Identifying Opportunities in Economic and Regulatory Trends

ECONOMIC TRENDS:

1. Aftermath of natural disasters promoting more activity in certain areas for the first half of the year. PART A- Since hurricane season is right around the corner and we’re already feeling the effects of it, I started coming across articles from the first of the year having to do with a surge in relief and rebuilding efforts from both Hurricanes Irma and Harvey from last year in Florida and Texas. PART B- I think an opportunity exists here because we still aren’t even a year removed from all the damage the hurricanes caused, and a lot of places just didn’t have the means to start rebuilding quickly. Reversing the damage is still very much a work in progress, so I believe there’s absolutely an existing opportunity. PART C- I feel like for this, the customer with the opportunity would be people displaced in last year’s hurricanes or maybe construction companies in those areas still feeling the effects of the damage. PART D- This opportunity is easy to exploit because until the area is 100% rebuilt from the storms, work will still need to be done.        I saw this opportunity because my dad is military and is being stationed in Hawaii next month, so I’ve been a little obsessive about monitoring natural disasters, like the volcano situation in Hawaii currently. In my research, I’ve come across several articles about how parts of the country are still rebuilding from last year, and I have an uncle who works with a contracting company focused in natural disasters, so it’s kind of just a thing that’s on my radar. 
2. Inflation starting in gas prices across the country. PART A- I found this opportunity online after a search of trends in gas prices over the last 6 months. PART B- I believe opportunities exist here because a few years ago when was was $4+ per gallon, tons of people were looking into ways to get around or deal with the inflated pricing. PART C- I think the most likely customer for this would be commuters or transportation companies like Uber or Lyft. PART D- This opportunity would probably be easy to exploit simply because I live in a college town which always has people going places, and even with gas prices increasing slightly, people still have to commute to and from work so the demand will remain constant for the gas itself.      I saw this opportunity because I like to travel a lot, and I’ve recently been on several long road trips. I drive a pretty gas-efficient car, but a lot of my friends and family don’t and while I’ve noticed that it has steadily been costing more to fill up my car, they have to pay significantly more and I’ve been hearing about it frequently. 

REGULATORY CHANGES:

1. Regulatory changes for EMS from Health and Human Services about their reporting equipment and policies. PART A- I found this on an online medical journal that just publishes a lot of news updates about little changes in the field. PART B- I think that an opportunity exists here because the medical field is always changing, and the changes they make are to improve the quality and speed of care given to people, and I believe that’s always something to work towards. PART C- The ideal customer for this opportunity would be hospitals and emergency medical providers/workers. PART D- I think this would be a semi-easy opportunity to exploit. Easy because as long as there are people they’ll need to be taken care of medically, but hard because a lot of the time, medical updates or opportunities take a lot of time and effort to get through regulations and red tape.       I saw this opportunity in particular because I’m currently training to be an emergency medical responder. My head instructor is all about staying up to date with what’s going on in the field both locally and in general, so I’ve been looking into a lot more regulatory things that I never paid much attention to before I started my training. 
2. Health care providers in Hawaii are now allowed to refuse certain kinds of health insurance they previously weren’t allowed to. PART A- I found this on an information page about differences in Hawaiian living than the mainland US. PART B- An opportunity could exist here because now with some insurance policies not being accepted, there will be people looking to make ends meet with their healthcare. PART C- The customer for this opportunity would be probably lower-income hospital clients with less-than-ideal healthcare plans. PART D- This one will probably be pretty hard to exploit, because most insurance companies and/or hospitals don’t budge at all as far as their coverage is concerned, even if it causes some problems in the lives of people they service.        I saw this opportunity because as previously mentioned earlier in this post, my immediate family is in the process of moving to Hawaii so lately if I have some free time, I spend a little of it just looking up how things are ran differently on the islands than they are here. Also, my plan for after college is to go into the medical field and since there’s been so much controversy in recent years about health insurance, I figure it would be helpful to stay up to date and knowledgeable about the topic.