Growing Your Social Capital

It's Who You Know, Not What You Know

Entrepreneurs can reap profound benefits from their social capital. If you know how social capital works, then you can build it! 

This is a 'networking' experience -- but unlike other 'networking' opportunities you may have had in the past, I'm going to set very clear parameters on this experience. This will help you focus your efforts on achieving exactly what you need for this experience; moreover, you can set parameters on any future networking experience, to get the most out of it. 

Here's what I want you to do for this exercise: establish contact with three new people, who will be valuable to helping you pursue your business idea. But I have some additional parameters:

1) One person must be a domain expert in your industry. This would be someone who's engaged in the same type of business activity as you would like to be. They may own the same kind of company that you would like to own, or they may be a technical expert who knows a lot about the kind of product or service that you would like to produce.

2) One person must be an expert on your market. This would be someone who is targeting your market with similar products services -- or knows a lot about conducting customer research in your area -- or represents a major piece of your market (this might be most applicable with B2B markets).

3) One person must be an important supplier to your industry. This would be someone who is selling products and services to other organizations/firms in your industry. 

What constitutes 'contact'? Social capital exists in the "potential goodwill" that exists between two people. For you to establish "potential goodwill" for this exercise, you need to have obtained feedback from each of these people on your business idea so far. For instance, this could include meeting with them to show your elevator pitch or your idea napkin. 

One last catch: The three people you add to your social capital cannot have participated in any other exercise you have completed as part of this course. 

How to write up this post. Break up your post into three parts, one for each person. For each person, describe:

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?

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?

Lastly, please include "Growing My Social Capital" in the post title and "Week 10" in the label. Be sure to proofread your post. Upload the URL to the blog post here. Once you have completed this post, be sure to make the declaration. 

Text for declaration:

PLEASE READ CAREFULLY:

I have published a post at my blog that fulfills the requirements of this exercise.

In my post, I have describe the five required elements for each individual I have added to my social capital.

I have also provided a reflection on 'networking,' including what I learned about networking from this experience and how it might shape my experiences in the future.

I have included "Growing My Social Capital" in the post title and labeled it "Week 10." 

I have proofread the post.

I have uploaded a URL to the post at the "Share" assignment in Canvas.