Your Venture's Unfair Advantage
1. Fraternity Chef
- V: It is valuable because he can provide me with inside knowledge of how the school lunch industry operates
- R: There aren't many people who have the knowledge and experience that he has, and there aren't many people trying to create a business like I am trying to make that have someone like him at their disposal
- I: It is impossible to duplicate the exact experience of a person, so I would say it is pretty inimitable
- N: There are probably other people that can provide similar information, but not identical
2. Family Friend on School Board
- V: She is valuable because she is the type of person I would need to convince in order for a school to agree to use my service.
- R: It is rare to know someone who plays such a big role on the school board of the second biggest county in Florida.
- I: Someone else could theoretically copy that by introducing themselves to her and becoming friends with her.
- N: She is pretty non-substitutable because she is one of the people with the power to approve a deal with my company.
- V: She is valuable because she can connect me with the right people in the Broward County Food and Nutrition Services to present my business plan.
- R: It isn't that rare to find someone who works for the department I need to contact, but it is helpful to know someone
- I: It would not be difficult to imitate this capital buying researching her and contacting her
- N: I would say there are substitutes, as I could find someone else in her department to help me
4. Hard worker
- V: This is valuable as it means I will put my all into making my business successful
- R: It is not rare as anyone who wants to grow their business needs to be hardworking
- I: It would be difficult for someone to put in the exact same amount of effort as me into making this idea a success
- N: There are no substitutes. You are either a hard worker, or you're not.
5. Personal Experience with School Food
- V: It is valuable because I know the exact flaws of the current system in place
- R: It is not rare because a majority of kids have eaten school lunch in their childhood
- I: It is not inimitable as anyone who went to school could have picked up that knowledge
- N: It would be hard to substitute 12 years of eating that food
6. Multiple Entrepreneurship Classes
- V: This is valuable as I have been provided the basic knowledge I need and had it reinforced
- R: It is somewhat rare as you would need to be college-educated in order to gain that knowledge, so not everyone has it.
- I: It would be possible to imitate this through personal experience
- N: It would be hard to substitute this knowledge at this point in my life
7. Lack of Competition
- V: Having no competition when entering a new market is valuable as I can create my own path
- R: It is rare to find an industry where there aren't already established players
- I: It would also be hard to imitate a situation like this
- N: You could not substitute an entire industry
8. Public Support
- V: It is valuable that nearly everyone I have spoken to about this agrees that my business is a real solution to a real problem
- R: It is rare to find a topic that is near-universally all approved
- I: It would be difficult to imitate public support
- N: You could not substitute this support
9. The State of Florida
- V: It is valuable that I am starting this venture in one of the most populated states in the country
- R: It is not rare that I found a problem in the state I grew up in
- I: It would be difficult to imitate the exact conditions that Florida provides
- N: I could substitute Florida for a different state and still probably find ways to be successful
10. Trustworthiness
- V: This is valuable because people I work with can rely on me.
- R: It is somewhat rare to find someone you can completely trust, but not too rare.
- I: It is hard to imitate total reliability in another person.
- N: It would be hard to substitute someone you completely trust with another person in which you don't
I think my valuable resource is Public Support. The fact that nearly everyone agrees that school lunch food as it stands is not good and needs to be replaced is a great thing for me because if I do a successful job in getting my business up and running it should be near universally praised.
Hey Grant, I would agree that public support is one of your most valuable resources. It will be much easier to sell your product by having people on your side who support your vision. And like you said, if it’s successful, it will be much easier to expand to other locations. I think personal experiences and social capital are other great resources that you have since no one can match them.
ReplyDeleteHi Grant,
ReplyDeleteIt seems like you have a good grasp on who and what will help your business run more efficiently. I would have to agree that public support is probably your most valuable resource. Since you already have public support, it will be easy for your business to get up and running and start seeing a profit. Great post!
Grant,
ReplyDeleteYou have a very powerful connection that you should certainly utilize. I think a fraternity chef is much different from a school lunch chef because they don't have to follow any menu rules. the average meal cost at my fraternity house is $6.57 a school lunch cost $3.00 when i was in school. The quality of food is much different from greek life to public school.