Growing Your Social Capital

Daniel A.

1. Daniel is the owner of Planet Fitness Gainesville, he runs this business alongside his brother and father. 
2. Domain expert: Daniel fits as a domain expert because he owns a fitness center. Although his fitness center does not offer the same services that I have in mind for mine, he has the same type of company as I would like to own. 
3. I found Daniel because I am an employee at his company, I simply emailed him asking if I could meet with him briefly. 
4. Because I met with Daniel when I was brainstorming this new business concept, I didn't have an elevator pitch prepared and therefore I simply discussed my vision and asked for feedback on the idea and considerations I should keep in mind when planning to open a fitness center. The return expectation is that I continue doing my job as best as I can in order to help his business. 
5. Including Daniel in my network will enhance my ability to exploit an opportunity because he has experience in this field and is aware of the roadblocks that might appear. Having someone to seek advice from that has experienced similar endeavors and discovered ways to push through them would be extremely helpful when entering non-familiar business territory. 

Jimmie J. 

1. Jimmie is a personal trainer who has started his own company, "Body by Jimmie". He started with a few private clients and expanded out to offering group training to self-organized groups.
2. Market expert: Although Jimmie does not own his own fitness center, he simply trains in other peoples' facilities, he is targeting the same market as a fitness center would: individuals who care about their physical health and appearance. 
3. I met Jimmie through my job at Planet Fitness where he trains. When he checked in to the club earlier this week, I asked if he would be willing to take a few minutes to evaluate a business idea that I am working on expanding. 
4. Jimmie listened to my idea about opening a "wellness center" that would not only incorporate fitness but also nutrition and mental health offerings into the company. He believed it was a good idea to incorporate these aspects because as a trainer, individuals who work with him also seek out nutritional advice however he is not qualified to give it. He offered me some advice for helping me grow this idea based off of the measures that he took when investing in his business. The return expectation is to keep spreading the word of his company as I have in the past and promoting it by wearing his t-shirts. 
5. Including Jimmie in my network would enhance my ability to exploit my wellness center through a potential partnership. Since Jimmie is already established in Gainesville and is a personal trainer who seeks out a permanent training location, there is potential for a partnership in which we both benefit. 

Amanda M.

1. Amanda is a sales representative for the company "Bang" which sells pre-workout. She has worked for the company for a few years now.
2. Supplier to industry: Amanda fills this spot because she sells a supplement that fitness centers stock their shelves with. Bang sells their product through a variety of channels, one being directly through fitness centers. 
3. I met Amanda while she was marketing to the Planet Fitness in Orlando by bringing in samples for them to give to members and try themselves. Because I was aware of this assignment and the relationship of the company she works for to my business idea, I asked her if she had a minute to talk. 
4. Amanda listened to my business idea and told me why she thought it would be successful, she helped develop my idea by mentioning some of the things she's wished she could find in a fitness center but hasn't been able to. I don't believe there was any return expectation from this encounter, Amanda was approachable and wanted to be helpful. 
5. Including a sales representative like Amanda for a company that sells supplements in which I would be interested in stocking my center with creates a relationship that could be helpful down the road. Business relationships lead to greater willingness to be helpful for mutual benefit, I could potentially benefit from a relationship like this one by receiving better deals when ordering supplements. 

This experience taught me a lot about the different types of people I would have to network with if I was to open a wellness center. Because this center would have such a large range of offerings, there would be many, specific types of relationships that I would have to build through networking. This is different from my networking experiences in the past because I was only promoting the "idea" of something. Currently, I don't necessarily have a use for these networks.