Assignment 6: Identifying Opportunities in Economic & Regulatory Trends
Economic Trends:
- An article in the Los Angeles Times titled “California gas prices will probably rise after attack on Saudi oil plant” details the economic trend of soaring gas prices in California. There is an opportunity here because people are forced to buy gasoline even though the prices are higher than they want to pay and they are very displeased. The most likely customers are people who have to commute via car or motor vehicle that consumes gasoline in California and maybe the rest of the United States if gas prices rise nationally. I believe this opportunity is relatively difficult to exploit for me to do, but other companies may be able to exploit this. We know that people have been trying to develop alternative fuel sources for a while and none have come about so it seems to be quite a difficult task to overcome.
- An article from Mansion Global titled “U.S. Housing Market Poised to Shift in Sellers’ Favor” suggests that house prices are increasing and becoming harder for people to buy houses. This can be an opportunity because people will shift from trying to buy homes to trying to rent apartments or condos or other living spaces. The most likely customer are those with lower or middle income who are trying to buy a house but cannot afford to. It would be relatively difficult for me to exploit this opportunity but I believe larger companies who are already in the market could expand how many locations they have to take advantage of the upcoming demand.
Regulatory Trends:
- Marijuana is slowly becoming legal on certain levels across the United States. This is a new and expanding market and can be exploited because of this. The typical customer for this would be someone who wants to smoke marijuana for either recreational or medicinal use. Typically, this would include people who have already been using this or other drugs such as alcohol. This opportunity could be relatively easy to exploit because it is a new market and marijuana has already been in the United States market, just not legally. People could start little shops with relatively little money and exploit this opportunity.
- Smoking cigarettes is being banned in more and more places across the United States. For example, New Jersey has banned smoking on public beaches and in public parks and New York will change the smoking age from 18-21. These rule changes open up opportunities for smoking alternatives to be sold so that people can still be satisfied without being restricted to certain areas. The who that will buy these products are those who had been smoking before the rule changes and those who want to smoke after the rule changes. This is a little more difficult to exploit because it is a new technology and is expensive to develop and/or purchase but it is also relatively easy because it is a new market with little barriers to entry.
Very interesting content Jonathan! There is a lot of opportunity in the two regulatory examples you mentioned. The marijuana trend is also one which is bringing in major amounts of money. Because I personally do not see myself doing anything entrepreneurial in the field of marijuana, but I do recognize the potential, I invested in various (hopefully upcoming) marijuana companies. The cigarettes trend is a, little more difficult. This movement in my opinion is an extremely good one, which benefits society at a whole.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your regulatory trend about Marijuana markets. My family who is from Canada has been looking more and more into the Marijuana market since it has become so successful in the past couple years with its legalization. I also saw an article about banning cigarettes and how finally cities are doing something about it where they actually ban the use of them. It is interesting as to why it took so long for people to realize that smoking is actually bad for you and that smoking around others is also bad for them. At least the United States is finally doing something that will hopefully cause less smoking related deaths in America. Great post.
ReplyDeleteI found your regulatory opportunities to be very interesting. For the one regarding marijuana, I slightly disagree with how easy it will be to exploit. The market has been open for a while now, and with the taxes and regulations on manufacturers, it can be difficult to profit. Your opinion on the opportunity in the rise of oil prices was also very interesting. I would have figured something like a ride sharing service may be easier to build, but that market is also crowded as well.
ReplyDeleteHi Johnathan,
ReplyDeleteI have to say that I really enjoyed reading your blog. i realize that Marijuana is slowly becoming legal on certain levels across the United States and this regulatory trend is going to improve a lot the control of drug Dealers and cartels. Also, If marihuana is legalized there will be a lot of opportunities there. Great post, good job!
Great Articles Johnathan, I feel like your regulatory trends go hand and hand. With marijuana becoming legal throughout the United States and the fact that smoking cigarettes are becoming banned in certain areas like public beaches and public parks etc. I think that if marijuana becomes legal across the country there will be more regulations on it which will lower your chances of becoming profitable. I think since the market for it is so limited the companies that are producing it are making a lot more versus companies that will start later.
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