20A- Growing Your Social Capital

1. My first interviewee is someone who is a veteran fisherman for over 30 years. He is a domain expert because of his experience fishing as well as his familiarity with the kind of product I’m trying to sell. He is a friend of a family member so I contacted him through text. I asked about how I could improve my product, but he did not expect any favor in return. I think this person could help me in the future if I ever came across functional problems with my product.

1. My second interviewee is a boat salesman. He is a market expert, because he sells somewhat similar products. He is an old friend from high school so I was able to text him. I asked him about customer demographics, but he did not expect any return favor. I think this person could help me in the future if I ever wanted to expand my product line.

1. My last interviewee is a fishing guide and professional fisherman. He is an industry supplier, because he sells his services to hundreds of people in the market. He is a friend of a friend, and I was actually able to meet him in person. I asked him about the market entry barriers and how difficult he thought it would be, and he did not ask for any favors in return. I think this person could help me in a variety of ways because of how experience he is with fishing in general.

     I think this experience overall just showed me how important and effective social networking can be. It is a tool that can be just as effective as any other component of your business. I feel like this did differ from my networking experiences in the past because I never approached them with a specific goal in mind.