Growing Your Social Capital

At first I struggled with who to talk to as a domain expert in my industry but then I thought of one in the local community that has a similar service. The Alachua County Library is open to the public and allows those to come in and check out books all year long. Even though they are not the same subscription service that we are trying to create they do have very similar ideals and goals when it comes to reading. I spoke with Cheryl at the library and she told me she has worked there for over 10 years. She has spent over a decade of her life devoted to books and encouraging kids as well as adults the importance of reading. Cheryl will be my domain expert for this assignment, she has valuable experience that will be useful to my business. Since she has worked with books for over 10 years Cheryl has come to appreciate the wide array of literary work that can be found in her library. This massive assortment of books sometimes makes it hard to find the right one for someone. So Cheryl uses a website online that catalogs all the books in the library so you can easily go online and select genres you might be interested in. This will be helpful for my business to create a template for people when they go online and select their preferences. I found Cheryl by calling the Alachua County Library and we spoke for about 15 minutes as I gathered important information. I did an over the phone elevator pitch for her and she was very impressed. Even though it was over the phone she said it was like I was right in front of her giving the pitch.  By talking with Cheryl I gained pertinent information that will be used to grow my business and enhance my networking abilities throughout the literary community.

The expert on your market was one of the hardest of the three to find but after some research I was able to find someone to help. My friend volunteers at a local Elementary school in the area with after school care. I went with him one day to see if I could speak with the school librarian regarding how she selects the books for the students in the school. Elaine has been the school librarian for 7 years and still enjoys seeing the children explore new books. I explained to Elaine my idea for the business and she said it would be a great tool for parents to utilize for their young children. When asking her about how she chooses the books that will be found in the library she said, "We go through a book company that will give us a list of the best books out this month and I usually select from there. But we also have a station where students can write in book suggestions that they have. " I thought that the book suggestions area was a great idea to add onto the website. By talking with a school librarian like Elaine I was able to see how she makes the selections for the books in the school. This was a valuable exchange because I learned what kids are interested in these days which will help to select books for them.  This has been a very beneficial encounter that will help me to expand my networking  abilities.

The last person I spoke with was the supplier for the local elementary school that Elaine referred me to. The man on the phone I spoke with was named James and he was very helpful answering any questions I had regarding the suppliers role of the business. I explained to James a little bit about what my business was and how I intend on seeing it through. He was impressed and had a ton of helpful information that I could use for the future. I was curious as to the number of books he would think I would need to have on file so that I can support all of the customers. He said it would take a warehouse full of books to keep things running smoothly. After hearing this I realized it would take a vast system to be able to keep all of the inventory on file and up to date. This was something I had not considered before talking with James. There was a whole other side to the supplier that I had known nothing about until my interview with James. This has been one of the most productive conversations I have had  with someone in the industry and it has benefited me in ways that will allow me to expand my networking capabilities.

I have to say that this was one of the harder assignments we have had to complete this semester. I struggled at first finding the right experts to help me in each field but after research I was able to find people to help. Since I did struggle a bit with this assignment it made me work harder and dig deeper to find the answers I was searching for. It was a very valuable assignment that will help to shape the rest of this semester in ways that taught us how to network within the industry. It was different from past assignments when it came to networking but it was the most valuable to me.