Setting up a company requires a lot of ambition. Very, very ambitious! Many would like to found a start-up, their own company, their own company and independence. A few days ago I met with Swiss students from the University of Applied Sciences Zurich. 100 really smart students, two days time, Berlin Alexanderplatz. In my new lecture series, I was asked whether I could give a lecture on business, business start-ups, and the founding of companies with my experience as a kind of young Carsten Maschmeyer or Frank Thelen. Actually, in my lectures I rather talk about single topics, online marketing with focus on search engines, social media marketing with focus on influencer relations, content creation, many topics that ultimately all belong to business. However, starting a business is more than just a modern slogan. Setting up a company also means personnel management, satisfied employees, holidays, sockets, WLAN connections, setting up telephone systems, sometimes even shopping in the supermarket. Not every day every expert is on site and as a self-employed person you never have to take care of everything on your own. No one stands above you and says, do this, do that. You gotta figure everything out, every single day. While others dream of holidays in the evening, you have the remittances at the end of the month in your head and the various transactions that you still have to complete so that the additional investments that are due are also covered. What’s the contract? Which e-mail should I formulate, so that I also come on a long-term basis?
That’s entrepreneurship! That’s starting a business! Before you have ten or twenty employees at your disposal, you have to take care of a lot yourself. That means responsibility, but also a lot of fun and experience. This is exactly what my lecture is about, honest words, business plans and international strategies. From A to Z.
Lecture: Start Ups and Business Start-Ups 2019
In our two-day workshop on the subject of setting up a company, all key facts were discussed for four hours. At the end of the presentation, which was one of my longest with over 100 slides, all students went into the group phase to think up, create, plan and finally present their own companies in front of everyone, like in a real pitch situation. Many of the young students of the Zurich University of Economics and Computer Science will experience pitches, because pitches do not only take place for investors, but also in the company ideas are constantly pitched or new projects.
What is a pitch?
Maybe you’ve seen the TV format Cave of the Lions before. Here you can see very well in a public setting how a pitch works. Investors or managing directors or department heads listen to the different ideas. On the basis of the large number of projects, one can weigh up and compare very well, but also evaluate which idea has the most potential. Depending on this, one person or the entire group decides for Project A or Project B. Investors are then invested in this idea and, if necessary, know-how and structure are made available. In companies, a project is implemented, if necessary the person then also becomes a manager, perhaps even the managing director of a spun-off subsidiary. Don’t count on anything, but always dream of the great! If you want to know more about pitches, you can find an article here:
Live Alexanderplatz Berlin from HSO School of Economics and Computer Science (Zurich, CH)
Twice a year we meet at Alexanderplatz in Berlin, high above the rooftops, to talk about startups and companies. With over two hours of lecture time, one hour of group work to train the entire pitch situation, the students get to know reality within a very short time. We try to convey a quick, comprehensive picture instead of discussing individual and individual points. The young students should learn directly from my experiences, in order to draw their own conclusions from them, in order to advance even faster.
My goal is to always pass on knowledge so that the next generation can do great things. Just as we had our role models, we must also be role models for the future. In all my lectures, I therefore always try to deal with issues such as employee satisfaction, the agency offices and the environment. Because the feel-good factor also plays a role in a company. Of course it is 90% work and only 10% should go into such thoughts, but to every good company belongs a Christmas party!
With exactly this mix of business plan, online marketing strategies, experiences from my business life, small inspiration and thought-provoking impulses like employee satisfaction, I try to introduce the students realistically to the topic of self-employment and entrepreneurship, so that they would survive directly in everyday life. That’s why I’m very pleased to be working with the Zurich University of Economics and Computer Science. The students are very smart and always present very interesting concepts. One or the other is certainly realized, which you will notice in later conversations or in e-mails that come two or three weeks later with: “Hey, I’ve started!”. – Let’s do it!
For a small insight into the lecture I have here still a selection of individual slides, which we can show also here publicly. Let’s start with an overview of the topic of setting up a company.
Book now: Lectures on business start-ups and start-up strategies
Are you interested in an own workshop or lecture in your company or university? Write me an e-mail or give me a call, we are looking forward to your inquiry.
