20A Growing Your Social Capital

1. Benji Riviera ran a successful online shoe business for people looking for high end special edition shoes.
2. This contact is filling the domain expert slot because they own a similar business to my idea
3. I met this person here at UF through friends we had in common and I've contacted him through text and in person
4. I haven't asked him for any favors but I know he would help me in this business plan if I asked him to.
5. Including this person would help because he's already set up a similar business and could assist me in doing so, as well as know what to avoid when starting to be more successful.

1. Ryan Landers is someone who represents a major piece of my market as a consumer of these types of products.
2. This person is an expert on my market being that he is an avid sneaker head but also has the same problem of not always being able to find his size.
3. Ryan is a close friend I've met here at the University of Florida and I talk to him on a daily basis through multiple avenues of communication.
4. Ryan and I always help each other out when needed. He's a year younger than me so I've helped him navigate UF and he's always helped me when I ask so I'm sure he would help me with this.
5. Including this person in my network would help provide more valuable insight into the market that I'm targeting through his personal experience and shedding light on thing I may have missed.

1. Shawn Hatchwell is a talented web and app designer in the industry who has worked for big name companies like Microsoft.
2. This person is an important supplier in the industry of online business being able to make clean and functional web pages and apps for companies to market themselves online.
3. Shawn is also a friend I've met while here at the University of Florida that I talk to in person at least once a week and through text almost every day.
4. Shawn had some great ideas for how to set up an online presence for my business and how to achieve the more technical hurdles in starting this business. He also had great idea for an app that would increase my customer accessibility and make it even easier for people in my market to find and use this service.
5. Including this person in my network would be a major advantage in exploiting this opportunity. People base some of their purchase decisions in online shopping on the design of the website alone. If navigating the site isn't too intuitive people will leave the site without buying anything and Shawn can help me avoid these issues.

Reflect:
As a student in the college of business you learn very quick that networking is a critical part of success in the business world. This activity was good because most of the networking I've participated in the past has been without any specific goal or business opportunity in mind and I think that having one for this helped me get more to the point of the networking instead of just talking to people for the sake of networking.