Your Venture’s Unfair Advantage: Assignment 23

1) Fundraising: Being part of multiple clubs and organization, I have learned how to contact vendors to set up fundraising events

Value: This could help me raise money to start up my  business
Rare: Setting up a fundraiser isn't that hard once you get the hang of it, so anybody could do it.
Inimitable: As stated above, anybody could set up fundraising events, but bigger events such as a food truck rally can be hard to replicate
Non-Substitutable: I could easily hire someone to plan the event for me but I would be losing money

2) My Uniqueness: No one has created a device that makes your teeth grow straight from the beginnings, all other solutions are when your teeth have already grown and are disorganized
Value: people willing to spend the money will find this very useful for their kids
Rare: As stated above, my dental service is very unique
Inimitable: If the device goes public, I am sure other dentists can bounce off of my idea and create something similar
Non-substitutable:  Instead of using my device, people can get braces or Invisalign

3) Social Capital: Future Colleagues. During dental school, I will be networking and creating relationships with many dentists and future dentist. I can collaborate with them to make a successful business
Value: Having connections is very important for many reasons, including marketing
Rare: Not everyone will know the same people that I know
Inimitable: building relationships with people can't be replicated, everyone is unique with their personalities.
Non-substitutable: Cannot be substituted because connections are very important when starting a business

4) Skill: Attention to detail. To make the device as successful s it can be, everything about it needs to be perfect, including the packaging
Value: This is very valuable because no one wants to receive a product that they made a lot of money to have defects
Rare: Most innovators have attention to detail
Inimitable: Yes, a good hand full of people have attention to detail
Non-substitutable: If you don't have this skill than you don't have it, but you can definitely practice improving the skill.

5) Social Capital: Personal relationship with an entrepreneur. As stated in one of my other posts, my father is an entrepreneur himself and he always encouraging me to think outside of the box and supporting me in every decision I make.
Value: Having a support system is very valuable because whenever you are not feeling motivated, your support system will be there for you
Rare: Having a support system is special and but a relationship like my father and I's is rare
Inimitable: No because the love and care that a father has for his daughter is unique
Non-substitutable: Could be substituted by another mentor but it won't be the same bond.

6) Passionate: Selling a product that you are passionate for and worked hard to create, makes it so much easier to sell because people can feel your passion
Value: having a passion for something gives you purpose and there is a less likely possibility of losing motivation
Rare: Most people take a long time finding what they are truly passionate for
Inimitable: You can pretend to passionate for something because the effort won't come naturally
Non-substitutable: It is not substitutable because the quality of the product will be different.

7) Honesty: Being honesty is key in this business because you don't want to give clients false hope.
Value: If you don't have honesty then you can lose customers and references
Rare: Everyone in business should be honest
Inimitable: You are either saying the truth or you are not, it is not inimitable
Non-substitutable: honesty is an uncomparable trait in the business world

8) Social Capital: Engineer. My brother is a mechanical engineer and he can help me create the device to straighten teeth as they grow
Value: Since I don't know much about building things, having an engineer mind helping you is valuable
Rare: There are many engineers out there
Inimitable: You can't pretend to be en engineer because they go through many classes that teach them all the math and physics around creating devices.
Non-substitutable: I can't substitute his knowledge for someone else.

9) Caring: My product has a chance of causing pain because moving teeth are not easy, so when it would be time to create the device, I would want to make it as pain-free as possible
Value: customers will appreciate having no pain, especially since ill be working with their kids.
Rare: Most people are considerate about other people's feeling
Inimitable: You can't pretend to be caring because the energy won't come out the same way.
Non-substitutable: Caring can't be substituted because that is a human quality.

10) Patience: My device will take a long time to actually see results because one has to wait until all adult teeth are grown
Value: Without patience, this device wouldn't work
Rare: Having patience is not rare but people that don't have patience, wish they did.
Inimitable: You either have the patience or you don't
Non-substitutable:  In my business, you can't substitute it because the whole process relies on time to see the results

My top resource is uniqueness and it is the most important advantage because a device like the one I have come up with doesn't exist and it is a solution to a problem that people have.