20A

1) Who they are and what their background is.

2) Which 'slot' you are filling with each person (i.e., domain expert, market expert, supplier), and how the person fills the spot.

3) A description of how you found the person and contacted the person.

4) The nature of the exchange you have with the person -- what favor did they do for you? What is the return expectation? 

5) How will including this person in your network enhance your ability to exploit an opportunity?

·     Interview 1:

1.     Next door neighbor who farms corn traditionally 

2.     This person would qualify as a supplier in my industry because ultimately their produce ends up in the local grocery stores.

3.     I knew they grew corn so I walked over to their house from mine, knocked on the door, and asked to interviewed them.

4.     He would be supplying me with seeds to be able to grow produce in my hydroponic store. The return expectation is to make him my only supplier of these seeds.

5.     Though he is mostly learned in the traditional ways of farming and does not know very much about hydroponic farming he has useful skills he can bring to the table such as plant knowledge that I am lacking in. This would enable me to grow the healthiest produce possible with his aid. 

·     Interview 2: 

1.     Manager at Lucky’s (a high-end grocery store that sells top quality organic produce).

2.     She would qualify as a market expert because she has 7 years’ experience at this particular location. 

3.      I shop at Lucky’s often and on one of my errand days I asked to speak to the manager. 

4.     She offered to help consult me with produce sales projections that they have obtained at their store, basically to help me understand what produce is in high demand in this area. In return she asks that I help supply her store with produce items during the non-growing seasons due to the fact that my plants will be able to produce year round 

5.     I am not originally from Traverse City MI and have only lived here for one year so her knowledge of the local market would be highly beneficial to me especially when it comes to what seeds I should purchase and what my estimated sales projections could be. 

·     Interview 3

1)    This person owns a hydroponic supplies store in town.

2)    He is a domain expert as he has been selling hydroponic equipment to small-scale, at-home hydroponic growers. 

3)    I looked up Hydroponic supply stores near me and went in to visit and speak to a sales associate. 

4)    He offered to help educate me on hydroponic growing practices. This business is highly passionate about hydroponic growing and doing what is right for the environments so he did not ask for much in return other than to buy supplies from them if they had what I needed. 

5)    Though I had the idea to create Hydro Market, I can honestly say I have no knowledge of how hydroponic systems are run and maintained so to have someone with experience in this area helping consult me on what it truly entails to run an operation like this would only further ensure my business was being run properly. 

·     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 have never really gone out of my way to network with individuals so this was an entirely new experience for me. Usually any connections I have formed in the past are just by making friends with individuals and learning further down the line that their friendship could somehow benefit me. This exercise made me realize that people can actually be quite helpful if you bring to the table a well thought out idea. It has given me the courage for future networking opportunities to not hold back on asking for favors as long as I have something to offer in return.