20A - Growing Your Social Capital

First Contact: Jorge is someone who is in the restaurant industry. Although he owns a cuban restaurant in Miami, FL. I think he would be a great contact because he owns not only one restaurant but three so that proves how successful he has been throughout his career that he has been able to expand his restaurant locations. I know him because he is my friends father. He thought my idea was interesting he himself has thought about opening up a restaurant of his own in a college town, he is just worried how business would be in the summer since a majority of kids leave back home. He said it is manageable but the location of the restaurant who be crucial if you wanted to prosper. He liked that the restaurant would be open late at night since a majority of college students are out passed 12am at least four times of the week. He did say that I should have focus groups and specials to draw in more customers and attempt to draw a consistent amount of gators into the restaurant.

Second Contact: The next person I decided to contact was Michele I decided to contact Michele because she has worked within the restaurant business since she was eighteen years old. Today she has been working in the field for over twenty two years. Specifically, in the last ten years in the field she has been hired as a marketing manager, specifically having her own small team trying to solve ways to lower the cost of customer acquisition for over eleven restaurants in the Miami area. She would be extremely helpful to me because customer acquisition is arguably the toughest things for all types of businesses to master and without it you will indeed fail. She can be my head of marketing to help things get up and running.

Third Contact: Alexander an former worker at Cheney Brothers which is major food distributor around the state of Florida. He used to be in charge of management at their facility in Miami, Florida. He worked for the company for over eleven and a half years. He knows all the in and out of the restaurant and food distributing business having worked in it for so long. Sourcing your food when owning a restaurant is arguably the most important priority as a restaurant owner. The quality of the food is paramount if you want to have returning customers day in and day out. Alexander will be extremely useful in my business idea because he will be able to help me not only source the best quality foods from different food distributors from all around Florida but also get the best deals to help increase profit for my business.

This assignment was extremely crucial because it forced me to go out and network to connect myself with people who can help me get to where I want to be. You know the saying "It is not what you know it is who you know" and that could not be more true especially in this day in age where every market you look at is extremely competitive one person can never get too much help, especially when starting a business. I had no idea I had so many connections in the restaurant field till I really started to think about who I know and how they can help.