20A Growing your Social Capital

I interviewed 3 people who helped grow my social capital.

1. The first person I talked to was the owner of a restaurant while I got to go food. I wanted to understand what an expert customer would think of my product. I wanted to appeal to the customers and he has years of experience with companies and distributors. They have ran this restaurant for 20 years. I asked him a couple questions as I got my food-to-go because no one can eat inside and I had to wait for my meal. They did me the favor of helping how to appeal to small businesses. That being honest and genuine while working hard is my best chance. This person has helped me network better by becoming a potential customer while also bringing me closer to other customers because their close friends own restaurants too.

2. The second person I talked to was a distributor of products for restaurants. This person is a close family friend who delivers supplies to fast food places and other restaurants. He works a lot on selling package deals on plastic silverware, forks, and stuff along those lines. He fills the spot of a supplier for my customers. I got in contact with him through my father. He did me the favor of telling me the best types of businesses to deal with and how to appeal to these bigger companies. He expects me to send him some of my products my way once it is finished. He is not only a good distributor for me but one who has unlimited customers for me.

3. The last person I talked to was someone who buys products in large quantities at wholesale and sells them in smaller packages and makes a profit of them on amazon. I personally find this to be a good route to my business. I firmly believe there is a huge market for biodegradable straws. I met this person by emailing him about his shirts he was selling and asked him some questions stating it was for my school project. He did me the favor of walking me through on how to successfully sell products on Amazon. He fits the domain expert because of his knowledge with customers and Amazon.

I found this networking experience to be pretty easy and fun. People love to talk about themselves and their success as long as you listen and these three people gave me plenty of advice on how to be successful. I am a people person and always love to learn how people think and act.

19A Idea napkin 2

Here is my idea napkin guys,

1. I considered myself to be outgoing and adaptable. I am able to be put into any situation and overcome any struggle. I have experience in some business classes along with working with a concrete company. I am hardworking and dedicated to anything I put my mind to. I see my business as a way to generate a profit on the side. I would find a company to produce my product and sell it to companies as a distributor myself. It would be something I would work on in my free time and weekends.

2. Customers have the unmet need of helping the environment and/or hate using paper straws. My product provides the best of both worlds and is superior to its competitors.

3. The biggest groups I'd target are businesses that reside in regular plastic straw bans or people who care for the environment. There is no specific age group but it mostly would consist of younger generations or older people who own/run these businesses. All my customers would see that paper straws are inferior and need to be replaced.

4. Customers would pay more than paper straws to use my product because it is stronger, more comfortable, and overall better for the environment being biodegradable. Smoothies and other cold drinks would be a better experience with my straws. They also last longer.

5. What sets us apart is that we resemble the straw that everyone loved but one that is forward-thinking. Our product is strong and more usable than competitors while helping save the environment.

I believe these five elements fit very well together. The only thing we are inferior to compared to our competitors is the price. Our product will not be cheaper than plastic or paper straws. It is near impossible to produce them cheaper than those. What makes up for it is the quality and environmental impact. People will pay more if the product shows clear advantages which it does. I understand we will not take all business but we can take a large majority of it in Gainesville and other areas.

The feedback I received was that my product was more expensive and that it would be hard to implement in the real world. While I agree, I think that the price can be justified if it is far superior to its competitors, which it is. For example, why would anyone get an iPhone when other phones work just as well? My product would speak for itself just like the iPhones do.

17A Elevator pitch 2

https://drive.google.com/file/d/17RX_QTCai2VWP_kfRb1lciFA2I-UFMut/view?usp=sharing

My feedback was helpful and I agree with it but I do not believe it was a big enough impact to change the direction of my company.

18A Custom Avatar

When comes to mind when I think of my customers is the younger generation who cares for the environment. The older generations do not care as much about the environment and the younger generations are too young to understand the need for a healthy world. I firmly believe the people who want plant-based straws would be caring and patient. People who enjoy the outdoors and care about their impact on the world. I see most of them as college students or graduates who want a superior product to paper and plastic straws. I think most of them would not have children yet and I believe they would be in their 20s. I feel like I can relate to my customers because I too care for the environment but want efficient products.  My product can extend across multiple generations but I firmly believe the people who would be most profitable off of would be the younger generations or maybe even big businesses.

16A Secret Sauce

1) I think the five ways that make me truly different when it comes to human capital is my honesty, hard-working skills, outgoingness, open-mindedness,  and ability to solve problems differently. These skills help give me an advantage with real-world problems and lets me build better relationships with people.

2)
https://soundcloud.com/garretttorres/justin

Justin stated that I was creative. He said I also use it to solve problems better.

https://soundcloud.com/garretttorres/jared

Jared stated that I was caring. Also that I was understanding

https://soundcloud.com/garretttorres/img-7234

Chandler stated that I have a strong passion. That I also display strong commitment.

https://soundcloud.com/garretttorres/img-7234-1

Rocky Stated that I am a diverse individual. I can contribute to the business world a lot with it.

https://soundcloud.com/garretttorres/travis1

Travis stated that I have integrity. I also am open-minded which would help me solve problems.

3) I feel as if the views I have on myself reflect very well on the views my close friends have on me. They gave me an outside view on myself and it let me become more open-minded to how people view me. I feel as if this is an important aspect for most entrepreneurs. I did not see any differences on how I view myself and how others view me. This may have changed if I asked people I was not too close with.

15A – Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 2

Alternative Evaluation: From my interviews, I conducted that most people pick biodegradable plastic straws over paper straws but big corporations have paper straws. They use paper straws because they are more common and cheaper. They are cheaper but the quality is also worse. People who buy their own straws would prefer biodegradable straws.

How/Where do they buy?: Big corporations buy from distributors and casual consumers buy from stores and online websites. Corporations are driven by cost while average buyers choose what fits them best.

Post-Purchase Evaluation: Companies want to cut costs and work with local laws. They want to appeal to others and use paper straws. Most do not care about quality. Casual buyers want something good for the environment that offers quality. Paper straws are inferior.

Interview #1 - Personally dislikes paper straws but uses them because of corporations buying paper straws and using them in restaurants. Likes higher quality straws.

Interview #2- Personally is not affected by the plastic straw bans. They do not use straws. Mostly just sip from the cup.

Interview #3- Absolutely hates using paper straws. Would not go out of their way to buy biodegradable plastic straws but rather have big corporate restaurants use them as they are stronger and better. 

Conclusion: The biggest influence on what straws people use is cost and how it affects the environment. Biodegradable straws have a market but not everyone will buy them.