Assignment 23: Your Venture's Unfair Advantage

Resources

1. Adam who owns a supplement shop

• Valuable - I am able to get a discounted price on protein powder which is one of the most expensive ingredients that I need for my Bulk Bites snacks.
• Rare - It's quite rare to acquire Adam because I've created a close friendship with him that I am able to get deals that a normal stranger might not get the access to. 
• Imitable - It would be quite hard for others to copy because they would have to find someone that is similar to Adam and had formed close relations with them for almost 4 years.
• Non-substitutable - You can't really substitute a person like Adam; however, I'm sure you can find someone like him out there.

2. My Parents Money

• Valuable - I am able to get a startup fund to buy the first round of Bulk Bites. With each round of buying supplies, I would be able to make 2 batches of Bites. This enables me to replace the money I used for the supplies and have extra supplies to make another batch for added revenue.
• Rare - It's not hard to get money from your parents so I don't find this resource very rare.
• Imitable - It's very easy for someone else to copy because they could just ask their parents for some money.
• Non-substitutable - You can probably substitute your parents money by using another family member.

3. Access to Grocery Store

• Valuable - I am able to purchase organic ingredients that go into making my Bulk Bites.
• Rare - Grocery store access is not very rare. There is usually a grocery store within a 10-15 mile radius of where a person lives.
• Imitable - It's easy to copy access to a grocery store because it's public.
• Non-substitutable - There are many substitutes for grocery stores including farmers markets and other local food stores.

4. The large amount of people I know at the gym

• Valuable - The people that I know at the gym are valuable to me because they will pose as a customer base to get my business started. I've already sold some batches to my friends and they've loved them.
• Rare - It's not that hard to make friends at the gym. Usually people that you grow up with would go to the gym so it really isn't that hard to acquire.
• Imitable - It's easy to copy because you just need to make the effort to get to know people in the gym.
• Non-substitutable - You can substitute the people that you know at the gym by just having friends who are struggling with consuming enough calories on a day-to-day basis or are always hungry. 

5. The free time I have

• Valuable - The free time I have is crucial for me because allows me to make the Bulk Bites for people. Plus, the reason I'm making these snacks is to help people not waste their own free time to dedicate to making snacks. That way people can spend their free time on more beneficial activities and activities that align with their interests.
• Rare - Free time is definitely a rare resource because most people procrastinate and utilize their free time for less stressful activities such as taking naps or watching TV/Netflix. People don't want to use their free time to make these snacks.
• Imitable - It's easy to copy because we all have free time in the day. We just choose to coordinate activities in places throughout our day that take away from our free time.
• Non-substitutable - This resource is not substitutable. The only way to substitute free time is to use that time for some other activity.

6. Being a college student

• Valuable - College students would be a big part of my customer base because students don't always have the free time to make their own snacks. Furthermore, college students don't always get their needed calories making them almost always hungry. Also, since I am a college student, it allows me to connect easier with my main customers.
• Rare - I would say that being a college student is moderately rare because even though a lot of people want to go to college, some people feel that college isn't for them. Another reason may include that they don't have the money to go to college. 
• Imitable - Being a student is easy to copy if you feel that college is right for you and that you have the financials to allow you to take classes.
• Non-substitutable - Being a student can be substitutable by not being a college student.

7. Fair amount of money in bank account

• Valuable - It's valuable to have a good amount of money in my account because it allows me to contribute to my own business with personal funds if my parents are unable to supply financial capital. 
• Rare - I feel that this resource is moderately rare because you would have to have a money saving mindset. Not a lot of college students and people have this kind of mindset.
• Imitable - This is easy to copy if you restrict your unnecessary spending. 
• Non-substitutable - This can be substitutable with funds acquired by parents.

8. Openness to self-selection of ingredients

• Valuable - Gives people a uniqueness to the snacks that they are receiving. Allows for the product to be tailored to the customer's likeness.
• Rare - It's not too rare to find a company that'll tailor a product to your likeness. However, many companies that you buy from to get your snacks aren't open for changing a specific ingredient for just one person. Maybe, if they get feedback from a substantial amount of people, then they'll make a new product that has that change.
• Imitable - This is hard to copy because it would cost a lot of money for bigger companies to continually change what they put in their snacks.
• Non-substitutable - The only substitute for this may be to just make a general product and not make it tailored to customers. 

9. The product being made by hand (currently doing this)

• Valuable - Some people prefer that their product be homemade because they feel that the product is unique. Plus, I would save on having to buy a machine for making my product.
• Rare - It's hard to find companies that make their products by hand.
• Imitable - It's hard to copy because most of the companies that are supplying snacks are usually getting high amounts of orders where it would be inefficient to make their products by hand.
• Non-substitutable - Can be substituted with machines to make the process faster and easier, but it takes away from the uniqueness of the product.

10. Product made in bulk

• Valuable - Allows me to have time between orders because of the amount of time it'll take for each customer to go through a whole batch.
• Rare - It's rare to find a company that'll make 25 snacks for one order while also offering smaller orders at 10. Most companies want to make smaller amounts to have the customers keep coming and coming in a short amount of time.
• Imitable - It's easy to copy for other companies because they usually make large amounts of snacks, but sell in small packages. They feel that it's more profitable that way.
• Non-substitutable - I can substitute this by making the snacks in smaller amounts. However, that's why I also offer a 10 snack package instead of the 25 snack package.

Top Resource: Adam (supplement shop owner)

I feel that my top resource would have to be Adam because I would be able to make my Bulk Bites at a lower cost of supplies. This gives me a higher profit margin and helps me save money. If I buy my protein from Adam, it allows me to buy my protein in bulk instead of buying single packets of protein from my local supplement store. On top of that, I would get a discount on the protein I get from him making me pay 50% less than if I bought the same amount from say Vitamin Shoppe.