23 A- Your Venture's Unfair Advantage

• My Resources:
1. Customer service experience
• Valuable- Being able to confidently connect with guests/customers gives a competitive advantage, as guests value their overall experience when evaluating a company.
• Rare- I have over five years of customer service experience, so I have a vast/rare knowledge of on the spot problem solving.
• Imitable- Everyone's specific experience in customer service is different and not imitable.
• Non-substitutable- You can always hire someone with more customer service experience as a substitute, but I think it is best for the lead to possess the most.
2. Financial advisory connections
• Valuable- I essentially have unlimited access to a financial advisor because my family has along history of the business.
• Rare- It is rare to have such close connections to financial advisors.
• Imitable- No, this is not imitable because my dad, grandpa, and uncle are all financial advisors.
• Non-substitutable- A substitute could be contacting a different financial advisor or trying to do it on my own.
3. Prior work in sales
• Valuable- It is important to know how to sell to people and help them solve their problems.
• Rare- My sales knowledge is rare because I took two sales classes, have done sales-focused projects, and have worked in the field for an internship.
• Imitable- It is rather hard to copy someone's personal sales experience.
• Non-substitutable- It is substitutable, because you can hire people with sales experience.
4. Executive retail experience
• Valuable- Yes, because a leadership in retail is vastly different than just working in retail; you learn much about how to run a billion dollar store, manage over 50 people, and the logistics side. All of this is very valuable.
• Rare- This is rare because the specific experience I had only has 4 out of 150 employees as executive. It is a very selective process.
• Imitable- It is hard to copy because, as mentioned before, an executive leadership position is hard to come by.
• Non-substitutable- Though there are similar resources that. can supply the same knowledge, the hands-on experience is hard to replicate.
5. Driven mindset
• Valuable- This is valuable because my drive makes it difficult to deter me when I face obstacles.
• Rare- I think it is rare to be driven, but many people who go to UF are very driven.
• Imitable- It is not very hard to have a driven mindset, in my opinion.
• Non-substitutable- I would not want to work with any individuals who are not driven. 
6. Strong ethics
• Valuable- Having ethics is the key to having longevity of a company.
• Rare- Everyone has ethics, but mine specifically are very strong in the work place, as I was raised to always do the right thing.
• Imitable- Though people can act like they have strong ethics, it really comes down to how true and genuine they are.
• Non-substitutable- There is no substitution for an individual with strong ethics; those with weak ethics will ultimately get caught, and fail.
7. Connections to retailers
• Valuable- Valuable because connections are everything.
• Rare- Yes, it is hard to get in contact with people who have power in retail, especially Target.
• Imitable- Nope.
• Non-substitutable- Yes, it is hard to have the same benefits. 
8. Strong analytical skills
• Valuable- Valuable because they are the hard skills that drive financial success. For example, logistics is all analytics.
• Rare- Rare because some people are very bad with numbers, while it is my strong suite.
• Imitable- Yes, can be imitated as most people at UF are very analytical.
• Non-substitutable- No, because a computer could replace the human knowledge with today's AI. 
9. Much experience working with others
• Valuable- It is valuable because there is not great business where one person did all the work.
• Rare- No, it is honestly pretty common.
• Imitable- It is very hard to copy cooperation if you do not possess it. 
• Non-substitutable- Working with others is non substitutable because you are never going to be able to avoid it, especially as a business man/woman.
10. Patience
• Valuable- Yes, patience is valuable because it means I do not get discouraged easily and can wait to reap the ultimate benefits. 
• Rare- With how much people value instant gratification, patience is very rare in the average person. 
• Imitable- No, you can not imitate patience. 
• Non-substitutable- You could substitute patience with grace, but other than that it is not substitutable. 
• My top resource is my financial advisory connections. My father is a financial advisor, so if I worked with him I would most likely not need to have the typical financial advisor relationship. I recognize this may come across as a privilege, but I would be a fool not to take advantage of this resource. IT is the most important resource because it would save me time, money, and ultimately help me make smart business decisions in the long run.