20A – Growing Your Social Capital

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I have reached out to the following three people to help grow my business:
  1.  Domain expert in the restaurant industry:  A friend of mine named Megan worked at Chipotle for several years and learned a lot about what it takes to have consistent food that is fresh and ready for customers to build their bowls.  I made sure to reach out to her and get her insight on this concept as it is very similar to chipotle and she has a lot of knowledge on their behind the scenes efforts.  She was so kind to tell me about how quickly they went through food on a daily basis and how they dealt with so many customers at popular times.   She explained to me how stressful some of the timing was to make sure that there was enough of everything to keep the line moving but said that there were often mistakes and no day was perfect.  Including her in my network could help me exploit my opportunity because she can give advice on how to maintain certain foods to keep them fresh and ways to set up the line. 
  2. Expert on the market:  One of my dad's close friends is currently trying to open up a food truck that will operate near the area that FAU is in and focuses on providing late night snacks for people after going out.  While he is not offering breakfast food, he was really helpful because he had done a lot of customer research on college students, particularly those that go out or like to get something to eat during the late hours.  I will make sure to utilize his contact information as he has already suggested that I focus in on a few more strong food options for the breakfast platters rather than having too many small ones because he said that it can become difficult to maintain that.  He said that he also found that college students frequently like having less options as they are too indecisive when there are a lot presented to them.
  3.  Important supplier to my industry:  Due to the fact that my father is in wholesale, I had him put me in contact with one of his connections that supplies ingredients for local south Florida restaurants.  Speaking with him was very helpful as he gave me some insight as to how far  in advance you need to order some ingredients and ways to keep them fresh.  This connection will help me with budgeting as he is knowledgeable on the prices of various foods that would be necessary for my restaurant. 
  4. Reflection:  I think that this assignment was very helpful in putting me out of my comfort zone and learning what kinds of questions to ask to get the information that I desire in the most effective way.  I love speaking to new people so I enjoyed completing the interviews and will use their contact information for later assignments ad they were very easy to talk to and eager to help,

Comments

  1. UnknownNovember 5, 2018 at 7:27 AM

    Hey Emily,
    You did a great job at finding people to interview for this assignment and asking them important questions. You seemed to got a lot of great advice and information that could help your business idea. The one guy who is about to open his food truck, gave you some good advice on college students. Overall, I hope this information really benefits you.

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownNovember 5, 2018 at 7:43 AM

    The people you contacted for this assignment are very relevant to the business that you want to create. Your friend that worked at Chipotle is definitely an important resource who can give you information on your potential competition and also provide tips on how to successfully operate a Chipotle-style restaurant. I also found that the people I contacted were eager to help with this assignment. Great post!

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownNovember 5, 2018 at 1:05 PM

    I think that the people you interviewed offered a lot of valuable knowledge about the food industry as a whole. For example, your friend that was a former employee at Chipotle explained that certain times of the day had higher customer volumes. As a business owner and entrepreneur, this is something that you should factor into hiring and organization of the business. I believe you should contact multiple food distributors and get a better idea of pricing. This will allow you to narrow down your prices for the food items and build a functional menu. Your dad's friend also offered great advice regarding doing a few things well instead of a lot of things mediocre.

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