Assignment #4: Forming an Opportunity Belief

A. The opportunity: Being in an aviation community, flying has become a huge part of my life. I often ponder on how to make flying commercially a little more enjoyable or enticing. As a pet owner, I always find myself torn between driving long distances with my 2 dogs, or leaving them behind and flying. I believe that an opportunity exists for a commercial airline to specialize in transporting pets with their owners comfortably. Instead of dreadfully flying pets in the cargo areas with the suitcases, travelers would be allowed to take their pet along with them in the cabin. The market that this would appeal to would be not only specifically military personnel, but people who travel often whether it be for work or for pleasure. After assessing the need for these travel arrangements, we would be able to further narrow down the target market. At this point, I am 75% sure that this opportunity exists.

B. The interviews with prospective customers:

1. Non-military member, pet owner- After a series of questions, it was apparent that this individual did not travel very often due to her pet. She owns a pit bull, so it is very hard to find pet care and she will not put her dog into the cargo part of an aircraft. She said that if she had the opportunity to travel with her dog in the cabin, she would travel more. Currently, her job does not require much travel so she does not necessarily have to find alternate solutions. 
2. Commercial airline pilot, pet owner- This was a unique interview because not only could he be a potential customer, but an employee of the airline as well. A lot of technicalities were discussed such as how the aircraft would be boarded, what pets are allowed, and how to keep the pets restrained for safety reasons. He also mentioned that many people already do travel with pets. I brought up the several incidents of pets being mistreated in cargo spaces or the accidents that occur and he said that they are very rare. From a customer perspective, he would consider bringing his pet along flying, as long as it was very controlled and safe to do so. 
3. Military member, pet owner- After very similar dialogue as interview #1, the member was very excited about the idea of flying with her dogs. Although most of her travel was within the state of Florida for leisure, she said she would be able to consider going new places. She has used pet-friendly hotels in the past and was happy with her experiences and would do it again. She said she would rather bring her dogs along than board them for an extended period of time and that it would most likely be cheaper to do so. 

C. Reflection: It was very interesting talking with people about this potential opportunity. I learned that pets do, in fact, hold people back from traveling in some cases. The military creates a need to travel for pets but for civilians, it is more of a leisure or want to travel. I learned that people would have many questions if the opportunity became available and that the rules and regulations would have to be pretty stringent to make people feel comfortable flying. The most surprising thing that I learned from the interviews was that people were very eager to hear more about the idea. This opportunity sparked people interest, but again there were many questions that I still have to consider.

D. Summary: I believe that a good part of my original opportunity is still present. Since there already are arrangements that can be made for traveling with pets, it is more of a want rather than a need. However, people are held back from traveling due to pets so it would have a positive impact on all travel businesses such as hotels and pet-friendly venues that already exist. My new opportunity is more accurate but there are still some questions to be answered that are out of my area of expertise such as laws and regulations. I do believe that entrepreneurs need to somewhat flex based on customer feedback to make an opportunity more appealing. In the end, the more interest the better. As long as entrepreneurs stick to their foundation, an opportunity could be very rewarding for both them and the customer. Society is always changing so it is very important to be able to adapt to new demands in order to be successful.