23A Your Venture's Unfair Advantage

Resources

1. Over a year’s experience with trading crypto-currencies

2. Possessing startup capital

3. Certified with several digital marketing analytics tools

4. Passion for blockchain technology

5. 2 years of professional workplace experience

6. Public speaking skills

7. Understanding of social media tech

8. Strong time-management discipline

9. Optimistic attitude

10. Effective networking skills

VRIN

1. This resource is definitely valuable as it gives me exclusive insight to the volatility of this market. I would consider this to be fairly rare, due to the fact that I entered the market a little over six months before the explosive growth in November 2017 when the most new investors entered. As mentioned before, the only way for this resource to be copied would be for another entrepreneur to have entered the market at the same time or earlier. The only substitute for this experience would be an information source providing tutorials and historical anecdotes (basically what my service is offering).

2. Startup capital is extremely valuable and will ease the process of creating the foundation for my service’s website as well as hiring additional writers. It is tough to determine how rare this is, as all entrepreneurs have varying levels of startup funds. This resource can be copied by others through traditional financing options, however this can be costly and time consuming, giving me a comparative advantage. As just mentioned, the substitute for possessing startup capital would be to reach out to venture capitalists or apply for loans.

3. Certifications in Google Analytics and Digital Sales are valuable for the knowledge that they have given me about the workings of online businesses. This isn’t a very rare resource, considering that most people engaging in online sales have some experience with Google Analytics. Since these courses are available online for free, this resource could definitely be copied. There really isn’t a substitute for this experience as most e-commerce is handled through google’s platform.

4. The value of this resource is very subjective. It doesn’t have a tangible value, however it is what drives me to start a business and therefor I consider it to be valuable. This technology is very complex and because of that, many people are intimidated to learn about it. Outside of programming communities, passion for this tech is absolutely rare. Passion cannot be copied, an entrepreneur either has it or doesn’t depending on the subject. I don’t believe that there is a substitute for this as you should never enter an industry that you are not passionate about.

5. Experience working for a digital marketing company has taught me a tremendous amount about client-retention and e-commerce so I attach a high value to this resource. This is a surprisingly rare resource for someone my age. The entire two years that I have been enrolled at UF I have been working for this company. This is a resource that cannot be copied unless an entrepreneur has two years to spend before creating their business. A substitute for my work experience would be professional experience at a different business.

6. The value of public speaking is all about confidence, and my experience giving presentations on the cryptocurrency market has taught me a lot about how to appear professionally and intelligent to an audience. Public speaking is pretty essential to the business world, so I would not consider this resource to be incredibly rare. This resource could be copied through any other sort of public speaking experience aside from my club presentations. As just mentioned, a substitute for my personal experience would be any other sort of public speaking experience or completion of a course.

7. Through my digital marketing job, I have spent an enormous amount of time advertising through social media. I consider this valuable because I will need to create a significant social media presence in order to help promote my online service. With the popularity of social media, this resource is not necessarily rare, but few people have my insight into the way specific performance indicators are measured. This resource could be copied only through digital marketing experience or completion of courses for each specific analytics platform. A substitute for my experience would be experience managing a very popular social media personality on Instagram or Facebook.

8. Time management is essential to effectively running any sort of business. I consider it to be particularly valuable for my service since I will need to maintain constant updates to the site as well as sending out reports on a fixed basis. Time management is valued by all entrepreneurs and therefore it is not a particularly rare resource. This discipline could be copied by any entrepreneur who understands the importance of time-management and has developed their own discipline. There is no substitute for time-management. Without it, an entrepreneur will not be on top of their responsibilities and their business will likely fall apart.

9. With the extreme volatility of this market, there are times where many investors feel crushed and cannot see the cyclical pattern. An optimistic attitude is extremely valuable to looking past the temporary issues to have the courage to keep pushing forward towards the long term goal. Once again, the rarity of this resource is fairly subjective. I often encounter more pessimistic people than optimists, so I consider to be somewhat rare. There isn’t really a substitute for optimism. If you aren’t optimistic, you will be pessimistic which can create poor habits that are not strong for a prospective entrepreneurs.

10. Within the business world, networking is one of the only ways to leap ahead of your competition. New opportunities arise from who you know and developing a strong network is very valuable to your business. This isn’t particularly rare since all entrepreneurs understand the importance of networking, however many people in my industry are not particularly social and may have a hard time being outgoing and meeting other business owners. Through LinkedIn, everyone can see each other’s networks, so I suppose if I developed a strong network it could be copied by another entrepreneur reaching out to my connections. Networking skills can only be substituted by already possessing a key connection that introduces you to all the necessary people within your industry.

I believe that my most valuable resource is my work experience. Very few 20 year-olds can already claim two years of hands-on experience with e-commerce and this work has taught me more than any other experience about digital sales, social media analytics, client-relationships, networking, and professional composure.