The University of Toledo
09/30/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 09/30/2024 02:19
Business Sophomore Balances Lessons, Lemons as Food Truck Entrepreneur
Business Sophomore Balances Lessons, Lemons as Food Truck Entrepreneur
Anthony Rammuny is a student of business.
That's in the classroom through The University of Toledo's John B. and Lillian E. Neff College of Business and Innovation, where he's a pre-business sophomore who anticipates declaring a major in finance or marketing.
Anthony Rammuny, a pre-business sophomore, works a shift in his lemonade truck, the Squeeze, with his girlfriend Kaylee Szymanski, a radiation therapy sophomore. Rammuny has been operating the Squeeze since July 2023.
It's also in his food truck, the Squeeze, where he's been learning on the go with every order he's taken, lemonade he's served and credit card he's charged since July 2023.
And sometimes it's even both at once.
"If there's a lull between customers, I'll grind out a little homework in the truck," Rammuny said. "That's one perk of owning my own business."
Rammuny enrolled at UToledo in fall 2023 already committed to the Squeeze, which began with a business plan he drafted as a class assignment at Northview High School in Sylvania. With the support of his family and family friends already engaged with the local food truck scene, he finessed this exercise in startup costs and sales forecasts to bring his hypothetical food truck into a big, yellow, cartoon lemon-branded reality.
"My parents have helped me a lot, especially with getting off the ground while I was still in class," said Rammuny, crediting his father, Omar, and his mother, Janna; his younger brother Zaine is also a frequent co-worker at the Squeeze. "Ever since then we've just been growing and adjusting and learning."
The Squeeze was ready to roll right around the time Rammuny was graduating high school and considering his next steps. UToledo aligned with the young entrepreneur's goal to grow his fledging business, with its business college offerings and its proximity to the network of customers and contacts he'd begun to establish in northwest Ohio.
Rammuny has already applied some of the technical skills he's picked up in pre-requisite courses like Micro-Computer Applications in Business, which he credits with streamlining his bookkeeping for the Squeeze. And he's looking forward to learning readily applicable skills in this semester's courseload including Executive Communication Essentials.
"That's huge in the business world, networking, the way you talk to your customers and your employees," he said. "I'm only a few weeks in, but I think it has helped me."
UToledo offers numerous resources to support student entrepreneurs, including a slate of entrepreneurship classes aligned with its bachelor of business administration in entrepreneurship and innovation degree.
Anthony Rammuny credits his success with his lemonade truck, the Squeeze, to the support of his family. From left are Anthony Rammuny, his father, Omar, his brother, Zaine, his mother, Janna, and his sister, Riley.
There's the UToledo Business Incubator, which counts students among the regional clients it serves with a variety of networking events, entrepreneurial assistance programs and one-on-one advising sessions, and Rocket Innovations, which provides training, resources and investment to students, faculty and others through programs like the National Science Foundation Innovation Corps and the Rocket Innovations Venture Fund.
The UToledo Family Business Center is an outreach organization dedicated to providing resources and support for the regional family business community, focusing on the unique challenges and dynamics of owning a business. It connects the business community with the University through opportunities such as class speakers, case studies and research partnerships, giving students a firsthand look at entrepreneurship and the benefits of working for or owning a family business.
"UToledo is a good place to be an innovative thinker and an entrepreneur," said Norm Rapino, executive director of Rocket Innovations. "Beyond success in their classwork, if a student wants to start a business - or in this case is already a business owner by the time they step onto campus - we have lots of resources available to support them in achieving their goals."
Rammuny has balanced his dual roles as student and entrepreneur by carefully scheduling his semester courseloads with a combination of online and on-campus offerings, freeing him up to work an increasingly steady Squeeze schedule of community festivals, sporting events and lunch-hour engagements at local factories and businesses.
With several packed spring and summer months just behind him, he's now looking at a weekend-heavy schedule of events through the fall that include a new highlight this year: home football games at Glass Bowl Stadium.
"The home opener was really good to us," said Rammuny, who plans to be back when the Rockets take on Miami at 3:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 5. "I can't wait to see what next year looks like. I think next year will be even bigger and better."