Your Venture's Unfair Advantage

1. Social Capital: UF Rec/Club Sports: I am a student at UF and I'm part of the Club Sports organization sponsored by UF Rec Sports. Because of my participation, I have a lot of access to potential contacts and customers.

• Valuable: This connection is valuable because I already have direct access to a group of people who fit my target market. 
• Rare: This is kind of rare because not all businesses are in areas where they can access such a large group of potential customers. But it's not rare for any other person starting a business in a university setting.
• Inimitable: This isn't inimitable because you could do this with any other organization on campus. 
• Non-Substitutable: This is substitutable because I could be using any other organization on campus. 

2. Market Size & Strength: UF is a largely populated university with lots of people ranging from undergrad students to staff who live off campus.

• Valuable: This is valuable because it would give my business a lot of potential opportunity for sales. 
• Rare: Having people live off campus isn't rare, but not all universities and colleges have such large populations. 
• Inimitable: This can be imitated by any other large university or campus. 
• Non-Substitutable: This isn't substitutable because there aren't any other venues besides universities that would have such a large amount of my target market. 

3. Lack of Competitors/Unique Service: There are other scooter dealerships in Gainesville, but none of them offer my service of weekly rentals.

• Valuable: This is valuable because it would make my business stand out. 
• Rare: It is rare for businesses to have little to no competitors. 
• Inimitable: My service is unique, but there are others that could potentially start offering rentals like mine. 
• Non-Substitutable: In the future, I might have to come up with other ways that continue to make my business unique. 

4. Social Capital: Access to potential customers: As a student in such a large school, there are tons of ways that I can contact and connect with my potential customers.

• Valuable: Being able to directly connect with customers is extremely important because it can help you better develop your business. 
• Rare: This is rare in a sense. Not everyone is basically immersed in their target market. 
• Inimitable: This could be imitated in other industries and places. 
• Non-Substitutable: I don't think that such access to a customer base can be substituted. 

5. Experience: Ethics case competition: I participated in an ethics case competition where I had the opportunity to create a business plan.

• Valuable: Any type of experience, whether it's professional or personal, is valuable because you can learn from it. 
• Rare: This isn't rare, nearly every business major at UF had to do the ethics case competition in their Warrington Welcome class. 
• Inimitable: This can be imitated by anyone who participates in a similar competition. 
• Non-Substitutable: Experiences can't be substituted because people learn from them differently. 

6. Personal relationships with financial professionals: My dad is a financial advisor for a credit union so he can give me a lot of advice about my business's potential finance issues and plans.

• Valuable: For me, this is extremely valuable because I don't know much about finances and his professional knowledge would help immensely. 
• Rare: There are financial advisors everywhere, but the fact that I am so close to one who could potentially help me at little to no cost is rare. 
• Inimitable: This relationship can be imitated by anyone who also knows a financial advisor on a personal level. 
• Non-Substitutable: This is substitutable because I could just hire a financial advisor. 

7. Contacts in who specialize in event, advertising, and marketing: I personally know a few people who have years of professional experience in the events, advertising, and marketing fields so they could help me launch my business.

• Valuable: This is valuable because my knowledge is limited in these areas. Having people who do those things professionally would help me a lot, even if its just learning basics. 
• Rare: This isn't rare if people know others in these industries. 
• Inimitable: This is imitable by anyone who knows people in these industries. 
• Non-Substitutable: This is substitutable because I could talk to anyone else who has experience in these industries. 

8. Sales Experience: I've worked in retail which has given me knowledge of sales goals & inventory.

• Valuable: This is valuable because sales and inventory knowledge is going to be essential to my business. 
• Rare: This isn't rare; nearly everyone who has worked in retail knows about sales and inventory. 
• Inimitable: This can be imitated by anyone who works in retail. 
• Non-Substitutable: I would say this is substitutable because I could just ask people about how sales and inventory work. 

9. Retail: Customer Service Skills: Working in retail, I also strengthened my customer service skills so I am familiar with helping guests/customers and dealing with difficult situations where the customer is unhappy.

• Valuable: I think that having customer service skills is really valuable because its important to have good relationships with them so you can generate goodwill for your business. 
• Rare: I don't think this is rare because anyone can learn how to cater to customers' needs. 
• Inimitable: This is definitely imitable. 
• Non-Substitutable: I think that this is pretty non-substitutable. Having good customer service is essential to a business. 

10. Social Media Platforms: Like most people my age, I've grown up with technology so I am very familiar with the various social media platforms that exist and can use them for my business venture.

• Valuable: Social media is valuable to any business or organization because it helps spread awareness and gives customers a way to directly connect with the business. 
• Rare: This isn't rare at all because nearly everyone has some sort of knowledge of social media. 
• Inimitable: This is completely imitable; it's easy to learn how the different platforms work.
• Non-Substitutable: This is substitutable because instead of doing the social media myself, I could hire someone. 

I think that my top resource is my service's uniqueness and lack of competitors. I think this is more important than my other resources because it really gives my service strength. It is the one resource that allows me to take advantage of the fact that UF has such a large amount of my target population. From what I've learned in past assignments, the problem I came up with does exist for students and staff here, so the fact that my service would be one of the few of its kind makes it even stronger.