20A: Growing Your Social Capital

Domain expert:

1) Steven Hain is an assistant to my father that works with his technical support and issues. He has expertise with in website design. He has been doing this for my father for the past 6 years, but has been working in this area for the past 27 years.

2) I am filling the domain expert area because he could help with the technical parts of the website and the creation of it.

3) I found him through my father and contacted him by going into the office where he works for my father.

4) He talk to me for twenty minutes to give me some tips and information on how to create the website. He also gave me his favorite softwares for website design and explained some details of how to make the website user friendly.

5) He knows a lot about the online world and is very confident in what he does because he has been doing it for so long. My father is very satisfied in the ways in which he has helped his business. I see potential in him assisting me in the same ways that he does my father.

Market Expert:

1) Caren Weber is my mother and she used to sell stylish and trendy clothing and accessories through her own small business.

2) I am filling the market expert area because she focused on a similar age range that I am targeting and she was very successful. She ended up selling the business because she didn't have enough time for it, but she loved what she did and was very successful.

3) She is my mom and I spoke to her at home.

4) There was no exchange because she just wanted to help me with my project and supports my idea. She sees potential in my idea too.

5) I believe she would be the person I most relied on and went to for a lot of my questions because she did something so similar.

Supplier:

1) Sydney Stens works for an app that is popular around UF. It is called "Curtsey" and it allows students to put their clothes and accessories online to share for other girls in the area to rent.

2) I am filling the supplier are because the app focuses on sororities for social and other events that greek life attends, which is the same target market as me.

3) Sydney is a member of my sorority and I spoke to her over the phone and have also talked to her many times in the past about the business she works for.

4) Since we are good friends she was willing to do me the favor of speaking to me about it. I also told her that I would help promote the app she is working for so I made an account and added my own clothing to it. This gives her credit and commission for introducing me to the app.

5) She is very familiar with targeting the sorority girls at UF. She has been doing it for the past 2 years and has been successful with it. She has the ability to assist me in creating a supply the the sorority members would want.

Reflection:

Each person I spoke to I tried to go more in depth than have in past interviews or conversations about the RUSH KIT company. I feel like speaking to people who are more knowledgable in specific areas opened my eyes to the focus on the details that is needed to create a business, even though it make be small. It seemed like a simple idea at first, but has expanded to much more especially since talking to these people.