Sunday, March 20, 2016
Growing My social Capital Week 10
1) One person must be a domain expert in your industry. Justin Murray is someone that owns an exact same kind of business that I do custom gun holsters. His brand is called JM Custom Kydex. What this man has done for us is show us what it is like to own a company in this kind of business world. My brother and I first contacted him to see if he would could help us out with any questions regarding how to make and start up a business in this kind of work. Including this person in my network will help me because he has been doing this for over 10 years and has experience.
2) One person must be an expert on your market. Kyle Strack, is the person that I am picking for an expert in my social capital. Kyle has a background in firearms and does conceal carry classes around the Pinellas County area. He targets the market that my services need because he takes people to gun stores and shows them the right type of holster to better fit their needs. I found this person when I took my own concealed carry class and then from there starting to contact him about my own company and what my needs were. What favor he has done for me and the company is give me the right information on how to hit the market full force around our area and get things moving with the company.
3) One person must be an important supplier to your industry. Noah Brunk. Noah is our important supplier when it comes to moving the product to different stores and gun shows. His background is an online salesman for all sorts of products. I got ahold of him through email and asked him what it would cost or how could we do some trades to get him to get us on the market or for him to sell our product to other organizations. The favor he did for us is give us more clientele, and all I had to do was make him a few free gun holsters. Including this person will help my network because of the connections this person has over the internet.
Finally: Reflect. This experience will help me shape any future networking events because it shows me what kind of market there is for something like this. I should have asked some specific questions and asked how successful their companies are and how long it took for them to start up and get along. But this experience was helpful and was exactly what I thought it was going to be.
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Hi Keith, I think you did a good job picking people in your industry to help you with this assignment. It is a fairly specific field that you are looking into so I can imagine it would be a little tough to find these key industry people to interview. It is always important to know people in your industry and I think these three would be able to help you more in the future. My idea was a little more broad, since I am developing an app. You can check out my blog here: mistydawn67.blogspot.com.es
ReplyDeleteKeith,
ReplyDeleteI think you may be the first person whose blog that I've read who truly wants to pursue their venture. I'm glad that you were able to get in contact with individuals that can help you and hopefully you are inspired to start your business once and for all. I also like how you picked completely different people who have diverse backgrounds, although it all revolves around the same business. You did a great job on this assignment. Much better than me, because I didn't do mine!
Here is the link to my blog if you want to check it out:
http://nataliem775.blogspot.com/
Really good post. You made all the contacts and the post was well organized and just overall done really well. It seems like you are really interested in pursuing this business and I like the business idea.
ReplyDeleteGreat selection of people for this. I also like the business idea that you are placing since I do have a tendency of collecting all sorts of weapons and cases for them such as swords, guns, and many other stuff... From personal experience as a martial artist, you should also find people that knows martial arts so practice weapons can be made for people to practice. Great post, nice selection!
ReplyDeleteYou did a nice job. You picked people in positions and in industries that all make a logical network of resources. This could be very beneficial to you as you move forward in your venture. Now it is necessary that you provide them with some value and continue to grow and nurture a relationship. Good Luck
ReplyDeleteI like how you are actually serious about this idea. All of the personal resources you've listed seem very logical and that they would work great for your idea. I also personally like the idea because of my own experience with firearms.
ReplyDeleteKeith, I am glad to see that you take your venture seriously and have been able to network with some great people. These types of contacts will definitely propel you and your business. I am not a big fan of guns so maybe I won't be a customer haha but there are many people that will love your product. I think this is a great assignment so I have no criticism. I did not complete the assignment but check out my blog :) http://lovetravellives.blogspot.com/
ReplyDeleteKeith,
ReplyDeleteThere are a lot of people who simply just do the work but never focus on the potential benefit of the assignments. I want to compliment your post as you demonstrated maturity and ambition with the quality of your assignment. I'm glad to see you have successfully been networking and reaching out, it definitely is a huge component of an entrepreneur's life. I hope you stick with your idea and keep pushing yourself to get better and constantly improve.
I didn't complete this assignment but have attached the link to my blog and would love your input on my posts and ideas.
http://dipaoloent.blogspot.com/
Protect the 2nd,
Louis DiPaolo Jr
Hey Keith, like everyone else I too think you did an excellent job and came out more knowledgable and prepared than you were before. I didn't complete this assignment because I couldn't really think of these 3 people in an industry that doesn't really exist in my case. But I guess i just took the easy way out. Your chosen professionals seem to have had some good input about potential markets and distribution. And i think its awesome that you're able to actually manufacture these holsters and make deals already. Nice work.
ReplyDeleteCheck out my blog when you get the time!
http://shamelesslylearning.blogspot.com/
Keith,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your post. I can see that you have really though this out very well and gone as far as to reaching out to these people. I congratulate you on your spirit and on pursuing your ideas. When reading your post the first thing that came to my mind is that these people actually sound like a dream team. You chose people that live and breath what they do, they seem to me that these people are known by the community and have years of experience. Definitely the people you want to have on a speed dial when building a business. Great job !