Growing My Social Capital

My three new people are:
Jose
Shaun
Robert


Jose is my Domain Expert because although he has a normal job working on campus he is also an Uber driver by night. He is a recent graduate of UF and decided to stay here in Gainesville to build his experience before moving on to a bigger firm. I met this guy pretty recently because he was my Uber when I needed to get to a friend's house the other night. In an exchange for a twitter and instagram follow he told me just what it's like to be an uber in gainesville and how much roughly rides go for from certain places to others. He also told me what he does in customer service to get high ratings and tips. Including this guy in my network will enhance my ability to exploit an opportunity because he gave me some vital information that would allow me to make my venture better and more unique.

Shaun is my Market Expert. Currently, he is an office manager at a shuttle service for disabled older folk in New York. He oversees the set up of pickups and drop-offs for each of the shuttles throughout the week. I found this guy through some friends I had at Fiver Children's Foundation after they heard I was looking for some people to talk to about my shuttle service concept for Gainesville. In return for giving me information on setting up routes and a system of pick up all he wanted was to hear back from time to time about the progress of the venture, at least in the classroom sphere. Including Shaun in my network gives me valued insight into the business I'm trying to run from an outside perspective and from another segment of the market.

Lastly, Robert is my Supplier. Robert is a friend of my father's and works with a company that sells vans of all sizes to firms that work in fields like construction and other infrastructure related things.
Speaking to him recently I asked if people bought vans for the purpose of transporting people? and if they usually have special requests? He said people do and he also told me what van they usually go for with the help of his expertise. When he asked what this was all for he asked if I could come by and help out sometime. I think having this guy in my network helps me take advantage of an opportunity because now that I know the vehicle I wanted to use is bought for transport purposes I can bring something entirely new to market in Gainesville.

Reflect:
I think this was an interesting experience because out of a million people you really have to focus and hone in on the people you feel will give you the most benefit for your time and efforts. This will affect how I approach networking in the future because I will network with more of a purpose and end goal. In the past, I would usually just talk to people that seemed approachable and if they had things that helped me it was a plus.