Upon researching recent economic trends on the internet,
I have found that Global Warming is playing an effect on crop production due to
rising average temperature. As the yearly average temperature increases, crop
yield, especially from corn and soybeans greatly decreases. While advances in
modern agriculture technology make it so that fields have higher yields per acre
than ever before, plants can still only be grown in certain environments. However,
an opportunity that I see out of this is a genetically modified seed for
farmers to use that allows plants to have a higher resistance to heat. This is a
similar principle to genetically modified wheat seeds that allow wheat to be
grown more successfully in the winter and tomatoes have modified seeds to allow
them to be hardier. Most likely a customer for this type of product would be a large
agricultural company such as Monsanto. They already hold ownership of many GMO
seeds and would be able to sell large quantities of seeds to farmers around the
country. By partnering or selling out to a company like Monsanto, a roughly 75-billion-dollar
company, a large amount of money could be made upfront or by potentially
selling patent rights to them. However, this opportunity would be very
difficult to fulfill given the requirements it takes to make genetically
modified seeds as well as get them approved for use. Regardless, a seed that
will stand up to potentially hotter temperatures than ever without losing yield
could prove invaluable if global temperatures continue to rise. The reason I
saw this opportunity is due to my experience with agriculture and what can be accomplished
with GMOs. While the idea is fairly simple actually bringing this idea to
fruition is very difficult. But from working with friends in agriculture as
well as having family that has worked in the agriculture business, I feel that technology
can be applied to nearly all aspects of food production.
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2.
Upon doing more research into Tampa’s recent economic
trends I found that there is a good investment opportunity within the area for
real estate development and acquisition. From what I found, the current real estate
market in Tampa is growing at a very fast rate. There are many people with jobs
in the STEM field moving to Tampa for work and with this, they will need places
to live. Through buying and flipping houses, buying rental properties or
creating your own development, there is much money to be made. Through a
growing population, real estate market and houses still at a low price, it is a
good opportunity to enter that market. I believe that this is a somewhat
challenging opportunity to capitalize on, at least if one tried to do their own
real estate development. However, with buying rental properties or flipping
houses, these could be achieved much easier and with less experience and
capital. Typical customers would be people moving to the Tampa area or anyone in
the market for a new home or in need of a place to rent. I saw this opportunity
based on my own personal construction and residential experience in the Tampa
area. I learned about it firsthand through internships over the past few
summers as well as doing research on the Tampa area real estate market.
3.
In a news article I found from Insurance Journal,
a Florida appellate court has ruled that the State of Florida’s regulations on medical
marijuana are unconstitutional and the state can not regulate the number of dispensaries
that can be operated in the state. Should this ruling stand in Florida’s higher
court this can be a huge business opportunity to open a dispensary. With the
number of registered medical marijuana holders already at approximately 250,000
and growing, there is a large customer base to drive demand. Additionally, with
the push for recreational marijuana growing ever year there is the potential
for this to be a booming industry. This would be a relatively easy market to
get into aside from the licensing required for operating a business of this type.
The reason I saw this idea is because company owners and investors have been
looking into this market for the past several years. For instance, Morgan &
Morgan purchased a large amount of warehouse space specifically for the use of
cultivating marijuana once it becomes legalized or they can get he licensing to
sell to dispensaries. Many people are already making preparation for it whether
they use it or not simply because they know the massive potential this industry
and market holds.
4.
Lastly, the other regulatory opportunity I saw
was based off of the Florida Building Code (FBC) and its statutes for
regulating all licensed construction projects in the state of Florida. In the
state of Florida all licensed construction work must abide by the most recent
version of the FBC. While many contractors keep up on this, it is a government run
code book so the amount of support for keeping everyone on the same page when
regulations change is slim to none. I see an opportunity to create an app for
construction business owners, contractors, subcontractors and anyone who does construction
jobs. This app would provide construction industry professionals any building
codes that have been changed so that they can apply them to their work. This
would be a valuable tool to provide quick reference on new codes and ensure that
their projects are up to FBC. I saw this opportunity through experiencing the changing
building codes every year. Having worked in construction it is important to
make sure all your work is up to code or it will cost great monetary loss.
