23A - Your Venture's Unfair Advantage

Assignment 23A – Your Venture’s Unfair Advantage

List of Resources in my Venture

1) Financial capital necessary to pursue this venture

Value- To pursue this venture, it is necessary to have the financial capital. Therefore, the fact that I do have the financial capital is valuable in starting up this venture.

Rarity- Having the necessary financial capital to pursue this venture is not very rare. It only will cost me about $100 to pursue this venture and most people have $100.

Imitability- The imitability of using financial capital to pursue this venture is very high. It is not very hard to imitate what I am doing.

Non-substitutability-It requires financial capital or to have access to the resources in another way to pursue this venture.



2) Outgoing personality, ability to socialize with clients while giving haircuts

Value- Me having this human capital is very valuable.

Rarity- Many people are outgoing and good at socializing, so this capital is not very rare.

Imitability- It is easy for most other people to act in this manner also.

Non-substitutability- There’s no substitute for being outgoing and social. You either are or you aren’t. If you are not outgoing and social, your services will be missing that part of the “experience.”



3) Ability to give fades that will pass regulations

Value- It is necessary to be able to do so to pursue this venture. My ability to give fades that will pass regulations is very valuable.

Rarity- Not a whole lot of people are able to give fades that will pass regulations, so my ability to do so is decently rare.

Imitability- It is not very difficult for someone to learn through YouTube and practice. The potential for imitability is high.

Non-substitutability- There is no substitute to giving in regulations fades other than having the ability to do so.



4) Work ethic to meet the large demand for my services and spend much of my time cutting hair rather than hanging out with friends or watching Netflix

Value- My work ethic is very valuable, as it will lead to my success in this entrepreneurial venture.

Rarity- This is a very rare quality. Not many people are willing to spend significant portions of their free time doing something like cutting hair, even if they are profiting from it.

Imitability- My work ethic is very hard to imitate. It would take most people a very long time to successfully obtain a work ethic similar to mine.

Non-substitutability-There is no substitutability for work ethic. Without work ethic, the demand for haircut services will not be met and profits will not be maximized.



5) Ability and willingness to receive feedback from my customers on how I can improve my services

Value- Their feedback will be valuable to how I continue to operate but will not be the sole difference between whether I succeed or fail in this venture.

Rarity- There is a medium-level of rarity to this ability/willingness of mine. Some but not all people are willing to receive such feedback.

Imitability- It is relatively easy to imitate this. All that one must do is start asking for feedback and act upon the results.

Non-substitutability-You can’t really substitute this ability/willingness; however, there wouldn’t be much need to substitute it in the first place.



6) Ability to provide my services in the convenience of my customers’ own barracks

Value- This is very valuable to my clients. As I learned in this interview, my clients were thrilled by the idea of not having to go out in town to get a haircut.

Rarity- Every person on this base has the same ability to cut hair in the convenience of my customers’ barracks. People off-base do not have this ability. I would say the rarity is at a medium-level.

Imitability- It would be easy for someone on base to imitate me in this.

Non-substitutability- There is no substitute for people off-base. Only military and other authorized personnel can get on base and are able to offer this convenience.



7) Friendships with many of my future customers

Value- These friendships are valuable. It will make my services much easier to market, since I have already established a level of rapport with my customers, whom are my friends.

Rarity- These friendships aren’t very rare. Everyone has their own friendships and the same opportunity regarding this aspect.

Imitability- Friendships are easy to make for most people. Therefore, others have the potential to make friendship and exploit those friendships in the same way that I will.

Non-substitutability- Other forms of relationships, such as professional/work relationships could substitute friendships. These other relationships would provide the same opportunity to increase a customer basis.



8) Ability to give low, medium, and high fades

Value- The value of my ability to give fades is approximately $40-50 here in Australia. I will only be charging $20.

Rarity- My ability to give these different fades is rare. Some people can give one or the other, but not many people can give any of the three.

Imitability- Anyone can learn how to give low, medium, and high fades so the potential for imitability is decently high.

Non-substitutability- The substitute for my ability to give low, medium, and high fades would be another person only offering one or two of those fades. The substitute would be less valuable than my ability to give all three fades.



9) Ability to give “parts” in my clients’ hair

Value- Giving “parts” only takes about two minutes and the value of these parts is low. I could maybe charge an extra couple of dollars; however, I will offer free “parts” with my services.

Rarity- The rarity of this ability is very low. Even many people, whom cannot give fades, are able to give parts.

Imitability- Potential for imitability is very high. Within a matter of minutes, almost anyone can learn how to give a part.

Non-substitutability- There is no substitute to this ability. A person either can or can’t give parts.



10) Flexibility of my schedule as to when I can give haircuts

Value- My schedule flexibility is very valuable. My customers will request haircuts at all times of the day and night. My ability to meet these requests is valuable. I can give haircuts at times that barbers out in town are not offering haircuts.

Rarity- The rarity of this flexibility is high. Very few people have a schedule as flexible as mine.

Imitability- This imitability is at a low-level. Not many people have a flexible enough schedule to imitate this. Most of those, who do have a flexible enough schedule, are not willing to imitate this.

Non-substitutability- There is no substitute for my flexibility of schedule as to when I can give haircuts. If a customer requests a haircut, I have a better flexibility of schedule as to when I can than do my customers.



Conclusion

After conducting the VRIN Analysis for all 10 resources, I have determined that my top resource is as follows:

4) My work ethic to meet the large demand for my services and spend much of my time cutting hair rather than hanging out with friends or watching Netflix

Although the other nine resources are wonderful resources to have, they all matter very little without work ethic. My work ethic will allow me to exploit this opportunity to the fullest and maximize on profits. My work ethic is very valuable, very rare, very hard to imitated, and there is no substitute for it.