Assignment 20A – Growing Your Social Capital

Assignment 20A – Growing Your Social Capital

Domain Expert:

1. Who they are, what their background is:
1. Marisol is the owner of "Rayitos", a clothing line for girls in Peru.

2. How this person is a “domain expert”:
1. She has been in the retail business for over 10 years and has successfully managed five stores at the same time.

3. How I found and contacted this person:
1. This person is my mother and she was really happy to help me with this assignment.

4. Nature of Exchange: What they did for me, what is the return expectation:
1. I explained to her my business idea and she showed interest and asked me more questions about how I could successfully create jobs for single mom families. She agreed with me about empowering women and she herself wants to create a change for younger generations to feel safer than she ever did and does.

5. How will including them enhance my ability to exploit an opportunity:
1. She has the connections and a big influence in the retail world in Lima, Peru. She also understands my objective and is more willing to help women to feel safer and empowered.

Market Expert:

1. Who they are, what their background is:
1. Susan is the owner of Domitila Dresses, a growing company in Peru.

2. How this person is a “market expert”:
1. Susan's market is mainly women from 15 to 55. She managed the social media accounts and their market approach depending of the demographics of their consumers.

3. How I found and contacted this person:
1. She is my mother's friend and they both have stores in the same mall.

4. Nature of Exchange: What they did for me, what is the return expectation:
1. I explained my business idea and she immediately though that I could start that now with the help of my family. She said that finally people understands the difficulties women go through and that I could start helping by having an online store. She told me that she had to create Facebook pages and Instagram when she realized most of her consumers are browsing online, and believes I should do the same.
5. How will including them enhance my ability to exploit an opportunity:

Susan has a lot of experience when dealing with younger consumers and has a lot of ideas about creating a successful website and social media accounts. 

Industry Supplier:

1. Who they are, what their background is:
1. Oscar is the owner of Pelo de Oso textile industry.
2. How this person is a “industry supplier”:
1. He basically manages the distribution of his supply to different parts of the country. He has his own store where clients go to check the quality of his supply.

3. How I found and contacted this person:
1. He is one of my parents' suppliers. I have met him couple of times before and his work is always efficient.

4. Nature of Exchange: What they did for me, what is the return expectation:
1. I explained my business idea and how I would be needing his product to create clothing lines that are inspired by the indigenous community from Peru. He questioned me about how much would I need to start and told me that he does not have many indigenous related supply but that he could contact me with one of his friends.

5. How will including them enhance my ability to exploit an opportunity:
1. Oscar has even more contacts in the textile industry, he could support me with some of his supply but he could also connect me with bigger industries.

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?

• I believe targeted marketing is hard; however, I had the contacts and could contact them easily through a phone call. However, all these connections are from Peru, not from the US, which is unfortunately because I need to study the US market as well. I think I need to network with more people here and UF could help me in doing that. There needs to be something done to create relations and generate resources for my business idea. This experience differed because I had to prepare and have the correct information for them to understand my final goal. I tried to be very specific to transmit my ideas.