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.