20A- Growing your Social Capital
Domain Expert:
Domain Expert:
1.
Chanelle Sladics
2.
Co-founder and Chief Visionary Officer of Simply
Straws. She has been a successful supplier in the reusable straw market and has
built a popular brand surrounding her product. Her marketing has been directed to
individuals who value their effect on the environment which is exactly the market
I am trying to tap.
3.
I contacted this individual through their
personal website’s “contact” tab.
4.
I explained that this budding idea from my
entrepreneurship class and asked for advice on how to market my product in a
way that will be popular to individual consumers. She did not reply so I doubt
there is an expectation for a favor in the future.
5.
While Chanelle did not answer my message, she
did inspire me to do research on her product and journey to success. I
discovered that I would not only have a struggle to promote my product to
business owners, but also battle to sway their loyalty from well establish, financially
stable business that has proven their reliability. Her success level opened my
eyes to what I actually need to work towards.
Market Expert:
1.
Allison Rogers is a college student athlete. She
is always on the go and commonly uses protein shakes and smoothies to supplement
meals.
2.
Allison represents a large area of my market because
she has found that paper straws are not suitable for drinking most liquids.
They fall apart in her smoothies and shakes and become an unneeded source of
frustration.
3.
She is an old friend who I called on the phone
in order to ask questions of.
4.
It was a simple exchange where I asked her how
she was doing and what she was up to, then explained that I had a few questions
from a class I was taking. She said that she completely agreed with my assessment
of the issue, but wondered how a bamboo substitute would function when used with
a thicker drink such as her daily protein shake. I don’t feel there will be an expectation
of returned favors.
5.
After speaking with her it sparked the idea that
the bamboo straw must be made in different widths in order to ensure that it
can function for a variety of drinks. Just as there were jumbo plastic straws
there must also be jumbo bamboo counterparts.
Industry Supplier:
1.
Todd Banks
2.
This man is a paper goods supplier to local restaurants
and coffee shops in my hometown. He takes and fulfills orders for plates, utensils,
napkins, straws, etc. for many restaurants in the area. He said that he does hear
complaints on paper straws, but that there have not been any competitive single
use options provided to businesses.
3.
This is the father of my childhood friend, so I simply
texted my friend for his father’s email and explained my questions.
4.
Mr. Todd answered my questions on the specifics
of the paper goods ordering process and was even able to show me the catalog of
the main supplier that these restaurants source from. More specifically, he was
able to outline that in plastic straw banned cities all of his customers order
paper. Because he is an old friend, I doubt there would be an expectation for
favor return.
5.
Including this person furthered my notion that
there is no comparable competition for my product as long as it is price
effective for the business owner. Mr. Todd helped me further saying that his
customers almost solely make their decision on price and rarely consider customer
satisfaction, so I should focus more on price than perfect quality.
Reflection:
This experience certainly put me outside of my comfort zone,
however I am grateful for it. The assignment forced me to explain my business
idea to individuals who are already successful in a similar field, so this was
intimidation to say the least. Doing so helped prepare my business side to promote
my product and appear confident in myself for future networking events. In my
past networking I asked people who were average everyday people, so transitioning
from that to contacting successful individuals was difficult. I typed my emails
more professionally and proofread them several times. I also realized how vital
professionalism is to a budding business.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHello Jordan,
ReplyDeleteI think that you did a wonderful job, especially in the difficult times we are living at the moment by identifying a domain expert, a market expert, and also an important supplier in your industry and writing a detailed step by step summary of the contacts you had with them. Although not all of them replied to you, you undoubtedly learned a lot from those that did and expanded you network while in the process.
Sincerely,
Javier Alfredo Felis Perez
Hey Jordan,
ReplyDeleteConsidering the hectic times we're going through, I think you did very well finding two of three compliant individuals in your industry. I feel like the most challenging part of this assignment was actually being able to search up and locate these people, which you were definitely able to do. Furthermore, I believe it's useful that this exercise put you outside of your comfort zone since it's the basis of acquiring new skills! Great job overall and I really think you've learned a lot from this research assignment.
Samuel Ackenine
I am very impressed with the quality of people you were able to interview. Many people just did the best they could, interviewing people who generally fit the required descriptions, but the network you formed seems to be unique to your product and industry. As we learned in class, not only can individual network connections be important, but they also lead to other circles on connections that multiply.
ReplyDelete