On February 10, Dr. Galit Ben-Joseph, Clinical Assistant Professor of Management at YU’s Sy Syms School of Business, presented a business plan workshop to MTA students. Dr. Ben-Joseph also serves as an Executive Director and Financial Advisor at J.P. Morgan Securities. Prior to earning this title, she spent a total of 20 years working at Goldman, Sachs & Co., JP Morgan Chase, and Neuberger Berman. While the presentation was set up as part of the MTA LEAD entrepreneurship program, it was open to all students.

Dr. Ben-Joseph walked students through the fundamental steps involved in initiating and developing a business idea. As an example, a proposal to open a coffee shop on the Yeshiva University campus in Washington Heights was introduced. At first, opening such a shop seemed like a great and easy idea; however, once students took a closer look at the steps it would take to actualize this idea, they realized the tediousness of the project. This was the case because like most people, they didn’t think about the essential marketing, management, competition, and industry background before saying how great the idea is. After going through the list of pros and cons for the coffee shop proposal, students discovered that the problem wasn’t that it would be too expensive of an endeavor or too difficult to market, but that the profit per customer would be little to none. That said, Dr. Ben-Joseph personally thought that a coffee shop would succeed on the campus because of the high margins and the high expected number of daily customers.

The students understood from this program that it takes a tremendous amount of work and passion to be an entrepreneur, but that it is also definitely do-able if one is willing to put in the “blood, sweat, and tears” necessary to be successful.

By Ari Kimmelfeld