While attending Louisiana State University in the mid-1990s, Todd Graves wrote a business plan for a fast-food restaurant that sold only fried chicken tenders.
Click here to read the story at businessinsider.com.
Discussion Questions:
- What is entrepreneurship?
- What is a business plan?
- Why is a business plan important to a startup?
- What is perseverance?
- Why do you think perseverance is an important characteristic for any aspiring entrepreneur?
- What can you learn about perseverance as it relates to starting a business from this news story?
- What is financing?
- Why is it important to a new business?
- What are some of the different ways a startup can generate funding?
- How did Todd Graves find the funding to start Raising Cane’s?
- How did he come up with the name Raising Cane’s?
- Do you think the name of the business is important? Why or why not?
- Why is it important for a business or brand to have fans?
- How might that demonstrate brand loyalty?
- What are fans of Raising Cane’s called?
- Why do you think the company is so secretive about the recipe for Cane’s Sauce? Could that have anything to do with marketing?
- Why do you think Raising Cane’s is one of the fastest growing fast food chains?
- Do you think there is a risk associated with growing too fast? Why or why not?
- Based on what you learned from this news story, has social media had any impact on the success of Raising Cane’s? Why or why not?
- Why is leadership important to the success of a business?
- What does the fact that Graves gave up his salary during the pandemic to save jobs say about his leadership?
