1. Domain Expert: Mr. Bria, family owned restaurant owner in South Florida
Mr. Bria owns a single restaurant in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida and has been in the restaurant business for over 20 years. I know Mr. Bria because he is my roommate's father and I was able to speak with him on the phone over this week to discuss my business proposal and requirements for this assignment. Having this expert in my network will be helpful while developing my app because he has the perspective of the restaurant side of my business idea and gave me insight on how restaurant owners and managers would be able to interact with my app.
2. Market expert: Andrew, owns event company in Gainesville that serves mostly college students
One of my markets would be college students who often don’t have time to wait for meals due to busy schedules and trying to fit in meals with friends, coworkers, family, etc. Andrew runs an event company in Gainesville Florida with the majority of his clients being college students planning events for their organization. My organization uses Andrew to book different social events and this is how I was originally able to connect with him. I was able to email him and ask him many questions about this specific market since he has ample experience. College students are a niche market and being able to network with Andrew gives me the benefit of being able to discuss his perspective of dealing with college students as his own market. His experience is valuable moving forward trying to market my app to college students and being able to talk to him about my business proposal.
3. Supplier expert: Scott, app and website developer
Scott is a software expert and app and website developer who designs these projects for a living. Scott is actually my brother's friend that he connected me with after sharing about my business proposal and my desire to develop and app. I was able to call him on the phone and talk with him about my app that I want to develop and then email him any follow up questions. Developing my app is the foundation of my business idea and without having the proper connections to an app developer to give me advice or help me actually bring my ideas to life, my business would not be able to exist. Scott was able to explain to me the process of creating an app and which of my ideas are realistic and feasible given my resources.
REFLECTION:
Having new connections with these three experts will be beneficial if I ever pursue this business proposal or any other similar idea. New perspectives are always beneficial to help solve problems and this whole business proposal is based on solving an unmet need. The connection I found especially helpful was with Scott who was able to talk to me about how my app would actually work and who would use it. This assignment will help me in the future networking and the specific individuals who will be helpful when working on a business proposal or solving a problem. This will also help in my general professional life because practicing how to network with others is an important soft skill for any aspiring career professional.
Hi Andie!
ReplyDeleteGreat and thorough job on your post. I liked how detailed you were in describing the most important points you got out of each of your experts. I think you made a really strong point in your reflection that learning new perspectives is incredibly beneficial when solving problems. In my own experience, bringing in alternative perspectives allows you to think differently, be more open-minded, and help you think about things differently the next time you have to solve a problem. Again, great job.