Domain expert
I spoke with my sisters friend's dad, David, who owns his own independent phone repair shop in our hometown. He has been running his business for the last 5 years. He has seen many phone repairs, especially in the college aged demographic. He just reassured my research on the demographic for this venture. He also gave some insight on the day to day tasks of running a business like this. Having David as a resource will be a great benefit. We are now able to work together in this business. It is also beneficial that we are not after the same market, as his market is in Delray, and mine is in Gainesville.
Expert on market
I went and spoke with Rick who works for Gatortech in Gainesville. He is an expert in this market since he primarily deals with UF students. I went into the Gatortech store on Archer, and asked if I could speak with someone. He gave me advice on how to market and advertise to college aged students. Hearing his input is valuable information.
Supplier to industry
I went into the Reitz Union tech center (for computers) and spoke to Christina. Again, I was able to walk in and talk with her. She is a supplier in the industry. She gave e advice on the amount of products they receive every day. She gave me insight on the companies that they typically order from. Her information was very valuable.
Finally: Reflect.
It has shown me the importance of wanting to learn more. Going into all of these networking opportunities, I had an open mind. I took notes at them all. It was also important to understand the value of another person's time.
Hey Elizabeth, I had the same exact takeaway from this assignment. The most valuable I found that we can get from others is knowledge and the ability to learn from their experiences. The more we learn about our product, industry, and market, the better we can prepare our product/service so that it can be as successful as possible. Great post!
ReplyDeleteHey Elizabeth, I think you did a great job on this assignment because you could gat new knowledge and ideas from experienced people, which one of the most interesting things that you can do through this assignment. It was very interesting for me to talk to people that have knowledge and experiences. Great post!
ReplyDelete