Students, rushed by busy schedules or simply too lazy to prepare meals, often hit up restaurants along Commonwealth Avenue for quick and easy food. While most of these places are cheap, spending can quickly add up.’
Two Boston University students will provide discounts for many popular eateries around the campus through their Boston Student Card, which will launch Wednesday.’
School of Hospitality Administration junior Jonah Mandel and School of Management junior Josh Ganjei said they started work on their business this summer. Mandel said the idea came from a friend who attends the University of Michigan, where many students carry a discount card.’
‘He was wondering if anyone at BU sold a discount card,’ Mandel said. ‘I said, ‘You know, I’ve never seen one before.’ That was freshman year and I just never got it off the ground.’
Ganjei said the two knew owners at some of the restaurants, such as The Joint, and used them as a starting point to practice their pitches.
‘From there we started from the top of Comm. Ave. all the way down, to all the places people like to eat,’ he said.’
After writing up a binding contract for the businesses on the card, which includes laundry, hair-cutting and tanning services in addition to restaurants, Mandel and Ganjei said they went about the difficult task of convincing everyone to sign on.’
‘Most of our time has been spent on getting places to agree,’ Ganjei said.’
Mandel said they offered companies the opportunity to put their logos on the front of the card, which resulted in enough funds to cover the initial cost of printing cards and advertising flyers, a total of $1,150.
However, besides the front-card logos, no companies have paid to be on the card. While the discounts will result in less revenue per purchase, the increase in volume of customers will make up for it, Mandel said.
‘By offering a small discount, we are able to sell the card to kids,’ Ganjei said. ‘They’ll look at the card and have more incentive to go to that place. We’re bringing in groups who will essentially buy the most profitable thing on the menu.’
‘Plus, it’s free advertising,’ Mandel said.’
SMG assistant professor of strategy and innovation Jeffrey Furman said he thinks the Boston Student Card, and student business in general, can be profitable both in terms of monetary returns and valuable experience gained.
‘Certainly it’s a useful investment in the type of entrepreneurial experience that will be profitable in the long term,’ he said.’
In addition, he said, students have an advantage over professionals since the opportunity cost of their time is much lower while their initiative is often higher than that of full time professionals.
Gregory Collier, also an SMG professor, said he believes students posses a few strategic advantages when running a business.
‘First is a very precise understanding of their ‘millennial’ market,’ he said in an email. ‘Companies are hiring younger employees to help them understand the behavior of this demographic.’
Students are also often unrestrained by formalized boundaries on how business should be executed, leading to new models and structures, he said.
‘I am a strong advocate of students pursuing entrepreneurial endeavors,’ he said. ‘The current job market is extraordinarily depressed, but there are opportunities for those who can see where new value can be created in any business sector.”
Mandel and Ganjei will press their student advantage this week, hoping Parents’ Weekend will make up for missing the beginning of the semester, which both said would have been the most lucrative time to sell the card.’
‘We ordered 1,000 cards,’ Ganjei said. ‘We’ll see how that goes.’
They plan to continue with the card in the future, soliciting more selective discounts and replacing companies based on customer surveys.’
While free coupon books could be a potential threat to the business, the two said they are not worried because their card allows unlimited access to discounts and is more convenient.
‘Those discounts are really good,’ Ganjei said. ‘A lot of our ideas for discounts came from that book, but we don’t see anyone use them.” ‘
Some students said they would definitely purchase the discount card.’
‘I’m pretty bad about going out and getting groceries and I have a busy schedule so I tend to just grab things,’ College of Fine Arts senior Miles Martin said. ‘I know that’s probably one of my greatest expenses.’
However, others said they doubt students would pay for discounts.
‘To be honest, I think that students in general would not pay $20 for it,’ College of Arts and Sciences sophomore Tessa Bartholemew-Good said. ‘I think it’s really a good idea and it makes sense . . . but spending money on it wouldn’t appeal to most students.’
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