Assignment 23A – Your Venture’s Unfair Advantage

• Personal experience with running a business
• Valuable- Yes
• Rare- No
• Inimitable- Yes, but takes time
• Non-substitutable- Can be substituted by hiring someone with business experience.

• Educated in business
• Valuable- Yes
• Rare- No
• Inimitable- Yes, but takes years to copy
• Non-substitutable-  Can be substituted by hiring someone with a business degree.

• Experience working with entrepreneurs
• Valuable- Yes
• Rare- Possibly
• Inimitable- Yes, but takes time
• Non-substitutable- Can be substituted by hiring someone with entrepreneurial experience.

• Great credit score
• Valuable- Yes
• Rare- No
• Inimitable- Yes, but it can take years to improve bad credit.
• Non-substitutable- This is hard to substitute unless you have business partners with good credit.

• Very low debt
• Valuable- Yes
• Rare- Yes
• Inimitable- Possible, but takes time
• Non-substitutable- Cannot be easily substituted, but banks may not care about low debt if your credit score is high.

• Good amount of savings
• Valuable- Yes
• Rare- No
• Inimitable- Yes
• Non-substitutable- Can be substituted with good financing.

• Personal connections at local bank
• Valuable- Yes
• Rare- Somewhat
• Inimitable- Yes, but takes time
• Non-substitutable- Not easily substituted

• Personal connections with city officials
• Valuable- Yes
• Rare- No
• Inimitable- Yes
• Non-substitutable- Not easily substituted

• Good reputation in the community
• Valuable- Yes
• Rare- No
• Inimitable- Yes, but takes time
• Non-substitutable- Not easily substituted

• Knowledge of local market for living here more than a decade
• Valuable- Yes
• Rare- No
• Inimitable- Yes, but takes time
• Non-substitutable- Can be substituted by talking to people in the community, taking polls, etc

It's hard to pick just one resource from the list as my most valuable. My most valuable category is probably my social capital, including my connections at my local bank and connections with city officials. These resources are not easily copied. They both take time to develop and are great resources for starting a business. I think I would easily be able to secure funding for my business based on my relationships, as well as, my good financial status.