dollars
            - I believe this is due to some inefficiency in government budgeting because there are some countries that provide free health care as well as free education all the way through college, and it is not ruining their economy.

#15 - The corrupt political system does not accurately represent a democratic system.
            - Too many political decisions are affected by lobbyists who require favors for helping politicians get into office. Just watch House of Cards. It's obviously exaggerated sometimes, but a lot of it represents how politics really works.

#16 - The voting process is not efficient or a fair representation of what the people need or want.
            - One major issue is that not everybody votes. In addition, other areas such as polling, biased media, and the delegate system contribute to an inefficient voting system.

#17 - College tuition is too expensive and rising, which leads to many people graduating in debt, meanwhile the value of college degrees is decreasing.
            - This is caused by a combination of schools' trying to generate profits as well as inflation, which causes the prices to increase for seemingly no reason.

#18 - Personal information is too easily accessible. From a simple Google search you can find out some one's address, phone number, and many other personal details.
            - I am honestly not sure why this is allowed. One's address and phone number shouldn't be considered as public information.

#19 - If you do research on many topics, for example "Should I keep my body warm or cool when I have a fever," you will find so many answers agreeing with both sides. This is the case with so many different topics including weight loss, nutrition, exercise, etc.
            - This is caused by the ease with which people can post information on the Internet combined with the fact that there is no one-size-fits-all solution for these issues. Each person's body is different and each scenario is different, so each case requires a different solution.

#20 - Wall Street purposely creates complicated fee structures and promotes short-term-oriented investments that are not the best for the investors.
            - This is caused by the greed of the companies who are trying to get investors in the habit of doing short-term trading so that the financial institutions make more money off transaction fees.


This list was not difficult in the sense that there are countless issues to choose from. However, once you can choose anything, then it becomes difficult to choose because you have too many options. I also wanted to choose more economically viable or product/item-based issues, but it is very hard to remember specific moments where I found something to be annoying, inefficient, etc. It seems that these small and random occurrences should be noted if one wants to remember them later. This is why my list ended up covering mostly wide-ranging issues rather than very specific opportunities for improvement. I should start keeping a journal for times when I notice bugs in my daily life.

My entrepreneurship story is one that's not yet finished, that's to say it's still ongoing.

This is just a post to make sure everything is working.