20A- Growing Your Social Capital

Domain Expert:

• Who are they and what their background is:
• Kent (won't say last name) is the director of a homeless shelter.
• Which 'slot' you are filling with each person (i.e., domain expert, market expert, supplier), and how the person fills the spot:
• Domain expert because they more or less are doing the business activity of directing the business like I would do.
• A description of how you found the person and contacted the person:
• Searching the internet and sending them an email.
• The nature of the exchange you have with the person -- what favor did they do for you? What is the return expectation:
• It was just a normal exchange of information, I sent them some questions about what it is they do and told them about the business idea I have for this class and he just replied back with his input. No favors were given since this was a hypothetical project.
• How will including this person in your network enhance your ability to exploit an opportunity:
• It could help me become more experience on the matter and it would be good to have some input from someone who has been doing this for far longer than I have.

Market Expert:

• Who are they and what their background is:
• Meagan (not using last name to protect identity) is someone who works at a nonprofit organization who wrote a piece on putting a stop to homelessness.
• Which 'slot' you are filling with each person (i.e., domain expert, market expert, supplier), and how the person fills the spot:
• I am placing them in the market expert slot because seeing as they wrote an article on the matter of homelessness, so I was thinking they might have more knowledge on this matter than I do.
• A description of how you found the person and contacted the person:
• I found them while searching the internet looking for someone that would fit the market slot and I contacted them through email.
• The nature of the exchange you have with the person -- what favor did they do for you? What is the return expectation:
• It was just a regular exchange nothing special, I merely asked them their opinion on the matter and they gave me their feedback as well as the new knowledge I could use. being someone I just met I didn't ask for any favors.
• How will including this person in your network enhance your ability to exploit an opportunity:
• Since she did research for her article I am thinking that she must have sources and connections for that information so with her in my network I could think of ways on how to better my services.

Industry Supplier:

• Who are they and what their background is:
• Jennifer (last name not shown for privacy) Management director for a facility that provides resource for people who are on the verge of becoming homeless.
• Which 'slot' you are filling with each person (i.e., domain expert, market expert, supplier), and how the person fills the spot:
• Industry supplier because being someone who works at a company that provides to the homeless I feel they could provide for my service idea as well.
• A description of how you found the person and contacted the person:
• Searching the internet and emailing them.
• The nature of the exchange you have with the person -- what favor did they do for you? What is the return expectation:
• A casual exchange of information I asked them questions on what it is they do and told them my idea and she gave me her feedback. There were no favors asked between us because we just met so there isn't any need for that sort of thing right now.
• How will including this person in your network enhance your ability to exploit an opportunity:
• It will provide resources to provide for my customers when needed.

Finally: Reflect. This experience requires you to do a little 'targeted networking.' How will this experience shape how you participate in any future networking events? Did this experience differ from your networking experiences in the past? How?

• It was a challenge having to find someone who knows about my topic of homelessness as if they were an expert. According to some feedback I received in my previous posts my targeted customers are in a very large group so it will be difficult to find something for every little aspect of the service.This experience might make it easier in future networking events if I know the names of people who could vouch for the service, but at the same time it could be difficult because I had a hard enough time just searching for people through the internet. I never really had any networking experience in the past but because I am someone who doesn't talk to people much even sending these important people emails was something rather big because I wasn't sure if they would pay enough attention to a college student.