Assignment 6A – Identifying Opportunities in Economic & Regulatory Trends

• Economic Trend: India’s economic climb is bringing millions out of poverty and forming a “substantial and aspirational class.” This is an opportunity for international construction companies to cultivate relationships that will lead to profitable business ventures in India. 

• The source of the news article is 
  https://www.afr.com/policy/indias-rapid-rise-and-growing-middle-class-creates-hunger-for-commodities-20181121-h185wl

• The true source is from a lecture by Alyssa Ayers. She was talking at Purdue University about her new book "Our Time has Come". During the talk she focused on the future growth and world power that India is poised to be. This is one of the first times I had become aware of India's rising economy. 

• I believe this opportunity exists because of the figures that experts are using. One example is this statement from the article. "The UN projects that India's urbanisation rate will rise to 42 per cent or 640 million by 2035." That's a whole lot of construction, growth, products, and services that will be needed very soon. 

• The prototypical business customer would be the corporations who pay the builders for the new housing development. A typical ultimate consumer would be an Indian family buying their their first new home.

• This opportunity sides more on the "relatively difficult" spectrum. Think about a New York based company and the hurdles it would have to jump through in order to get dirt moving and houses built on the other side of the world. It's certainly more difficult than producing a widget and exporting it. 

• The reason why I saw this was stated above. India has been on my radar because of the future growth I learned that the country will be experiencing. So, whenever I think of a future goldmine (which, for many hardworking entrepreneurs it will function as this) I think of India. 

• Economic Trend: Illinois sees sluggish growth in Q4 of 2019. The biggest area of its growth came from the "professional, scientific, and technical services category." This is an opportunity for those who capitalize on training people in these fields. An opportunity might be tutoring individuals who are studying to work in these sectors. 
• The source of the news article is https://www.effinghamdailynews.com/news/illinois-economy-grew-slowly-in-rd-quarter/article_1f980d3e-35a9-11ea-9046-d7699431caa8.html

• Service companies, if done correctly, can lead to high profit margins. College education is becoming more common and thus might allow room for a private for-profit tutoring company to cater to people heading into this growing area of Illinois' economy. 

• The customer would be college students. I can see this being great for adults who are returning back to school after several or many years. 

• This opportunity fits into the relatively easy side of the spectrum. To run the business it only takes one employee and one customer. I'm aware of a man who specializes in law school tutoring and makes $60,000 annually. Of course, the operation could be scaled up as well. 

• I'm aware of this parasitic sector of education through a number of means. When I recently came to UF, I was presented two different for-profits that offer notes and study resources for a price. This is an interesting method of business to me. 

• Regulatory Trend: Michigan legalizes marijuana. Great opportunity for a business person to open a shop to take advantage of new laws allowing recreational pot smoking. 

• The source of this can be found on the Michigan state government's website https://www.michigan.gov/marijuana/.

• There's obviously a lot of noise surrounding this conversation, politically, economically, and ethically. Of course we will stick to the economics of it for our purposes of discussion. legalizing weed has made a lot of money for some and many have dreamed of cashing in on the business. With the legalization passed in 2019, this opens up new areas of business in the state of Michigan.

• Typical customer is somebody looking to purchase marijuana. 

• Because of the red tape surrounding sales of this type of product, I would place it on the more difficult side of the spectrum. That's not to mention the thought of having to safehuard your product and petty cash from thieves. 

• I'm aware of this because Michigan is just up the road from where we live and this was big news even in our area (about 2 hours south of the state), and I don't even keep up with the news. Outside of my faint awareness, I have no special reason why I see this opportunity. 

• Regulatory Trend: Online sports betting became legal in Indiana last year. Great time to jump in on that business! (If you know what you're doing!)

• The source can be found at https://fox59.com/2019/07/01/several-new-laws-going-into-effect-in-indiana-on-july-1/.

• We don't watch cable TV and so (thank God) don't get bombarded with ads. But at work on the TV I occasionally see an ad for what looks like sports betting. With how pervasive things like fantasy football seem to be, online sports betting just seems like more gravy on the biscuit for companies entering that market. 

• The typical customer is somebody looking to escape their lousy life by chasing the thrill of online sports betting.

• This has got to fall on the difficult part of the spectrum. I can't even run a blog properly. Imagine trying to build and manage what's essentially an online casino. Lots of money would go towards the IT part of the labor costs, and lots of attention would be forced on the regulatory side of things. No thanks. 

• I'm aware of this because last year my wife and I took a class about 45 minutes from where we live. Right before we reached our destination we would see this house with a couple of "LEGALIZE SPORTS BETTING" signs in their yard. Well, when it became legal here in Indiana, I made the connection back to that fine and outstanding citizen who took their part in shaping the future. What a great Hoosier.