ENT Blog Emilia Gschossmann

1) Venture concept Opportunity First, I would like to explain the opportunity my venture concept tries to exploit. Nowadays many people have a special diet, from glutenfree to vegetarian and vegan. The trend for those special diets is increasing. Around 4% of all Americans have a vegetarian diet, and nearly 50% of all Millennials say, that they eat vegetarian. A lot of those young people cannot stick to their diet when eating outside. Especially fast-food restaurants have very little to no vegetarian alternatives on their menu. Thus, customers have to eat meals with meat instead of a vegetarian dinner, or they have to go for the side dishes, e.g. side salads or fries. The market for vegetarian fast-food restaurants is limited to regions where many young and open-minded people life, i.e. cities or colleges. In those regions, a vegetarian fast-food restaurant would find enough customers to flourish. Since having special diets is a trend, the “window of opportunity” is not open forev...

1)  I don't want to sell my business in the next years. I want to employ more staff so that I can deal with the managerial aspects of the business rather than the operational aspects. Furthermore, I would like to expand.  2) Only when I achieved my goals and developed my business to a flourishing restaurant chain, I would be willing to exit and sell the business. Otherwise, it would give me the feeling of having failed. 3) My exit strategy has influenced my growth intentions for sure. If I would like to sell my business immediately, I would not need to think about growth opportunities that much. Furthermore, I would not invest that much into resources when I would sell my business soon, because I could not take advantage of the assets anymore. The outlook of selling my business soon would demotivate me, and I would not be willing to invest that much time and energy into my business anymore.

I chose “Grinding it out: The making of McDonald’s” by Ray Kroc for my third and last reading reflection. Part 1) The aspect that surprised me the most is that Ray Croc is so convinced of the fact, that you can achieve everything you want with endurance and hard work. That is also the aspect I admire the most about him. He did not have a lot of success the most time of his career, but he never gave up. And one day, he had this brilliant idea about teaming up with the McDonald’s brothers, and he put so much time and energy into this idea, that it got one of the most popular companies on earth. The one aspect I admire least about Ray Kroc is that he is known for not treating his employees very well. Part 2) Ray Kroc exhibited a huuuge portion of endurance. He sold paper cups and mixers until he was 52 years and he never gave up when he had a new business idea. Part 3) Confusing for me was, why Ray Kroc worked for a paper cup and mixer seller for such a long time. The way how...

1) I failed this semester in a few different ways: I was sick very often, but I don't know why. Maybe it' because the germs here in the US are different to the ones in Germany. Maybe it's due to the A/C s here in the US. That I was sick so often has lead to the fact that I couldn't do sports as much as I would have liked to. That is why I think I failed in my sports plans. I failed in my plans of staying in contact with everyone at home. During the exchange semester, you get to know so many new people and make so many new friends, that it is really hard to stay in contact with everyone at home. At least I managed to talk to my best friends regularly, and I hope that the others will forgive me and I can catch-up with them when I am back home again. 2) I learned to accept that you can't always meet your goals and that you have to adjust your plans based on situations. E.g., I couldn't do any sports when I was sick. When I did sports, it made everything worse...

Existing market 1) I think what's next for my business regarding products and services might be new meals, desserts, and appetizers on the menu (e.g., vegan apple pie). 2) In my interviews, the three customers told me that they would prefer having a fixed menu and certain dishes that change from day to day. Furthermore, they recommended me to introduce a lunch special, so that more students and UF employees would come to my food truck for lunchtime. Additionally, the interviewees want me to introduce ice cream and milkshakes to my menu. When I told them about my idea of adding more desserts and appetizers to the menu, they liked it and encouraged me to pursue this idea. 3) I think for my business it is most valuable to have a variety of meals that appeal to the broad mass. Therefore, introducing a fixed menu and a daily menu with changing dishes might be a good idea. New market 1) A different market where I could expand into would be the ordinary restaurant business. E...

Opportunity First, I would like to explain the opportunity my venture concept tries to exploit. Nowadays many people have a special diet, from glutenfree to vegetarian and vegan. The trend for those special diets is increasing. Around 4% of all Americans have a vegetarian diet, and nearly 50% of all Millennials say, that they eat vegetarian. A lot of those young people cannot stick to their diet when eating outside. Especially fast-food restaurants have very little to no vegetarian alternatives on their menu. Thus, customers have to eat meals with meat instead of a vegetarian dinner, or they have to go for the side dishes, e.g. side salads or fries. The market for vegetarian fast-food restaurants is limited to regions where many young and open-minded people life, i.e. cities or colleges. In those regions, a vegetarian fast-food restaurant would find enough customers to flourish. Since having special diets is a trend, the “window of opportunity” is not open forever, but I think openi...