Person #1:
CARiD. I couldn't find contact information for a particular individual at CARiD, but it is a website that sells automotive accessories including Rixxu seat covers, which are by far the most like the seat covers that I would like to make for my business idea. CARiD has been in business since 2008 and sells a wide variety of automotive accessories.
This person is my domain expert since CARiD sells automotive parts and accessories, including padded seat covers.
I searched "padded car seat covers" on Google, and looked among the various options available. initially, my plan was to contact a competitor that is making the product similar to how well I would like to make it. The Rixxu seat covers, which are being sold on the CARiD website, look excellent and only lack the ability to make unique, custom covers. I tried to find the company on LinkedIn to no avail, and their website included no contact information. I decided the next best thing would be to contact CARiD, and see if anyone from their website could provide feedback on my idea.
I sent an email to info@carid.com, explaining who I am, the nature of my assignment, and asking if anyone there would be able to provide feedback on my business idea, along with their name and job title. I included a link to my blog post for assignment 8, "Solving the Problem" in the email.
I have yet to hear back from someone at CARiD, but the favor that they would be doing for me is providing feedback on my business idea.
Having someone from CARiD in my network would help me exploit my opportunity by giving me connections to an online retailer that could sell and distribute my padded seat covers.
Person #2:
Charlie Scott, owner of Car Seat Covers Direct and Car Mats NI. He has owned and managed the company since March of 1986, and he is an entrepreneurship professional who graduated from the University of Kent.
He is my market expert since he has 34 years of experience producing and selling car seat covers, which is the same business that I am interested in.
I searched "car seat covers" on LinkedIn, and his company, Car Seat Covers Direct, was the first company that popped up for me. I looked at the 9 employees listed and found the owner, Charlie Scott. His profile contact info did not include his email, just the company website (http://www.carseatcoversdirect.com/). I sent an email to the company address, info@carseatcoversdirect.com, asking if Charlie Scott could provide feedback on my idea. The content of the message was similar to the email I sent to CARiD, and I once again included the link to my assignment 8 blog post and asked for feedback on my business idea.
I have yet to hear back from Charlie Scott or anyone else at Car Seat Covers Direct, but the favor that I requested in my email is feedback on my business idea.
Having Charlie Scott in my network would enhance my ability to exploit this opportunity because he could be a mentor to help me get my business up and running since he has owned and managed a successful car seat cover business for 34 years.
Person #3:
Chris Wimer, who is a sales executive/automotive business development at Moore and Giles. Moore and Giles is a producer of fine leather goods, and Chris Wimer has been a sales executive at Moore and Giles for just over 3.5 years.
This person fills the supplier slot since Moore and Giles can provide both the high-end full-grain leather used to make my premium Napa leather seat covers, as well as top-grain leather which can be used to produce the seat covers made from standard automotive leather.
In order to find Chris, I first researched Napa leather, since I wanted to find a supplier for it specifically. I found that it's actually a broad term used for any soft, smooth leather, but it lacks an exacting standard of classification. What I did find though is that full-grain leather is the softest, most desirable and unaltered leather you can buy, so I then searched for full-grain leather suppliers. Moore and Giles was the first supplier I found that actually offered authentic full-grain leather, so my next goal was to find the contact information of someone who worked there. I decided to find the company's LinkedIn page, where I went through the list of employees they have on LinkedIn. I then decided that Chris Wimer would be the best person to reach out to regarding my business idea since he does automotive business development at Moore and Giles. He did not provide contact points on his LinkedIn, so I had to try and reach him via the contact for Moore and Giles. They don't give out the company email on the website, but they do have an inquiry form that you can fill-out to get an email response from a representative. So that is what I did, I filled out the form, mentioning that I was a student at UF who needed to get feedback on their business idea for their entrepreneurship class and that I would like the feedback to come from Chris Wimer if possible. I specified that my idea involved making finely crafted, padded car seat covers using leather from a supplier like them as one of my material options.
I have not yet heard back from Chris Wimer or anyone else at Moore and Giles, but the favor is requested in my email was feedback on my business idea.
Having Chris Wimer, or anyone else from Moore and Giles, in my network would enhance my ability to exploit the opportunity I'm pursuing by giving me connections to a reputable supplier of fine leather that could be used to produce my seat covers.
Reflection:
In future networking events, I will create a plan of action ahead of time. This would involve looking at the list of people in attendance at the event, taking note of which ones I would like to meet with, writing down what I would like to gain from each meeting, and writing any specific questions I would like to ask. I have not actually had any formal networking experiences in the past, so this was all new to me. However, I think the main difference between this assignment and a formal networking experience is that at a networking event, the people you attempt to network with would expect to be approached. With this assignment, none of the people I approached were expecting it, and I did not have anyone's direct contact info, so I had to work around it using their company's contact information.
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