20 A- Growing social capital

1.     For my domain expert, I spoke to a family friend by the name of Erlin Koci. Erlin is businessman in downtown Toronto, Ontario. He owns several nightclubs in the downtown area, and they are all rather exotic, deep house music kind of clubs which is perfect for my market place.

2.     They are filling in the domain expert slot

3.     I have known Erlin for a few years now. We met when I was on a summer vacation on the island of Korfu, Greece. My sister and I were sitting at the ocean view bar sipping on moxitos when Erlin kindly approached us and offered to buy us a drink. We started conversing and later he mentioned how he owned several clubs in downtown Toronto and we should come and check them out if we are ever in the area.

4.     Luckily for me, I am a Canadian citizen so I travel to Canada quite often. When I first met up with Erlin after the vacation, it was very casual and it all felt very natural. We clicked right off the bat and he is a very easy-going, yet stern and successful entrepreneur. A few months later I emailed him a proposal of my idea and asked if this is something he would hypothetically be interested in.

5.     Having someone like Erlin in my network would greatly benefit my company. He is very experienced in this field, and he knows all the dos and don’ts of this industry. He also has all the right connections which would of course be very useful for getting my name and idea out there.

This experience itself was very different from my usual networking experiences. Considering we met at a little ocean bar on a tiny little island off of Greece, yeah I would say it is pretty unusual but also extraordinary and I would have never expected to have any sort of business relationship with him in the near future and in a completely different continent.

1.     His name is Petrit Is and he is known as “laflamma.” He is a Dj and sound producer based in Toronto, Ontario.

2.     The market expert slot

3.     I met Petrit through Erlin Koci (person mentioned above). Since Erlin is familiar with the club and music field in Toronto he hooked it up with Petrit. Petrit has been a DJ for over a decade and he as well is very familiar with the night life scene in Toronto.

4.     At first I was a little nervous when I was introduced to Petrit because I was afraid about him thinking foolish things about my idea. But I figured since Erlin was fond of it he should be too. Petrit is a great addition to my network strategy because he is very active on social media about his shows and sets and the more attention he gets, the more likely consumer are to show up to his shows. And this of course brings in more clientele for my idea.

5.     Again, having Petrit’s social media platform is crucial to the upbrining and success of my company. Of course it does not depend on it, but it is very helpful because it gets more people to come to his shows and therefore more people seeing and trying out my product.

This particular experience did not really differ because it would not be the first time I met somebody through either a mutual friend or business partner. Experiences like this though, do help me communicate more professionally and overall just make me a more effective entrepreneur in the making.

1.     His name is Stan Tampei and he is a business owner in Ontario, Canada.

2.     The supplier expert

3.     Once again I met Stan through Erlin Koci. Stan is a supplier to many gyms and schools in the Ontario area for lockers and storage equipment.

4.     Stan is a crucial part to my business because he is of course the supplier. With him and his team, we were able to design and come up with several idea of how exactly my product should look, and we were able to customize the sizes as well. The nature of the exchange was of course nerve-racking for me because it is the first time I have ever done something like that before. But Stand and his team were very creative and friendly and it made the process enjoyable.

5.     Without Stand and his company we do not have product and neither do the establishments.