Growing Your Social Capital

My Three New Contacts

1a) The first person I established contact with was Peyton Marinelli. He is a third year computer science major at the University of Florida. In the past, he has created websites and knows several different computer languages.

1b) Peyton would be a supplier. The current plan for my business is to hire independent contractors to make and manage the online presences for small businesses. I think Peyton would work well in this position because of his knowledge of computer languages and previous experience making websites.

1c) Peyton and I shared a chemistry lecture during our first semester of school. We exchanged phone numbers with the intent of starting a study group but that never "panned" out. I still had his phone number and decided to contact him for this assignment.

1d) I told him that I was contacting him for an assignment I was doing and asked him what he thought of my business idea. He said he didn't realize that this need existed and said "Thanks for the idea" (He was joking about this). He said that if this need does exist, my way of solving it would work. He finished by saying that if I pursue this, he expects a job offer at some point.

1e) Given Peyton's knowledge, I think that he would be a great person to have on my team. He would be a great at creating/managing small businesses' online presences.

2a) The second person I established contact with was Jeff Peterson. Jeff is a software engineer at GoDaddy, a company that is doing something similar to what I want my business to do. The main thing he does is create websites for small businesses.

2b) Jeff falls into the "domain expert in my industry". Jeff specifically creates websites and online presences for small businesses, the exact same thing I hope to do.

2c) I found Jeff Peterson by searching on GoDaddy's LinkedIn for someone who helps create websites. I found Jeff Peterson and then I added him.

2d) When I connected with Jeff, I asked him if I could go over my "business plan" with him. He said that he would happily look over it if I just emailed what I plan on doing to him. He looked it over and gave me back some good feedback. I asked if there was anything I could do to return the favor, and he said that he was happy just to help a future small business owner.

2e) I think the connection I made with Jeff will turn out to be very beneficial. I think that he could end up being a very good mentor, helping me provide small businesses with the best service possible. Additionally, I think he could point me in the direction of other website designers that are looking for work and would want to be a part of my business.

3a) The final person I established contact with was Russel Thomas. He is a fishing boat captain that takes people deep sea fishing. In addition to being a fishing boat captain, he is a contractor.

3b) Russel represents a large piece of my target market, small business owners. As a small business owner, he would definitely benefit from having an online presence. With an online presence, he could have a place where people could book times to go fishing, etc.

3c) Russel was actually the person who took my brother, my dad, and I fishing. My dad found out he took people fishing because Russel overheard my brother and dad talk about going fishing, while he was fixing something at our house. I got Russel's phone number from my dad and I contacted him.

3d) When I contacted Russel, I asked him about whether he would benefit from having an online presence, in order to further confirm what I found out from my market research. He said that he would definitely benefit. He said that with one, he would be much easier to contact and it would probably increase the amount of appointments he gets because he is now more marketed. he said that he relies on word of mouth in order to get new business. He said that in exchange for talking to me he would love a website, sadly, I don't quite know how to make one. However, I assured him that once this business is off of the ground, he would be the first one to get one.

3e) I think having Russel in my network will help me out a lot. You find that a lot of small business owners usually know one another, so being in contact with him could help me get in contact with other small business owners.

Reflection

I think that this experience has further emphasized the importance of having good connections. Connections are what get you "in the door" at some places and can help you make other beneficial  connections. I think that I will definitely participate in some networking events in the future because you can make some really good connections at those events and like I said before, it can "open doors" for you. I think this experience was largely similar except for one person. For Jeff, I used LinkedIn to connect with him. I had never used LinkedIn before to connect with someone I didn't know. The fact that I could connect with him even though I didn't know him shows how powerful a tool LinkedIn is for meeting people. I think there are many tools out there (LinkedIn, class, etc.) to make connections with people who could help you out in the future.