Identifying Opportunities in Economic & Regulatory Trends

The recent coronavirus pandemic has created many opportunities for entrepreneurship as it caused many economic and regulatory changes in a very short amount of time. Here are four examples of opportunities created by these changes.

                                      

Economic Opportunity 1: One opportunity caused by a recent economic trend would be the development of a new grocery delivery service. The pandemic has created a huge boom in business for one such service, Instacart. However, I have heard multiple families complain about Instacart’s pricing of items and lack of available delivery times. In addition to charging a flat rate delivery fee (or requiring a paid membership), Instacart charges higher prices for many items than the grocery stores themselves charge. I have had family members complain that their grocery bills went up by about 30% when using the service. I think that a similar service could be developed that charged a single flat rate delivery fee, resulting in comparable service that is more affordable. A prototypical customer for this opportunity would be either someone who cannot make it to the grocery store or someone who is trying to avoid public places due to the current health risks. I think that this opportunity would be relatively easy to exploit on a small scale, with only a few trusted employees. Trying to exploit this opportunity on a larger scale would be more difficult as you would have to manage more employees and orders, but it could still be a viable opportunity. I think I noticed this opportunity because I have heard people complain firsthand about Instacart, but watched them continue to use the service as there is not a viable alternative service. Also, I have elderly relatives that are reluctant to use Instacart because of the high prices and would benefit from this service.

 

Economic Opportunity 2: The food industry has struggled during the pandemic, turning to takeout and delivery options to try and stay afloat. Restaurants have been able to adapt to the new circumstances with varying degrees of success. During the stay-at-home order, I tried to order takeout from several local restaurants and found that some restaurants did not have accurate information online, making it more difficult to order from them. Other restaurants kept their websites and social media pages updated with new hours, takeout information, and menus. This led me to believe that there is an opportunity in helping restaurants develop and maintain an online presence. A prototypical customer would be an independent restaurant. I do not think franchised restaurants would be probable customers because they may not be allowed to maintain social media accounts per the terms of their franchise agreements. I think this opportunity would be relatively easy to exploit. There may be a small cost to maintain a separate website, but social media accounts are free and can be used to connect with customers. This service could also potentially help restaurants begin to use third-party food delivery services like Grubhub and Uber Eats, which may expand their customer base. I think I noticed this opportunity because the lack of available information made it difficult for me to support some local restaurants during the pandemic that I usually frequent in person. If it is difficult for a regular customer who is looking for information to find it, the businesses probably lost much needed revenue from others who could not quickly find the information to place an order.

 

Regulatory Opportunity 1: Government regulations have recently shut down schools out of public health concerns related to the coronavirus pandemic. Many parents are struggling to homeschool their children as they try to simultaneously complete their own jobs from home. I think this creates an opportunity for an online tutoring service that could help students one-on-one with their individual school work. I think the prototypical customer would be a parent who is trying to actively homeschool a child while also working from home. This service would allow those parents to focus on their own work while ensuring their children learned the material they were supposed to cover in class. That being said, I think it would be extremely difficult to exploit this opportunity. It would have to be individually tailored to each student, which would increase the cost of the service, and it would still be difficult to see the child’s work if it was not done on a computer. Also, this service would need to have a large number of employees because each employee could only work with one child at a time. This would probably result in this service being too expensive for the targeted market. I think I noticed this opportunity because I am currently at home with my parents and sister, all of whom are also working from the house. Trying to get any work done is difficult, and that is without a young child constantly in need of attention and help.

 

Regulatory Opportunity 2: Public health concerns have caused regulations closing most sectors of the entertainment industry, from movie theatres to sporting events. I think that this closure creates an opportunity for a revival of drive-in theatres. These theatres could show everything from movies to live sporting events that don’t allow fans. Since crowded movie theatres and sports bars are not going to be viable anytime soon, this could bridge the gap while playing into the nostalgia that people feel for the idea of the classic drive-in. While this would be accessible to anyone with a car, I think a prototypical customer would probably be a young adult or teenager. I do not think this opportunity would be easy to exploit. It would require a fairly significant investment to purchase projection equipment, plus it would require a lot of land. You would also have to pay license and copyright fees to show movies. I think I noticed this opportunity because my family goes to a lot of sporting events. When sports resume, fans will likely not be allowed in stadiums, which means that thousands of fans will be looking for ways to cheer on their team with other fans, all while remaining socially distant.