Assignment 7A- Testing the Hypothesis, Part 1

Hybrid Laundry Service 

• Opportunity: 
• Laundry is extremely vital to have under control when you get to college. It is not only time consuming but can be costly if students choose the services already provided. 

• The Who:  Students at the University of Florida, preferably underclassmen. 
• The What: Students not only here at UF but at colleges all across the country struggle to do their laundry consistently and correctly.
• The Why: Students may not be used to doing their own laundry before college, leaving them to figure it out on their own. Also, whether the machines required are extremely inconvenient or they simply do not have enough time on their hands, every student struggles doing their laundry during college. 

Testing the Who: Underclassmen students are not the only students that struggle doing their laundry, every upperclassmen do. I realized that it does not matter what age you are in college, laundry is something that you may never get the hang of. After rethinking my target market, I realized that I initially underestimated how many young adults struggle doing laundry in college because the act is solely up to them to get it done. 

Testing the What: After asking around and looking for feedback from many people in all different age groups, I came to the conclusion that there are more variables than I thought that could force someone to turn to a laundry service. Not only does the inconvenience and time commitment force students to leave their laundry to the last minute, it can also become very costly when all of your dirty clothes add up. Not only do students have trouble finding a place to do their laundry, but they find it near impossible to keep up with it consistently. 

Testing the Why: I realized the tremendous hassle that comes with doing laundry as soon as I got to college, mostly because I had never done it by myself. A lot of college students grow up with their parents doing their laundry for them, not realizing that once you go to college every responsibility is yours to take care of. I don't know whether people genuinely hate folding clothes or always feel like they have something better to do than laundry, but it is an ongoing problem in college, which doesn't just disappear as you get older. 

• Interview #1: The first person that I interviewed was a friend of mine who is a junior here at UF. Getting to interview someone that I knew prior helped me feel more comfortable asking questions I may not have asked someone that I didn't know. Also, I knew that he was someone with an unbiased point of view which really helped. As I had expected, he told me that he had never done his laundry before college and was shocked when he finally realized how much of a burden it is. He stated that he is the type of person to wait until he has no clothes left to do laundry, forcing him to do at least 2-3 loads every time he does it. Also, he admitted that since he waits so long he finds himself re wearing dirty clothes to get by. He identified doing laundry as a big problem in his life. 

• Interview #2: The second person that I chose to interview was a sophomore girl in a sorority at UF. I was actually able to interview her and a couple of her friends, but I counted it as one interview because they fall under the same persona. They all lived in a sorority house together, which I was asked not to name, but a lot of them have different reasons for laundry becoming a problem. The girl that I intended to interview stated that she struggles doing laundry because the machines that they have in their sorority house are very old and outdated. After responding by asking if she has ever tried a laundry service, her friend chimed in saying “they're awesome, but way too expensive”. After hearing a bunch of different opinions on why laundry is a struggle for them, I realized there are tons of reasons why students have trouble taking care of their laundry, not just time inconvenience. 

• Interview #3: The next person that I interview is a student at the UF medical school. She is studying to become a doctor while volunteering her time at Shands hospital on campus to gain experience. She explained to me the importance that laundry has due to her time grueling schedule. Not only does she have personal clothes that she relaxes in every day but also has scrubs for the hospital that she needs to keep consistently clean. Throughout the interview she stressed the time that it takes out of her studying and work, stating its “the last thing I want to do when I get home after a long day”.

• Interview #4: I decided to take a much different approach to my next interview by asking a college student from another school in the country, Indiana University. I chose to reach outside of my intended market to get a point of view from someone who didn't go to UF, so I could recognize some difficulties students in other parts of the country face when doing their laundry. I spoke to a Freshman Male recommended to me by a friend of mine who said he was willing to answer questions. He lives in a dorm like most freshman students at UF and seemed very tense when talking about this, I could tell laundry was something he really didn't enjoy doing. He explained to me that the reason he hated it so much was because the dorms only offer a certain amount of machines for what seems to be an unlimited amount of students. He gave me personal experiences in which aggravated him. For example, he explained there are times when he carries his laundry all the way down to the room only to find out that all of the machines are taken. He also explained a time in which he went to go switch his clothes from the washer to the dryer only to find his clothes on the floor with another persons clothes in the machine he was using. 

• Interview #5: The last interview that I conducted was one that made me realize I am able to expand my target market from UF students, to Gainesville residents as a whole. I decided to interview a full time resident of Alachua County to see if it is possible that anyone outside of UF would consider using a service. After talking for a while, I realized that full time residents often have the same problems that students have. The interviewee was a mother of two children living in a house close by to the UF campus. She explained to me that since she's had kids, not only has doing her own laundry gotten harder but she now has to do it for them too. After telling me how much laundry stresses her out, I mentioned a laundry service and she seemed to be intrigued immediately. She explained that both her and her husband work so they would be able to spend money to take the burden off of their hands. She also gave me a tremendous idea for the company that I had not even thought about. She gave me the idea that students at UF might be interested in purchasing a subscription to a laundry service in which they pay a certain amount every month to have their laundry consistently taken care of for them without having to ask. 

Summary: 

The interviews that I conducted opened my mind to a lot of different possibilities that I hadn't previously thought of by myself. I decided before I went looking for interviewees that I was going to interview people with very different situations to find out the problems associated with laundry for every type of person. For example, interviewing someone from another school across the country while still finding the same results here at UF allows me to confirm that it doesn't matter where you go to school, laundry is a problem for college students all over. An even greater realization that I had while doing my last interview was the possibility of providing subscriptions for students. I think this is a tremendous idea because it allows students to almost entirely forget about their laundry because they know it is going to be taken care of for them. I would be providing subscriptions for different price ranges that offer different types of services. For example, the student who signs up to have their laundry done for them every week is going to have to pay more than the student who only wants his done every three weeks. After multiple long and intricate interviews, I now realize that the potential that this service has to be successful is even greater than I imagined.