1) Your beginning point.
There should be a bus system on military installations for soldiers, DOD civilians and families.
2) Describe your belief.
The unmet need is a public transportation system for military personnel, DOD civilians and their families. This need is new as there used to be a bus system on posts but this does not exist anymore. To meet the transportation needs now, many people are catching rides with friends or walking to where they need to go. I am 100% sure that this opportunity exists because I hear about the issue daily being a DOD civilian and my husband being active duty.
3) Identify the prototypical customer.
4) Iteration #1
The first prototypical customer I spoke to said they support the idea of this solution as it would help them get to work on time and to grocery stores and different appointments that are located around post. They experience this need very often as they do not have many friends who have cars or their friends aren't going to the same place as them. They first became aware of this need when they arrived on post and had to walk to the store. They are currently walking to their destinations.
Iteration #2
The second prototypical customer I spoke with has been at this installation for about a year now and has had this issue since they arrived. They currently ride their bike to work every day or catch rides from friends. They support the idea of a bus system as it would be quicker and more convenient.
Iteration #3
The third prototypical customer I spoke with has been at this installation for about a 2 years. They do have a vehicle and currently use it to drive to all of their destinations. They support the idea of a bus system as it would be more convenient and cheaper. They experiences this issue when they arrived because they did not have a vehicle and had to buy one as soon as they could.
5) Reflect.
This bus system would be very beneficial to many soldiers and to many DOD civilians and their families. One surprising thing I learned was that there are people who walk daily to work and to stores as these places can be miles from where they live. I think this bus system would be a good way for the base to support the military families on post and the civilians that support them.
7) Summarize.
There is still definitely a need for this bus system or some other form of public transportation as there are currently none in place and many people are in need of one. I believe that I have a lot of information about the issue and feel I would receive a lot of support about it. I believe that entrepreneurs should adapt based on customer needs in order to be successful because once needs are met, opportunities change.
First I want to say thank you for your service and sacrifice. Having grown up in a military family and going to visit the installations I agree that they need to have some type of transportation system. I feel like the bases sometimes just assume that everyone has a car, but that is definitely not true. Most of the installations are really big and spread apart so I am surprised that they do not have some type of transportation. Walking or riding a bike to work is not ideal especially because by the time you get there you are all sweaty. I agree that entrepreneurs should adapt based on the actual need of the customer. One thing I would maybe try to do is find out why the bus system on post does not exist anymore. I would be interested to know why they do not have them anymore as well. Haha
ReplyDeleteI would also like to thank you for your service. I believe that your initial premise is a great base to start off of, and i don't doubt you that there is an opportunity for this business. However, I'm not sure about a proper source of revenue if you were to actually make this into a business, as the amount of people you are marketing towards seems quite small.
ReplyDeleteI also would like to thank you for your service. I really think your initial post is a great start and I do believe that there is definitely a market for such a service. I have to agree with what William said above, starting the business may be difficult because the market is limited.
ReplyDelete