ENT Blog Emilia Gschossmann

Source: https://www.shutterstock.com/search/all+done 1) For me the course had a completely new structure which I never experienced before at my home university. It felt weird to create a blog, doing blog posts and knowing that I am responsible by myself for what I get out of this class. Sometimes I was really motivated and did several blog posts on one day, sometimes I procrastinated and did not want to think about the next interviews I had to conduct. Thus, learning how to motivate me to get all the assignments done will be one of the main takeaways of this class. 2) I think that I did not really develop an entrepreneurial mindset during this class. Although I enjoyed learning so much about entrepreneurs, their mindset and decisions, I doubt that I will be one by myself soon. Furthermore, being willing to take more risks or having better ideas cannot be learned in an electronic platform course. But all the assignments learned me one thing for sure: to be more comfort...

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...

In the following I want to point out all the resources my venture has so far: 1) Passion for food - Valuable: Having a passion for food is valuable when opening up a vegetarian fast-food restaurant because it allows me to produce high-quality food and not low-cost/low-effort food as most ordinary fast-food restaurants do. You need a passion for what you do, otherwise, you won’t do it well. - Rare: This resource is rare because not everyone has a passion for food. Others have a passion for cars, finance, etc. - Inimitable: Passion is very hard to copy. If you don’t have it, you will most likely not develop it. - Non-substitutable: Passion is non-substitutable, if you don’t have it you might do your work just for money. And then your results will definitely be not the same. 2) Endurance - Valuable: Nothing is perfect from the beginning. Thus, it takes hard work and endurance to improve it until you’re satisfied with the result. - Rare: Not everyone shows endurance, most o...

Below you can find my third attempt to record an elevator pitch promoting my business idea of a vegetarian fast-food truck. Reflection: I got a lot of positive feedback for my last pitch regarding the facts I mentioned about vegetarianism. That is why I kept the content of my pitch kind of the same. One aspect that I was recommended to change, is the light. That's why I lightened up the room this time. Basically, that is the only thing I changed from the second to the third elevator pitch.

I selected “Thinking fast and slow” by Daniel Kahneman for my second reading reflection. 1) General theme/argument of the book The book investigates how our brain works and comes up with a theory about two systems: one automatic and impulsive system (system 1) and one very conscious and considerate system (system 2). While system 1 is a remnant from our past and crucial to our survival, system 2 is a rather recently “added” to our brain. Kahneman found out that our brain works according to the law of least effort, which means that our brain uses the minimum amount of energy for each task. Therefore, our brain does not use system 2 if it thinks that system 1 can make the decision too. This leads to serious mistakes and errors sometimes. 2) Link to ENT3003 I think the book “Thinking fast and slow” and the class “Principles of Entrepreneurship” match perfectly together. As we learned during the course, entrepreneurs need to exploit opportunities. The book showed me how many e...

1) Anna Müller is the owner of a restaurant in Germany. She fills the slot of being a domain expert because she serves food as I do in my business. I found the person with the help of my parents, who know her very well and thus could easily connect us. Anna did the favor of telling me how it really is to work in a restaurant and to cook all day long. She told me about the advantages and disadvantages and what I can expect from the work. The contact with Anna will help to the extent that I will always have someone who I can go to when I have a question regarding my fast-food business. 2) Luis Gallagher is an employee in the marketing area of a major fast-food chain. I got in contact with him on Heavener Business Week and asked him if he had time for a few questions regarding my business. He fills the slot of the market expert, because he knows everything about the customers of fast-food restaurants, what their preferences and characteristics are. Luis Gallagher did me the favor of an...