20A – Growing Your Social Capital

Domain expert in your industry: Sara’s Fresh

1) Who they are and what their background is: Sara’s Fresh is a local food truck that comes out to the farmers market in Sarasota every weekend. They started as selling their products only at the farmers market, but eventually sold to retailers all around Sarasota.

2) Which 'slot' you are filling with each person (i.e., domain expert, market expert, and supplier), and how the person fills the spot: Sara is filling the domain expert spot because she simply runs her own food truck full of healthy food and acai bowls. Her food truck is similar to mine. She knows a lot about serving to a person’s healthy lifestyle.

3) A description of how you found the person and contacted the person: I used to go to the farmers market every Saturday and I would see Sara selling her bowls and smoothies. I contacted her through email and told her that I wanted to speak regarding an entrepreneurial idea I have.

4) The nature of the exchange you have with the person -- what favor did they do for you? What is the return expectation? Sara gave me insight into what it is like to run a small business and cater to healthy people. Sara helped a lot with my overall business idea and who my target audience is. Since she is an expert in the field, she showed me that big cities are not necessarily the place to do this and she suggested starting out at multiple farmers markets like she did.

5) How will including this person in your network enhance your ability to exploit an opportunity? Including Sara in my network will allow me to connect with people she has connected with to get her business up and running. She showed me the ropes and told me how to go about starting. She said it is not as easy as most people think and that a lot of hard work goes into it.

Expert on your market: A worker of Gainesville’s Grill Fresh.

1) Who they are and what their background is. A worker of Gainesville’s Grill Fresh, Rob, says they source from a local farm and want their customers to eat straight from the farm.

2) Which 'slot' you are filling with each person (i.e., domain expert, market expert, and supplier), and how the person fills the spot. This spot is filling the expert on my market. Rob fills this spot because he knows grill fresh as well as anyone that works there. He knows all about the background and on how they have came so far in success.

3) A description of how you found the person and contacted the person. I found Rob through walking into Grill Fresh. I asked if I could ask him some questions and he agreed and was happy to answer them.

4) The nature of the exchange you have with the person -- what favor did they do for you? What is the return expectation? Rob gave me insight on what it is like outsourcing from a farm and serving customers directly. He said you have to cater to customer’s needs and desires more than anything and give them what they want, which is very true. Customers are the only way to stay in business Rob also says, so if they want something you give it to them. He also said to keep watch on the loyal customers and try to get personal engagement with them.

5) How will including this person in your network enhance your ability to exploit an opportunity? Including Rob in my network will make my business run smoother and will give me connections to any questions I have about this business. I think meeting Rob was something that could seriously benefit my business.

Important supplier to your industry: Someone who mass-produces vegetables and other food.

1) Who they are and what their background is. Chris is someone that works directly with Grill Fresh through the farm. He works with growing the food that Grill Fresh sells.

2) Which 'slot' you are filling with each person (i.e., domain expert, market expert, and supplier), and how the person fills the spot. Chris fills the important supplier to my industry slot. He fits this slot because he would be someone that could supply me with food for my food truck.

3) A description of how you found the person and contacted the person. I found Chris through meeting with Rob at Grill Fresh.  I asked if there was anyway I could contact the people they get their food from. He said that Chris was coming in later to drop food off, so I came back and asked him a few questions.

4) The nature of the exchange you have with the person -- what favor did they do for you? What is the return expectation? Chris gave me all the information I needed regarding outsourcing from a farm and how it would work with me if I had a food truck. Chris told me that my idea was great and that I would need to find a local farmer or could even use the farm that he works on. He told me pricing when it comes to outsourcing the food from a farm and that allowed me to think of what I will need to price my goods at to make a profit.

5) How will including this person in your network enhance your ability to exploit an opportunity? Including Chris in my network allows me to better figure out pricing and how it is going to be expensive to start a small business no matter what. With all the stuff that goes into start up, buying food to begin is a large investment. I want to make sure I have enough food right in the beginning so that my customers are happy.

Reflect: This experience allowed me to meet new people and learn how to interact with people all interested in what I want to do. This experience differed greatly from any networking event in the past because this one is specific to what I want to do. I found that I had a lot in common with these people and it made it easy for me to talk to them. I am very happy I met these people and it made me start to think my food truck could be potentially a real business that I start up with my sister in the near future.