U of G entrepreneurship program gives

A spade card bottle opener that was previously for sale on Penta Beer Gadgets' Shopify store. CREDIT: PENTA BEER GADGETS

ELENI KOPSAFTIS

Online student businesses from U of G’s new management course flourished amid new virtual learning methods during the fall 2020 semester.

In August, the University announced a new entrepreneurship minor under the bachelor of commerce degree. According to a U of G news release, its purpose was to “bolster disciplines from across campus,” whether it be engineering or visual arts.

The entrepreneurship degree also introduced the new fundamentals of entrepreneurship course — a required, 0.5 credit, second-year class for those pursuing the minor.

The course description states that its students “will learn the theoretical concepts of entrepreneurship, use a variety of tools and framework to assess market opportunities and learn creative problem-solving techniques.”

Customer discovery, risk assessment, and ethics are emphasized as core concepts of this class.

Fundamentals of entrepreneurship, coded as MGMT*2500, was taught for the first time at U of G this past fall semester by Professor Felix Arndt who is also the John F. Wood Chair of Entrepreneurship in the department of management.

“All of our students who take the course are, by definition, entrepreneurs because they do have to run a shop,” said Arndt in a U of G news release.

“The business idea is totally theirs and they can come up with whatever they think will work.”

The course ran remotely and had 65 students registered out of its 100 student capacity.

Among them was Madison Koepke, who was chief content officer of the online beer product shop Penta Beer Gadgets (PBG).

Koepke is pursuing a bachelor of commerce under the leadership and organizational management degree. She was tasked with running PBG’s social media and marketing when she and her classmates created the shop for the fundamentals of entrepreneurship course.

“Operating an online store is not easy,” Koepke told The Ontarion. “As a team we had to learn the ins and outs of the Shopify stores and figure out how we would get our products from the website to the consumer. This meant along with making bottle openers we had to figure out outsourcing and who we would source our other products from, as well as drop shipping to find the best way to get the products to the consumers.”

Once the team got a handle on their business, Koepke said running the shop was just a matter of keeping up with orders, payments, advertisements, and new products.

Shopify is a Canadian software service company that facilitates website creation, and it’s what the PBG team and other MGMT*2500 students used to power their websites.

As part of their course requirements, the students in the fundamentals of entrepreneurship course were also responsible for applying course concepts to their operation.

“This course has taught me a lot about analyzing, marketing, and advertising. When opening our shop we really had to know our target audience to figure out the best way to reach them. We learned how important advertising was and which forms of it were most effective,” said Koepke.

PBG was inspired by university culture, so the team thought to make post-secondary students their target audience. Since one of the shoprunners had prior experience in making bottle openers, the idea to branch out into various beer gadgets for their business was “fitting.”

Their website carried various bottle opener designs, such as the key chain bottle opener, the wall mounted beer bottle opener, and a Thanos bottle opener inspired by the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Koepke stated that social media was a significant factor in running their shop successfully since the team was able to “utilize it and grow [the] shop without actually interacting with anyone” during COVID-19.

“Running a business at any time, let alone [during] a pandemic, is not an easy task,” said Koepke.

“We always wanted to be considerate to our target audience as we understand there is an extra financial burden many people are experiencing during these times. For this reason, we wanted to keep our products as cheap as we could to make them accessible.”

When it was created, PBG’s online store received over 300 visits from all around the world, including Canada, the United States, Ireland, and Hong Kong.

They ended up selling six orders, and all of the profits were donated to Movember, the global fundraising organization for men’s physical and mental health, which the PBG team was “happy to support.”

Koepke stated that “we want to express our gratitude to not only the MGMT*2500 fall 2020 class but also to all of our consumers for liking, sharing and buying our products. We appreciate all the support to our business and [the Movember cause]!”

PBG’s website is no longer running and the team has ceased operating the business. “Although

an amazing experience and opportunity, now that the assignment is over, we are each going our own way and focusing on our studies,” said Koepke.

As of Dec. 16, the fundamentals of entrepreneurship is open for registration for the winter 2021 semester. It will be taught via the distance education format by assistant management Professor Cris Bravo Monge.

So far, over 50 students have registered for the class.

Here are some of the other fall semester MGMT*2500 businesses, which continue to operate online as of Dec. 16:

Soft As Can Bee:  soft-as-can-bee. myshopify.com