20A – Growing Your Social Capital

1- Alicia Baker

She is the Assistant Director for Gatorwell at UF and concentrates on alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs wellness. She is engaged in the same type of goals that my business has, promoting safe drinking practices for people. Therefore she fits in my domain expert slot. I searched online to see how is the person at Gatorwell that would speaking to would most benefit my business, then I went to gatorwell and spoke with her. She didn’t ask for anything really in return for listening to my business idea, she was glad to help out a student. Including her in my network would benefit me because not only would I have someone professional who is an expert in tis topic to give me credibility, but also because she would be a better resource to aid me in perfecting the small details of my product. 

2- Nora Kilroy

She is the Director of Off Campus Life for UF. She has received her M.Ed. in College Student Personnel/Counseling from the University of Southern Mississippi in 2000. She has been working at UF for almost 15 years now in the Housing and Residence Office. She works closely with students, local businesses and faculty to ensure that students who live off-campus have the resources they need to be successful living off-campus. She is filling the market expert slot due to her knowledge of the indirect customers of my area and connections to the higher up faculty in the UF administration. I found her because I work in the same building as her. She didn’t ask for anything in exchange for listening to my business idea. By including her in my network I will be able to easily get in touch with the person at UF who has the buying power to purchase my product. 

3- Justin Fawcett, 

He is the club owner of SAGA, which is a popular famous nightlight location in Gainesville. His business is well known downtown and he has many years of experience working in the nightlight business. He is filling my supplier area because my product is catered to sell to businesses that are part of the leisure nightlife industry. He (like all bar/club owners) are supplying the people who would use my product. I met him 2 years ago when going to his club and somehow we became business friends. He lets me skip the line and in for free when I bring my friends and I have even hosted fundraisers there on multiple occasions. By including him in my social network, I am opening up new opportunities to meet people who are bar/club owners. This contact will maximize my outreach especially since I have a good relationship with Justin. 

This activity was harder than imagined. It was hard to find someone and approach them. I had to really think about what person I was looking for and who I realistically had access to. In future networking events, I will take a brief moment to analyze who I should be talking to make a connection before walking into networking events. In the past, I have made connections with people who have come in my way or people I immediately needed something from them. this experience taught me that its important to make contacts with people who I might need in the future even if its far in the future.