20) Growing Social Capital

I would like to start by doing a disclosure about this assignment is that since my specific service is not being exploited in the exact same way by others in the area, I had to adapt the assignment to what I was able to find. Moreover, to avoid the possibility of someone copying my idea I did not share the entire business idea.

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•     Domain Expert:

o   Amanda, Chief of Student Maid.

o   I consider her an expert in the industry because she has been in a leading position of Student Maid for a few years now and has been part of the growth of Student Maid.

o   I googled “housekeeping service in Gainesville” and Student Maid was one of the options. I picked this one because it looked like the one more related to students, even though they don’t target my same market segment, they employ UF students. While I was trying to learn more about them, I found a link to their Instagram page, that’s how it happened.

o   We did not talk much, but I could get a glance of how it looks like to run a housekeeping service type of business. I should say that I felt a little awkward because I didn’t want to share too much detail about my idea to avoid that they would copy it. The most important aspect that I learned from them was that background checks play an important role to gain customers trust.

o   Since they are the closet thing I have to a competitor in the area, I will need to pay close attention to what they do, as well will they. Another thing is that competition makes it harder to succeed, it makes you be better as well, that is why I think that it will be a win-win experience.

•       Market Expert:

o   Hilda Rodriguez, housemaid in Miami

o   Like I said before, I wasn’t able to find any housekeeping service specifically targeting students sharing apartments in Gainesville, but Hilda is a great person that has been doing housekeeping for years and know a lot about the technical part of the job.

o   I have known Hilda for about 3 years now, she is the housemaid of my family home in Miami. So, I just texted her and then called her to ask her a few questions about the industry the business and customer’s behavior.

o   She was telling me about some skills that a housekeeper should have, and how to be effective. She thought that my idea of targeting groups of apartments that are near each other was great because she spends too much money and time traveling.

o   I enjoyed talking to her because she is very knowledgeable about the technical part of the job and she did not have any problem sharing it with me. She helped realize that my profit margins would be too low, but that Is something that I am willing to give up in order to reach my target market, plus the idea of my business is more to help students that to squeeze every penny out of them.

• Industry supplier:

o   David Whitney, management consultant and business strategist

o   Because of his position as management consultant and business strategist he offers advice to businesses and help them develop a strategy to grow.

o   As part of my Entrepreneurship class last semester I had to talk to a group of business-people living in Gainesville, and that is how I met him. I already had his email, so I decided to email him.

o   We had a short exchange since he is a very busy person, but he basically told me about how important it is to be consistent with the job and to worry about customer satisfaction. He was also worried about my profit margins and said that if I decide to work at that level, I will need to be conscious about my expenses and have a low margin of error.

o   Since he is a business advisor, I think it will be useful to go and talk to him every once in a while, to check the progress and what would be the best next step. He would also help me keep my feet on the ground since it is very common that entrepreneurs overthink everything and expect complete success from their ideas, not taking into account the possibility of failure.

This has been an eye-opening experience for me. Usually networking for me was with the aim to prepare for the future, but in this case, it felt more like a real thing, that it had significant immediate consequences. It showed me the importance of not been afraid to ask, because if you don’t do it yourself, no one will solve the problem for you. I better understood the importance of been respectful. I learned that for the future, I have to seek any chance to network, and to have an elevator pitch at any time, in case the opportunity appears all of the sudden.