Growing Your Social Capital

Jack owns a safe store here in Gainesville. He is filling the roles as the Domain expert. He sells safes that keep guns secure. I would consider him to be Domain expert. He knows the kind of ways that people store their guns and knows a lot of people in the safe and security industry in the area. I have known Jack personally for a long time. I sent him a email. He did me a favor by giving me a couple tips on how the lock could be designed and how the locking mechanism could work. The return expectation is that if I ever decide to produce the lock, Jack wants to sell it in his shop. Adding Jack to my social network is big. He said that if I ever design and produce it, he wants to sell it in his shop. So now, I already have one potential store that I could sell it in. That is big way to exploit an opportunity.

Don is the market expert. He sells vehicle guns safes. He sells the type of safes that lock to the seat by a cable. I found out about Don because Jack gave me his contact information. I sent Don an email with the YouTube link to my elevator pitch and asked him to give me some feedback. I also asked him who the biggest buyer of his product is. As of now Don has not responded to my email. Adding Don to my social network will allow to get some information on the demographics of the market. If he says that a bunch of people from a different demographic are buying his product, that will allow me to exploit an opportunity into another market.

Steve is the president of Liberty Safe company. They are one of the biggest personal safe companies in the country. Steve will fill the supplier role. I found out about Steve by searching ‘Liberty safe company president’ on google. His name popped up. I found his information on Linkedin. I send him a message containing the link to my elevator pitch asking if he could watch it and give me some feedback. If I can get him to respond to me, he would be a huge get for my social network. With all of his knowledge, he could definitely help me exploit an opportunity.

Reflect: This assignment gave me some experience on how to contact people that I haven’t talked to before. It will be very helpful and give me some ideas on how to participate in any future networking events. It definitely gave me some confidence on emailing people that I don’t know. This differed from my experience in the past because in the past I talked to everyone in person.

Idea Napkin No. 2

1. I would say I am a very dedicated person. I care a lot about the things that I get involved in. I always make sure to pay close attention to the small details. My aspirations in life are to have a non-normal life because I like change and I am always thinking about the ‘next’ thing. If I were to start this business, I could see it having a big role in my life. Family would still be my number 1 priority, but this business would probably be second.

2. I would be offering a lock that would lock the gun to the car. It would lock around the trigger guard so the owner would still have quick access to it if needed. There are no good general gun locks for vehicles on the market. There are many people that don’t have a good way to keep their gun secure in their car. One of the points of feedback was that this is just a product and not a business. While I somewhat agree with that, a business can start off with one revenue driver and then in the future expand with other revenue drivers.

3. The demographic of my customer would be anyone who keeps a gun in their car. Gun ownership rates are spread out among all demographics, but the highest owning segment are white men.

4. Customers will pay money to buy my product because they want to protect their investment. A large majority of handguns run over $500. If gun owners could keep their $500+ item safe, they would do it. If they could spend $100 on a lock to protect their $500 handgun, I believe most people would. Some of the feedback that I received was that people probably wouldn’t spend an extra $100 to protect their firearm. I think there would be some people would wouldn’t spend the extra money but if it was marketed with the big picture in mind (all the innocent victims that are impacted by stolen firearms) I think that people would take it more seriously and buy the lock.

5. What sets my product apart from everyone else is that my product actually locks the gun to the car. There are some vehicle safes that have a cable that can be locked to a seat. It doesn’t take much for some bolt cutters to cut through the cable. This lock would be bolted to the floor of the car, therefore locking the gun to the floor of the car. There would be nothing to cut.

I believe that these elements fit together for the most part. I do not believe that there are any aspects of my business that are weaker or out-of-joint with the others. I believe by incorporating the feedback I received from idea napkin 1, my idea napkin 2 is stronger than before.

Feedback Memo- The two main points that I took away from the feedback that I received was that I will need to expand my business from just this one product in the future, and that I would need to market this lock with the big picture in mind (show people how stolen guns impact innocent people and that by spending a little extra money on a lock, they can prevent those events from happening). I incorporated the feedback about expanding my business into answer # 2. I incorporated the feedback about people not wanting to spend an extra $100 into answer # 4.

Creating a Customer Avatar

In this assignment I will describe my prototypical customer with as much detail that I can.

The prototypical customer is a white gentleman in his 70’s. He keeps a gun in his car to protect his wife, and grandchildren when they are with him (another reason why he should keep his firearm secure). My customer likes to do things outdoors. He likes to hike, fish, and hunt. He drives a blue pickup truck. He likes to watch action T.V. shows. His favorite book of all time is “Fishing for Dummies.” His favorite politician of all time is Ronald Reagan and he stands up for those old school conservative values. He knows that he is getting up there in age but still has some quality life to live.

I think that I have some of the same hobbies (except hunting) as my prototypical customer. I am definitely not in their age group, but I feel that I think the same way that they do. I do not think that it is a coincidence that I have some of the same hobbies as my prototypical customer. It has been my experience with people that I know, that people who own guns usually enjoy doing stuff outdoors.

This is a picture of my prototypical customer.

Elevator Pitch #2

1. The Pitch: https://youtu.be/tUzJUK16YFw

2. Feedback from my last pitch: I received some good feedback from my last pitch. The consensus was that my solution wasn’t made clear enough. I thought that I explained it well enough, but I didn’t. It made sense in my head, but I guess that was just because I knew what it was. I really should’ve done a better job of explaining the solution because other people don’t know exactly what I’m thinking.

3. What I changed based on feedback: The only thing that I changed was to make sure I made that explain my solution very clearly. That seemed to be the only thing that people were confused about.

What's Your Secret Sauce

I would say that I have some valuable human capital. Below is a list of 5 things that I think makes me unique.

1.     I think that I am very personable guy. I think that is hard to come by these days because I believe that quite a few people seem disingenuous.

2.     I am also a peacemaker. I feel that I am very good at solving conflicts between people, so I think that is a good quality to have.

3.     I know a lot about a bunch of different subjects. I am a curious person, so I always like to learn about new things.

4.     I also like to seek out other people’s opinions when it comes to decision making. I think that would make me a good boss because I would always take employees considerations before I make a decision.

5.     I think that I react well under stress. I have gotten much better over the years and I think that I am one of the best people when it comes to working under stress.

Summaries of interviews

1.     Sophia: Sophia said that she thinks I’m a very good planner. She thinks that I do a great job delegating work.

2.     Dane: Dane thinks that I am very empathetic. He also thinks that I am very strong at understanding other people’s problems.

3.     Logan: Logan thinks that I am very detail oriented and outgoing. He thinks that I know how to talk very well with people.

4.     Hannah: Hannah thinks that I am very confident in my work. She also thinks that I react well under stress.

5.     Haley: Haley said that she thought I was a very hard worker. She also mentioned that I am a very good multitasker. Obviously, that helps when it comes to the work environment.

Reflection: I think that everyone gave good traits about me. I see myself as the person that they said I was. I would say those were all pretty accurate statements that everyone gave. They definitely said some things that I believe to be true, but I did not write those down. I would not go back to my list and change my answers because I think those are my strongest characteristics.

Here is the link to my YouTube Video containing audio from the interviews that I conducted: https://youtu.be/9FEhDbQCF38