My Opportunity Belief About Investing

I believe that an unmet need is the lack of knowledge people under the age of 25 have about investing their money. This is caused by the lack of teaching about investment in high schools and colleges.

The unmet need I have found is a lack of knowledge about investing money among young adults.  This need has existed for decades but is more prevalent today then ever before because of how expensive student loans currently are. This need affects any young adult that has a savings account or plans to have a savings account in the near future. A well put together stock portfolio returns an average of 8% per year, which is much higher than the interest you receive from having a bank account. This need is being met by a very niche group. Young adults are forced to teach themselves how to invest if they are interested in it. This typically includes individuals who study finance, when in reality everybody can benefit from investing. I am 95% sure this opportunity exists. My proposed solution to this unmet need would be to sell an investing curriculum to private high schools and colleges. That way students would have an opportunity to learn about investing in school which would benefit the students while also stimulating the economy.

A prototypical customer would be a 20 year old college student that works during the summers and has a few hundred to a few thousand dollars in their bank account.

Interview 1: I talked to my friend Nick about this opportunity. Nick said that he agrees more young adults should learn about investing. Being a finance student, Nick has a good knowledge of how investments work. However, he was never taught in school how to create a portfolio. He was never taught what to look for when picking a stock to invest in. When asked how often he notices this need, he said pretty often. Nick said he realized there was need of investment teaching in high school since he was 16. He has been addressing this need by teaching himself about investing. He joined the Florida Wealth Management Association in hopes of learning what he did not learn in school. He thinks this was a good solution for him but he agrees that it would be beneficial if all students learned about investing.

Interview 2: I talked to a journalism student named Brett about this opportunity. Brett has very little knowledge about investing because he was never taught about it. He realizes often that this is an unmet need and he has the desire to learn about investing, however he has never gotten around to it. He realized around age 18 that he should learn to invest and he agrees that investing is neglected in high school and college curriculums. He has yet to address this need but he plans on doing his own research at some point.

Interview 3: I talked to my friend Ryan about this opportunity. Ryan is a general business major. He has learned about equities in class but just the basics. He has limited knowledge and no experience with investing his money. He is aware of the need for young adults to learn more about investing. He agrees that young adults would be better off down the road financially if they knew how to invest. He realized when he was 16 that learning about investing was important. He doesn't think often about his need to learn about investing though. He said it would be a good idea to have high schools and colleges teach students how to invest.

Reflection: After interviewing three people, I have learned a lot more about this opportunity. Out of the three people that I talked to, all of which are intelligent individuals, none of them have experience with investing. I also learned that many people don't even realize that learning to invest is a need because they do not know about it's potential benefits. This tells me that it is even more of a need then I originally thought. If people do not even know what investing can do for your financial security, they will never teach themselves. We need more teaching about investment in high school and college.

Summary: My original opportunity still exists after interviewing those 3 people. The one thing that changed about my original opportunity/solution is the fact that the investment curriculum should also be sold to public high schools and university's. I truly believe that all people should be more knowledgable about investing especially in their young adult lives. Investing when your young is paramount because of how compound earnings work. Investing at age 24 instead of investing at age 34 can result in hundreds of thousands of dollars of realized gains that you would have otherwise missed out on. I think it is very important for entrepreneurs to change their ideas based on the feedback they receive. Although, i believe you should consult over 50 potential customers before changing your business plan. Three people is not a large enough sample size to warrant changing your ideas.