23A- Your Venture's Unfair Advantage

·       Generate a list of all the resources in your venture (produce a list of at least 10 resources that you already possess). This can include your human capital, social capital, financial capital, and capabilities. You may also discuss the organizational culture you intend to create (but, obviously, it's not a resource that you have, now.) 

1.    Passion

a.     Valuable: Yes (Passion is a necessity to keep yourself going when the going gets tough.)

b.    Rare: No (A lot people out there have passion for something.)

c.     Inimitable: No (A lot of people may have passion, but not many can fake passion for this product/business if they don’t really care about it.)

d.    Non-substitutable: Yes (You can’t quite substitute this quality with something else; it’s an inherently needed for the entrepreneurial endeavor.)

2.    Friendliness

a.     V: Y (You need to be able to make people feel happy and welcomed before they would ever consider buying something from you. A mean attitude is a complete turn off and destined to lose business.)

b.    R: N (There are a lot of people out there who are nice and friendly people.)

c.     I: N (This trait isn’t something that can be faked. People can act and pretend to be friendly, but at the end of the day, genuine friendliness cannot be imitated.)

d.    N: Y (This is a necessity to getting customers to want to buy your product.)

3.    Proximity to Viable Market

a.     V: Y (Being close to the source of need will make it easier to fill that need and understand who has it.)

b.    R: N (Thousands of college-town residents share the same market potential as me.)

c.     I: N (Someone can just move here and get access to the same market.)

d.    N: N (There are a lot of markets that can provide the same benefits or maybe even better ones.)

4.    Supply of Water Repellant Sprays

a.     V: Y (Having different types of water repellant allow me to provide customers with the one they want.)

b.    R: N (Amazon also has access to all the same products.)

c.     I: N (Someone else can also buy the same sprays as I have and compete with me.)

d.    N: Y (It’s necessary to have different sprays on hand because that is the product I am selling.)

5.    Capital to Maintain Supply

a.     V: Y (You need to be able to continue restocking inventory if needed.)

b.    R: N (Anyone with money can do the same exact thing.)

c.     I: N (Anyone can go earn money.)

d.    N: Y (You need money to purchase inventory.)

6.    Knowledge of Different Sprays

a.     V: Y (Necessary for the service I am providing.)

b.    R: Y (Most people don’t know what the different types of sprays are and which one are out there.)

c.     I: N (Someone else can learn about the different types of sprays since the knowledge isn’t incredibly hard to acquire.)

d.    N: Y (This is important and cannot be replace by anything.)

7.    Desire to Reach Out to Others/Ability to Sell

a.     V: Y (One needs to be able to sell to have a viable business.)

b.    R: Y (Most people don’t care to or know how to sell this product.)

c.     I: Y (This cannot be imitated unless you learn, and that takes a while.)

d.    N: Y (This is a necessary part of the business.)

8.    Agility at Adapting to Customer Preferences

a.     V: Y (This is fundamental to a viable business being able to curb the trends of changing demand.)

b.    R: N (Because it is so valuable to all businesses, it isn’t a rare trait.)

c.     I: Y (This trait comes with a knack for analyzing current trends to predict the future and always looking for ways to improve.)

d.    N: Y (Important component to any viable business model.)

9.    Ability to Connect People with Opportunities/Connector

a.     V: Y (Necessary to creating a network.)

b.    R: N (There are a lot of connectors out there.)

c.     I: Y (It’s hard for anyone to create the same network as someone else.)

d.    N: Y (It’s important to know people who you can help and who can help you.)

10. Energy/Optimism

a.     V: Y (Important to keep the momentum going and enliven customers and employee to buy or work.)

b.    R: N (This is something needed to keep a business on the upwards track.)

c.     I: Y (It is very hard to learn how to be optimistic and energetic when that isn’t something that comes naturally.)

d.    N: Y (Necessary to keeping momentum of any organization.)

After conducting the VRIN analysis, determine what your top resource is. Explain why it's more important to your venture than all the other resources.

Conclusion: The “Ability to Sell My Product’ is what is rare. There are a ton of salesmen out there, but they don’t know anything about my product. That is why I have the upper hand in this area because no one else know about my service as much as I do, so I can sell it better than others.