23A

1.    Social Capital (USDA workers)- I know quite a few people who have worked and still work for the U.S Department of Agriculture. 

§ Valuable- This is extremely valuable especially during the early phases of the business startup because these individuals know how to manage a vast array of agricultural projects. 

§ Rare- Not very rare to have this knowledge 

§ Inimitable- no

§ Non-substitutable- I’m sure there are other companies that can provide the same type of knowledge as the USDA but I do not have any relationship built with them.

2.    Financial capital- I have a house that I own entirely and could use as collateral for a loan for startup costs. I also have a medical retirement check that is just extra income per month. 

§ Valuable- This is valuable because I will not have to worry about finding funds. It is highly risky though because could potentially lose my house if the business tanked. 

§ Rare- financial resources are never rare

§ Inimitable-no

§ Non-substitutable- No due to there being many ways to gather financial resources 

3.    No competitors- there are currently no competition where I live that farm hydroponically 

§ Valuable- Having no competition gives me an advantage so yes

§ Rare- I believe in today’s world it is rare to find an area without direct competition 

§ Inimitable- no, hydroponic farming is not a new technique and the technology is available to anyone wanting to start a farm. 

§ Non-substitutable- No, you can substitute hydroponic farm produce with traditionally farmed produce 

4.    Capabilities, Year-round local supply- I will be able to have fresh produce grown on site year-round

§ Valuable- It is an extremely valuable resources to be able to supply my own produce to my stores and not have to rely on imports 

§ Rare- It is rare to have this resource on a larger scale and what I mean by that is a lot of people grow plants in their home but mine would be able to provide for a whole town’s worth of people

§ Inimitable- No, again the technology for hydroponic is out there for anyone to use

§ Non-Substitutable- No, you can substitute my produce with imports during the winter months but they will be lacking in overall quality and freshness in comparison.

5.    Social Capital (environmental engineer)- I have a close friend in from high school that has a degree in environmental engineering who I spoke with recently and has agreed to help me with creating a Hydro Market with the least amount of environmental impact as possible

§ Valuable- Not only will her knowledge and skill help create an environmentally friendly produce store but it will also help to lower operational costs in the future by cutting back on utilities fees

§ Rare- It is still pretty rare to have businesses who are run off green energy 

§ Inimitable- No, anyone can pursue creating a green building or home

§ Non-substitutable- obviously you can run your business off of local power supplies but this would defeat the whole purpose of my environmentally friendly sustainable farming concept.

6.    Social Capital (graphic design)- I have a friend from when I worked in the Coast Guard who received a degree in graphic design and has incredible artistic skills

§ Valuable- Yes, brand recognition is key to a business’s success so to have an individual that could design a store logo that sands out is highly beneficial

§ Rare- No, there are plenty of graphic designers out there that I could higher but I know and trust this individual's work

§ Inimitable- potentially if I trademark whatever design they come up with

§ Non-Substitutable- No, again there are many individuals who could provide this service 

7.    Capabilities, pesticide free- I will be able to grow my produce without the use of pesticide due to the fact that these plants will be grown indoors and protected from bugs. 

§ Valuable- yes, many people are trying to stay away from produce grown with pesticides which makes pesticide free produce a hot commodity.

§ Rare- Somewhat, there are not many large scale indoor hydroponic farms growing produce pesticide free

§ Inimitable- No, anyone can grow plants indoors 

§ Non-Substitutable- No, there are alternatives that traditional farmers can use to go pesticide free such as mesh netting around the plants 

8.    Social Capital (interior designer)- My cousin does interior design work for a living

§ Valuable- yes, I want to be able to create a shopping destination that gives my customers an enjoyable experience. I want them to want to run errands at my Hydro Market.

§ Rare- No, I could hire anyone to do the job but my cousin would give me a great deal. I do however think it is rare for a grocery store type location to hire an interior design team. Most grocery stores are lacking on visual appeal both inside and out

§ Inimitable- No, anyone can use interior designers. 

§ Non-substitutable- No, there are many interior designers I could hire or I could do it on my own but I would much rather have a professional’s help.

9.    Previous experience in health code inspections- In the military, as a health services technician, I conducted inspections of the kitchen/dining/and restroom facilities to makes sure they were up to code.

§ Valuable- Yes, I plan on maintaining an extremely clean facility and my previous experience will help me accomplish this. I have seen many grocery stores that are filthy and I honestly don’t know they pass their inspections.

§ Rare- not particularly 

§ Inimitable- no

§ Non-substitutable- I could hire someone who has experience with inspections but with my knowledge I would be able to train my own employees and save money in the process.

