Growing Your Social Capital

Person 1

1)    Who they are and what their background is.

I chose my uncle, who owns his own business selling emblems that you can put on hats, jackets, etc.

2)    Which 'slot' you are filling with each person (i.e., domain expert, market expert, supplier), and how the person fills the spot.

I am using him to fill the spot of domain expert. He is engaged in a business where he finds people with a need (to customize something with an emblem) and then fulfills that need. He knows a lot about how the business world works and has been able to expand his business across the United States, which is what I want to do with my business.

3)    A description of how you found the person and contacted the person.

He is my uncle, so it was easy to contact him.

4)    The nature of the exchange you have with the person -- what favor did they do for you? What is the return expectation? 

He has really showed me how to run a business and taught me a lot about his company. Maybe in return one day I will work for him or even take over his business. 

5)    How will including this person in your network enhance your ability to exploit an opportunity?

He can teach me what I need to know about starting and running a successful business. He has already given me feedback on my idea and some inputs on how I can go about launching it.

Person 2

1)    Who they are and what their background is.

The next person I chose was my friends dad, who has traveled the world to help people in areas where they don’t have much access to clean water.

2)    Which 'slot' you are filling with each person (i.e., domain expert, market expert, supplier), and how the person fills the spot.

I am using him to fill the spot of market expert. He has a similar passion to help those in need, and already has experience with the issue of clean drinking water seeing it first hand in many third world countries.

3)    A description of how you found the person and contacted the person.

I have talked with my friend’s dad about this idea before, and so it was easy to reach out to him again and ask him for some advice.

4)    The nature of the exchange you have with the person -- what favor did they do for you? What is the return expectation? 

He has told me a lot about his personal experiences dealing with shortage of clean water, and has helped me figure out exactly how I could successfully run this type of business.

5)    How will including this person in your network enhance your ability to exploit an opportunity?

Since he is an expert in this kind of market and also has experience running a business, he can show me what it takes to make a difference in this kind of market and teach me how to run a business.

Person 3

1)    Who they are and what their background is.

My third person is someone who has launched a very popular brand, “Bai”, which is an antioxidant infusion drink.

2)    Which 'slot' you are filling with each person (i.e., domain expert, market expert, supplier), and how the person fills the spot.

I am filling the spot of supplier, as he himself has launched and supplied a very successful drink brand.  

3)    A description of how you found the person and contacted the person.

I remember my friend telling me how her friends dad is the one who came up with the brand “Bai”, and I am someone who drinks this product. My friend got me in contact with this guy.

4)    The nature of the exchange you have with the person -- what favor did they do for you? What is the return expectation? 

He taught me a lot about launching a new product and what it takes to be successful. Since my business idea similarly deals with something that you “drink”, I could relate that back to him in many ways.

5)    How will including this person in your network enhance your ability to exploit an opportunity?

He is the business owner of a very successful and well-known brand. Any advice that I get from him can be very valuable in helping me design and launch my business idea.

I think this assignment really showed me that networking is so important for running any business. Getting advice from people who have already been successful in the business world is definitely very helpful. I have never really networked like this before, but I think it was very beneficial In helping me be successful with my business idea.