Idea Napkin -11A

Assignment 11A

YOU: My name is Chris Zislin from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Throughout my life I have learned to acquire skills in sales, networking, planning, and time management. I am very good at working with others and at times being very persuasive. My current aspirations are to let the current business idea grow and become a reality as I move along in my college and professional career. If I were to start this business, I could see it playing a huge role in my life. I also see this business as an opportunity to expand to many places nationwide that have the need for the product/services offered. After graduation I see myself constantly traveling and networking the services offered by “Smart Park” to many individuals, businesses, campuses, etc.

What are you offering to customers? A daily struggle that people around the world have is finding a parking space in rather crowded areas. Here at Smart Park you are able to know where an open parking space might be and if its legal to park in that space. Customers will no longer be strolling around looking for a parking space. Instead, a mobile app that can actually be installed into your car will tell you the most convenient place to park.

Who are you offering it to? My target audience would be those who live in overpopulated areas, college campuses, and businesses with limited space. The reason I came up with this idea in the first place was because I noticed the lack of parking and constantly heard complaints about students on UF’s campus not knowing where they should park. One thing that every customer will have in common is the unmet need of quality parking.

Why do they care? People always have somewhere they need to be during the day and the most used form of transportation today is by car. Businesses may be fond of this idea as it may bring in more customers to their organization. How this works is a business will pay for their property to be stored onto the app that customers may log onto. An example of this is students who want to go to Swamp Restaurant but simply don’t have a place to park because the plaza next door is usually full.

What are your core competencies? While many of us have been in parking garages where red/green lights are lit up above parking spaces to indicate an open or occupied parking space, this however is different. This does not only serve a purpose in parking garages but also to outdoor plazas, local businesses and college campuses. The benefit and ease this offers to drivers across the country is valuable to many who don’t simply have the time or patience of looking for a parking spot in a packed lot. No one else has an app that notifies you where to park seconds after you pull into a plaza. Instead of the app leading you to the facility in which you are going to, it will lead you to the parking space you need to go to.

I personally do believe these elements will work together. There are a lot of kinks and new ideas I would like to remove and install to see what works best for the customer. Maybe this can be installed in most cars and maybe it can be used as a third-party navigation app on your mobile device. Obviously places that have many parking spaces will not feel the need to pay for their spot to be included in the system. However, there is also the possibility of this being used at sporting events in all the lots available for fans. There is still a lot of work and ideas to be brought out in order for this to be successful.