9A – Testing the Hypothesis, Part 2

Who: Stay at Home Parents; Work at Home Parents; Elementary/Middle/High School students who do not participate in extracurricular activities; Teenagers that can drive and have access to a car; Parents of infants, toddlers, and pre-school aged children; working parents who have family members that help them

What: The necessity of this service is not needed by the identified who.

Why: The service is geared towards assisting those who need help transporting their children to different activities, events, etc. If the need does not exist, the service is not desirable.

After speaking with people who would not benefit from this service, it really helped me to see the customer base of who I am attracting may be more limited than I anticipated. Although the response to this service was received with mixed feelings by working parents, for the most they would consider using this service if the right safety measures were taken AND it would benefit them. In the State of Florida, teenagers begin driving at 16 years of age. If they have access to a car, they can drive themselves to and from their activities, events and appointments which eliminates the need for this service. Parents of infants, toddlers and, pre-school aged children do not benefit from this service as their children would most likely not have an abundance of activities or events to attend. Also, these parents would be attending those activities with their child(ren). Parents would not rely on a driver to pick up their toddler, take them to a dance lesson (sit and wait at the dance school) and bring them home. In that case, they would just hire a nanny. Stay at Home Parents and Work at Home Parents can better manage their schedules and the schedules of their child(ren) to maximize time and ensure they are able to transport their children to and from their activities and events. However, some at home parents would consider this service in the event they are sick and unable to get their child(ren) to their activities and/or events. In addition, parents of teenage drivers may also consider the service IF they were concerned about the safety of their child(ren) at a social event. They might prefer to use this service to bring their child(ren) to and from the event instead of allowing them to drive.

It was interesting to see the differences in opinions, thought processes and requirements for this type of service. Working parents believed this could relieve the stress of having to be in 20 different places at the same time. At home parents felt it would be more of a luxury than a necessity because they prefer to adjust their schedules rather than use a service to assist with transportation. Unfortunately, working parents may not have the flexibility to adjust their schedules to accommodate the activities their child(ren) participate in. As a working mom, student and volunteer myself, I do not want to deny my daughter opportunities to participate in activities and events because my schedule is not conducive for it. I believe my daughter should have every opportunity to find her path, and she cannot do that unless she can explore the opportunities that are in front of her. Of course, there are times when I must be a voice of reason for her because she does like to overextend herself. Who knew an eight-year-old could do that?

Researching this idea has reinforced our gratitude to have family that is willing and able to help us get our daughter everywhere she needs to be. It also makes me think of parents who do not have help yet move mountains to make sure their kids get to where they need to be, and how much a service like this could minimize the stress in their life to help their children to get to where they need to be.

Inside the Boundary	Outside the Boundary
Working Parents; Elementary/Middle/High School Students	Stay at Home Moms; Elementary/Middle/High School students who do not participate in extracurricular activities; Teenagers that can drive and have access to a car; Parents of infants, toddlers, and pre-school aged children
Transporting Elementary/Middle/High School Students to extracurricular activities; transporting Elementary/Middle/High School Students to social events and gatherings; Transporting Elementary/Middle/High School Students to appointments	Transportation to extracurricular activities and events is not a need for the identified Who.
Working parents often have to depend on others to get their children where they need to be. Working parents do not want to take advantage of family members; often they are paying people to take their children to different activities, events, appointments. Working parents cannot always get the time off of work to meet the demands of their child(ren)’s schedules,	Stay at Home Parents and Work at Home Parents are able to accommodate transportation needs of their child(ren); child(ren) that do not participate in activities or events do not have transportation needs; teen drivers can drive themselves to where they need to be; if a student is not involved in an activity, no transportation need is necessary.