10.  Financial Capital (Tax breaks and subsidies)- Hydro Market will be a Green business which means that it will be getting many tax breaks as well as potential subsides in order to aid in its construction to make this a possibility 

§ Valuable- Yes, any amount of money saved and put into the business during its delinquent stages can have a huge impact on its success. 

§ Rare- It’s becoming less rare but the majority of businesses have not gone green which is why these programs still exist to incentivize people to make the switch. 

§ Inimitable- Anyone can make the choice to go green with their business. 

§ Non-Substitutable- There are other ways in which one can receive tax breaks and subsidies but I can’t think of a way that would be more rewarding than helping out our environment.

¨   After conducting the VRIN analysis, determine what your top resource is. Explain why it's more important to your venture than all of the other resources.

-      I believe that year-round production of produce as well as a green building are my top resources. In Traverse City MI I would be pioneering the market for this concept as there has yet to be a business that could provide this service as well as one that operates as a green business. These two resources give me a competitive advantage. 

22A

https://youtu.be/hc5DBpmu2s8

The feedback from my last elevator pitch was very supportive and reassured me that I am on the right track. I believe that my speech memorization is coming along well. In this video you may notice I am taking a few extra deep breaths. I'm 21 weeks prego and breathing is no joke right now y'all so I apologize for that!! I changed up my facial expressions a bit more because I did notice that my face tends to get a bit frozen when reciting my lines so hopefully this little extra effort shows.

21A

1) What was the general theme or argument of the book? I read How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big by Scott Adams. His main argument throughout the book was that you do not need to be a genius or the best at something in order to be successful. It is more important to have many skills which makes you a well-rounded individual with more human capital to offer. In order to achieve this, you must have a system in place. A system rather than goals was a key component of his strategy to success. 

2) How did the book, in your opinion, connect with and enhance what you are learning in ENT 3003? There were a lot of speaking skills mentioned in his book which I tend to struggle with in certain situations. Recording ourselves for the elevator pitches is something I thoroughly despise and get anxiety over but a lot of his advice helped reshape the way I see public speaking. Something he said that resonated with me is that if you are uncomfortable speaking in a certain situation simply act like you are someone else, someone more confident. It is through the pretending that you will forget about your fears. 

3) If you had to design an exercise for this class, based on the book you read, what would that exercise involve? The exercise would involve brainstorming an outline for a strategy to success. Not simply writing down goals. Scott explained that goals while sometimes beneficial can immensely limit us if we are unable to reach them. When goals are not achieved we feel like failures so it is much better to focus on daily routines/strategies for success. 

4) What was your biggest surprise or 'aha' moment when reading the book? In other words, what did you learn that differed most from your expectations? I had always thought that truly successful people were extremely smart, great public speakers that had some sort of advantage over the majority of the population. At least, many successful people I have met or grown up with seem to fit this description. Scott says this is all just a façade, they have struggled just as much as your average person in life, if not, more. To be truly successful you need to take risks and with risks comes guaranteed failure and failures are what he proclaims have given him the key to success. He was able to learn from his mistakes, adapt, and overcome. This changed my perception of failure because I am one of those individuals who doesn’t handle failure very well. I tend to feel worthless and extremely disappointed in myself when I fail at something but by looking at it with his perspective, it helps to shed some positive light on failure and what it has to offer. 

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. 

19A

1) You. Who you are. What your talents are. What your skills and experiences are. Also: what are your aspirations? Specifically, regarding your business concept, how do you see this business (if you were to start it) playing a role in your life? 

-      My name is Kristie Alina Brenes. I am a General Business Studies major. I started college a little later than most. Before college I was in the United States Coast Guard for six years as a health services technician. Being in a branch of the military taught me responsibility and comradery that many people will never experience. I grew up living around the world my entire life as well as moving around for my job in the Coast Guard. This has given me the ability to make connections with individuals not matter where I am as well as an understanding of many different cultures and customs. My aspirations are to simply make a difference. My dad worked for the government helping third world countries start businesses that would ultimately create many jobs and bring in much needed revenue and I was able to experience the positive impact this had on so many people’s lives. I want to be able to accomplish something similar to this. If I were to start this business of a hydroponic farming market I believe this would play a major role in meeting my aspirations of making a difference especially when it comes to protecting our environment. 

2) What are you offering to customers? Describe the product or service (in other words, how you'll solve customers' unmet needs). 

