My Unfair Advantage

Generate a list of all of the resources in your venture (produce a list of at least 10 resources that you already possess). This can include your human capital, social capital, financial capital, and capabilities. You may also discuss the organizational culture you intend to create (but, obviously, it's not a resource that you have, now.)

Location

Industry expertise

Innovative layout

Great customer service

Convenience

Existing building structure

Hard working owner

Guaranteed customer base/patronage

Technology implementation

Great employees

Conduct a "VRIN" analysis for each resource. That is, describe, for each resource, how it is valuable, rare, inimitable (how hard it is to copy by others), and non-substitutable (are there other resources that can provide the same benefits?).

Location

Valuable - Yes

Rare - No

Inimitable - Yes

Non-substitutable - Yes

From a real estate standpoint, this is a valuable area as it is zoned for commercial amidst mostly residential neighborhoods. 

Industry expertise

Valuable - Yes

Rare - No

Inimitable - No

Non-substitutable - No

Industry expertise is vital but at the same time there are consultants and specialists for every industry out there and their services can be sought after and their expert opinion provided for a fee. 

Innovative layout

Valuable - Yes

Rare - Yes

Inimitable - No

Non-substitutable - No

The layout for my business venture is a definite difference that can provide faster and more efficient service. 

Great customer service

Valuable - Yes

Rare - No

Inimitable - No

Non-substitutable - No

As far as gas station/convenience stores go, customer service is not a very highly implemented aspect and this is where we will try to differentiate ourselves. 

Convenience

Valuable - Yes

Rare - No

Inimitable - No

Non-substitutable - No 

Our store will be convenient in the forms of utility place and time.  We will be conveniently located so you won't have to go out of your way to obtain the goods/services we provide, and we also will be open until a later time to provide said goods/services. 

 Existing building structure

Valuable - Yes

Rare - No

Inimitable - No

Non-substitutable - No

There is a building at this location that used to be a bank that can certainly be re-purposed with some modifications, thus providing substantial savings over leveling the site, and then preparing it for its intended use. 

Hard working owner

Valuable - Yes

Rare - No

Inimitable - No

Non-substitutable - No

I would be the owner of this establishment and it would be my passion, my blood, my sweat and my tears that would be working in concert to ensure this venture succeeds.  This motivating factor is more than working for an established company where a paycheck is guaranteed as long as you show up and work for the day. 

Guaranteed customer base/patronage

Valuable - Yes

Rare - No

Inimitable - No

Non-substitutable - Yes

There is a large amount of students and technology workers/young families that work in the direct vicinity.  The glut of students ensures gas and sundries/goods will be bought and the burgeoning upper middle class in the area comprised of technology workers near UCF's Research Park Corporate Campus will go a long way to make the venture not only be sustainable, but also thrive. 

Technology implementation

Valuable - Yes

Rare - No

Inimitable - No

Non-substitutable - No

We would use large, easy to read tablets and card readers that customers would use to pay for their gas and other goods, thus preventing the tampering of automated debit cards and other methods used to steal people's credit/debit card info and wreak havoc on their finances and lives in general.  Not only that, we would ensure to implement a specific sequence of events that would make it quicker for our station concierge to gas up the customer's car and move on to the next customer without sacrificing customer service conscientiousness.

Great employees

Valuable - Yes

Rare - Yes

Inimitable - No

Non-substitutable - No

I would make sure to not only compensate my employees well but I would also be conscious of their needs in order to promote employee satisfaction.  This would be vital our corporate culture and we would treat each other well and with a lot of respect and camaraderie.  

After conducting the VRIN analysis, determine what your top resource is. Explain why it's more important to your venture than all of the other resources

I would say that my top resource would be my employees as we will need to make sure that they are a good fit and can do the job well and with a good balance and mixture of speed, friendliness, as well having the company's best interests in mind.  Good employees are hard to find and the most valuable capital or resource any company has is their people/employees.