20A Growing Your Social Capital

1) One person must be a domain expert in your industry:

Aardvark "sales" representative:

This company is a large paper-straw distributor for various restaurants and stores across the United States. I found them simply by looking for other people who are in the business that I am looking to get into, straw distribution. I simply emailed the email on their website, and was connected to a person who worked for them giving me the answers I was looking for as far as their specific business as well as the distribution business. They helped me by giving me the background of their business and telling me how the distribution process works, especially with other companies and the contracts that they ensue.  Including this person in my network will help me have a partner, although they might also be considered competition. I will be able to learn from them and possibly make connections with the smaller businesses they have to turn away due to the high demand that the business entails. 

2) One person must be an expert on your market

Steve M. Owner of small business coffee shop:

Steve is a good family friend of mine for as long as I can remember. He recently opened a coffee shop in downtown St. Petersburg, a city that prides itself on paper straw usage. I asked him many questions on his customers response to the paper straw, and how it is affecting their experience. He described how he wishes he could find an alternative to the paper straw, simply because he has not yet gotten a postive review about it. In fact, while I was communicating with him, he even mentioned how bad the straws are and how he realized it was an unsolved problem when so many people were going out of their way to complain about such a minimal thing. He talked about how people go to coffee shops for the coffee, catch up with a friend, or a simple outing. They never go to review the straw content at the shop, so he knew there was a large problem. This connect is really good for me because it could give me my first potential customer. 

3) One person must be an important supplier to your industry:

Starbucks Manager: 

I talked to the local Starbucks manager to see how the industry worked, how their straws were made, etc. They have a distinct, green straw with Starbucks wrapping, therefore you know their straws are made in house and made for them specifically, rather than buying in bulk from a larger distributor. I simply contacted them by going to the local Starbucks and asking for the manager and getting a glimpse of what their straw situation is like. I asked them how their products worked, how they enjoyed the paper straw, and how it is affecting the people's experience. Talking about this with the manager really helped me with the understanding of how it works at a large-scale company. This interacting was good for me and my business and helped me make good connections and contacts . 

This experience helped me because it really made me get out of my comfort zone and go out and talk to people in my industry. I really learned about how it works, and was able to make contacts with people I would not really have the opportunity to do so. I enjoyed learning about the industries and figured out the networking and the distribution and how it all works for each restaurant. Although I only learned about a few specific places, I was able to understand how it typically works in the restaurant setting and I would approach entering the industry. This is different than what I did before because before it was more about interviewing, rather than understanding and trying to enter the market, potentially. Before I was just asking about specific places and how their customers reacted to the unsolved problem, but through this I am almost presenting my product to them and creating contacts to enter the market with my product.