-      With Hydro Market, a hydroponic farming market, what I am offering is a farm to table experience for customers. This will meet their need for fresh produce at reasonable prices year-round. I will be able to provide this because with hydroponic farming the produce is grown in a controlled environment where the plants are protected from bugs, unpredictable weather, and unfavorable growing temperatures. It will also meet the needs of environmentally conscious individuals in that it is a highly sustainable approach to farming as well as it leaving a much smaller carbon footprint than traditional farming and using far fewer natural resources. 

3) Who are you offering it to? Describe, in as much detail as possible, the demographic and psychographic characteristics of your customers. Think especially of this question: what do your customers all have in common?

-      This service and products will be geared toward environmentally conscious suburban and city dwellers in the middle to upper class brackets at first. Eventually I would want the prices of produce to allow all economic classes the ability to shop at the store but with startup costs it will be difficult at first. The reason this is geared more towards the metropolitan market is because these areas do not have the space for traditional farms which means the rely on products to be transported in from other areas. With hydroponic farming markets little space is required due to the fact that they can be grown stacked vertically as opposed to spread out horizontally. This creates the ability to provide fresh produce without the need for excessive amounts of land, farming equipment, and transportation of goods due to the fact they will be grown indoors and sold on site. 

4) Why do they care? Your solution is only valuable insofar as customers believe its valuable to them. Here, explain why customers will actually pay you money to use your product or service. 

-      Customers care, especially in the states that experience four seasons, because fresh quality produce is hard to find during months of inclement weather. Not only that but the prices increase as well due to the fact that they must be imported from other locations. Environmentally conscious individuals will also respect that fact that these hydroponic farms reduce CO2 emissions as well as use fewer natural resources. The price of my produce will be competitive with the market as well as the produce being available year-round. Customers will pay the money to use these hydroponic farm markets because they are home grown, competitive with market prices, require no pesticides, available year-round, and are grown in a more environmentally friendly way than traditional farming. 

5) What are your core competencies? What sets you apart from everyone else? Also: what do you have that nobody else has? 

-      To my knowledge there are no businesses that offer both hydroponic farms and the sale of the produce on site to customers. This farm to market experience and freshness of produce is what would set me apart from other competitors in the field. The produce has the ability to be picked and sold in the same day while being grown indoors in a metropolitan area which is a service no one else has to offer. 

¨    I believe all of these elements fit into my business design/model. I would have to ensure that all aspects of the business being run on a day to day basis aired on the side of being environmentally consciences. If this was unable to come to fruition than a big purpose of business model in hydroponic farming would be rendered useless. Basically, if I am able to connect all of the moving parts I believe these elements all play a major role in what this business would stand for as well as how it would be run. 

·     Feedback- Again on this assignment I had no feedback. I think maybe for future classes it would be important to pair people together for a certain number of weeks and switch because I am noticing an uneven amount of comments on certain people’s post’s and it makes assignments like this difficult to complete. I also don’t believe we should have to email it to the teacher to receive feedback if no one provides feedback because this just creates redundancy of the assignment when we already have to post these to blogs, YouTube, and SoundCloud. 

18A

·     Customer Avatar: My Prototypical Customer is not defined by gender but rather by a set of life style choices. Their age bracket is early thirties and up, basically someone who is established in their field and can afford to spend a little more on fresh produce. Because this customer is extremely environmentally conscientious they drive a Toyota Prius, Chevy Volt, or perhaps a moped to cut back on fuel emissions. I picture them listening to throwback tunes or new alternative music but definitely not main stream radio hits. Their dress is casual purchased from stores like Urban Outfitters, Anthropology, and local thrift establishments. This customer does not bathe every single day to cut back on water usage and probably has tattoos, piercings, or facial hair. Their hobbies are enjoy going out and attending all the cultural events their city has to offer, participating in volunteering events, they like to be active participants in their community, and traveling. Health and fitness are very important to them so they are avid gym goers and because of this they prefer to avoid using chemicals and pharmaceutical drugs and would much rather use natural holistic substitutes. Their political preference is leaning more towards the democratic side but not an extremist on either end.

·     What do you have in common with the customer avatar? If you have anything in common with the avatar, do you think that is a coincidence? Why? I have a few things in common with this avatar such as the want for fresh produce, shopping and music preferences, involvement in community, and a passion for health, fitness, and travel . There are however equally as many things I do not have in common. I do not believe that the commonalities are coincidence. I think whenever I am trying to solve an unmet need for someone I am always somewhat thinking about how this applies to me and my lifestyle. 

17A

https://youtu.be/hAG2PL50qc0

Reflection: I had nothing to reflect on because no one watched or commented on my video so I did not change much from my first video other than slowing down my speech a bit.