My Venture's Unfair Advantage

1. I have a personal relationship with a lot of my customers

This is super valuable, because the relationships I have with others cannot be duplicated by anyone else. I guess relationships are not rare, but the kind of relationship I have with all of these ladies is rare because they knew me growing up basically. With that, it’s hard to duplicate unless you go back 19 years and you can’t substitute it with anything else.

2. I’m good at evaluating feedback we receive and doing research on how to make this better

A core value of a lot of business is taking feedback and applying it to their product. Because of this, it is valuable, but not rare. Lots of people have this skill, which is what makes their companies so great. Skills are hard to copy unless you have a lot of patience and time. This is probably substitutable by hiring someone with these skills or by running a piece of code through it and automatically evaluating it.

3. A patent on my product

Patents are valuable in that no one else can take this idea, but they are most certainly not rare. The very definition of a patent is that you can’t technically duplicate it and there is not really a substitute unless you want to lock the secrets in a box and guard it with your life.

4. Employees will be entrenched in the community, they can advertise product better

Since human connection is one of the main focal points of my business, this is valuable to me. There isn’t a good substitute for relationships, as previously mentioned. These are even more rare because my employees know people that I will never see in my life, but they have cut out the work for me by already forming relationships prior to this job. Again, you can’t really fake or duplicate weak or strong ties.

5. I’m good at coming at where other people (my customers) are coming from, which will help with customer service

Like a lot of human capital, you can find people who have this if someone else does not, which makes it both substitutable and not as rare. You can fake empathy, but there you can’t copy a trait or a skill. However, this is still a valuable, useful thing in a lot of businesses.

6. Partnering with local daycares who will use our product

Partners are valuable because the stretch of my product is increased. They are not rare, although they can be a challenge to obtain. There are many people out there who would be willing to endorse a product. This is incredibly easy to duplicate and substitute with some other business, like with a family-oriented restaurant instead of a daycare.

7. Employee benefits for those with families (daycare, paid paternity/maternity leave, can pay us to clean up after a party)

Valuing customers is a necessary part of any business, but services like paid paternity/maternity leave is what makes it rare since very few establishments are providing that. Benefits can be duplicated of course, but you have to find a way to make your employees happy or else they’ll quit, so there isn’t a substitute to my knowledge.

8. Customizable dustpans

Everybody customizes what they can, so it’s not rare. However, I can make them stackable, wider, shorter, in complementary colors and even monogrammed, which is valuable to the one who’s paying for it to be done. Of course, anybody could take this and do it themselves, but it’s not really able to be replaced by anything else.

9. I have a different way of looking at things which will show up in the running of my business

Creativity is what drives many businesses to the top, which is to say it’s valuable and, in some ways, it is rare because my perspective isn’t a widely spread thing. Because of this, it is also not able to be duplicated or substitutable.

10. This will have an actual storefront because my demographic is still more comfortable shopping in person, although the option may open for shipping for those too busy to make it out of the house

Knowing my customers desires is valuable and what will suit them best, but it is certainly not rare. Storefronts are easily duplicated, but in this case, they are not substitutable for something online because it’s not parents of this generation’s cup of tea to shop for certain things online.

After conducting this analysis, I still think that my first resource (personal relationships with a lot of my clientele) is my strongest. Part of what makes my company unique is the fact that this will be marketed by moms and other caretakers, not by some ad or impersonal confrontation. Without the relationships I have currently, there’s no way I’d be able to get this off of the ground or have support to keep the ball rolling. It met all four of the VRIN analysis requirements and it will help me establish my credibility.