I do not know how to introduce this so I will just say it- college is the best time for starting up a business.
I was working on a guest post on balancing your college life with starting a new business and it hit me. I will say it again. College is the best time for starting up a business.
But why?
You need money in college
Starting a business may came as a hobby but it will most likely come out of necessity. Sometimes desperation drives innovation. We all know that many great businesses were started by college students working out of their parents garage. I will avoid the anecdotal advice and feel good stories today but I’m sure you guys know what I mean. College students need money. Starting up a business can be a significant source of income.
You have free time in college to start a business
We all would like to think that we are so busy that we have absolutely no time for anything. In that case how do most of us have time to catch every football game? How do we keep up with our favorite tv shows? Realistically the only time we are completely busy is right before an exam. I wrote all of my midterms and reports during the past 2 weeks. This week I have been focusing on my blog. The time is there. It’s just a matter of using this time better.
How can you improve your time management? Look no further than my time management tips to help you kick butt (sounds like I’m violent when I write these things but I’m not, I promise).
Your living conditions are ideal
Let me rephrase that- you live at home with your parents. If you moved away for college then this obviously doesn’t apply to you. Also I don’t mean to draw attention to college students because I’m sure many of you college graduates and young professionals are still living at home.
With a roof under your head how can you complain? You have no mortgage to stress about. All you have to stress about is having enough beer money for Friday night. Starting up a business is a lot easier when you don’t have the added stress of being responsible for a family and a mortgage.
Starting up a business has become increasingly easier
First of all I will steal a quote from Ramit- “Stop debating minutiae !” Seriously, I worried about the details of starting a blog for a few months. How would I host my site? How would I claim the income? Who would do the paperwork for me to setup an LLC? Do I even need an LLC?
Then one day I finally started writing blog posts. As I wrote posts I was still concerned about the server and all of those minor details.
On November 7th, 2008, I decided to it was time to pay the server costs and get my own domain name. Within hours the blog was running. The coffee change the blog earns didn’t come until many months later. Making that first move was the hardest part. The networking and connecting with other bloggers/readers can be very fun. Once I had the domain running, it was time to pump out content and try promoting it somehow.
Seriously, if you want to distribute your own t-shirts then just make the damn shirts! Draw up a unique design and get it on a shirt. Do not worry about the finance stuff because I doubt you are going to need to hire an accountant for the first few months while only your 4 closest buddies buy your shirts.
It’s really easy to worry about all of the minor details that come with starting a side business. In fact this is usually the greatest barrier to entry. Not the money or capital funding. It’s the psychological barrier of breaking through mainstream knowledge that suggests we should simply look for a job with someone else.
I will have more about earning money online and internet entrepreneurship for 20 somethings in an upcoming ebook project that I’m still working on. For now, I listed possible side businesses you can start in college when I wrote my ultimate financial survival guide.
Help from awesome Twitter followers
I threw out the question on why college is the best time for starting up a business on Twitter and received some great feedback.
@FourPillars: It’s all about the $$$.
@NoDebtPlan: Start with minimal capital and maximum time+energy. Failure is meaningless because you can always go get a job.
@amabiae: You have nothing to lose…and your entrepreneurial creativity isn’t burdened by as many mundane anchors.
@MoneyEnergy: You may be more motivated during college than at any later time & have the energy and fresh perspective to put into it.
Do you think college is the best time for starting up a business? Or do you believe that all of your time in college should be spent on studying?
photo: dow5
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Funny, I would never have had the confidence back in university. I was always raised with the secure-job mentality. Now I look on the concept of a job as a form of self-inflicted torture.
Zero opportunity costs cuz ya a’ight making much money is right! Except, watch out for over doing it and killing your grades in the process of course
Don’t be a hermit and pound away in your dorm room starting a business when you can meet tons of girls and folks who will help you in the “real world.”
@David. Some harsh words- “self inflicted torture.” Don’t think it’s that bad lol but yea I definitely think you could potentially be better off starting your own thing early on in life.
@FS. That’s what the weekends and spring break Cancun trips are for! I live like a hermit Monday to Friday but am known to have a beverage or two on the weekends.
Thanks for including my tweet! Great article, and great to be thinking about now. There are lots of really young entrepreneurs out there now – starting at ages 12, 15, 17 – you don’t even have to wait until you’re in college! All the new social media make it even easier to start something up and network, etc.
The most attractive feature of being in college, besides having lots of time is that fact that you can actually afford to experiment and screw up if things don’t work.
Say you live at home. You technically don’t have much or any financially responsibilities, so the you have almost no limits on what you can try, as a business.
Plus this is great to launch your career. Getting the theory from school and real world experience all at once.
This coming from me that graduated from school 2 years ago, once you are out of school you are practically out on your own. Even if you live at home, you gotta pay for living amongst other personal expenses that become your responsibility.
I completely agree with the concept in this article. College is the best time to start a business. I would add that starting a business can be very risky. I read somewhere that something like half of all businesses fail within 3 years of starting. What better time to do this than when you have little responsibilities and a higher appetite for risk?
In college you won’t have the responsibilities of paying all the bills and caring for a family. You will also have more time to recover if your business doesn’t do well. And if the business fails, you would have learned valuable lessons early on.
Great post!
I couldn’t agree with you more because when you don’t have the added pressure of a mortgage, kids, spouse, etc then you can devote a lot more time to ramping up your business.
Excellent advice; I only wish I had the concept of starting my own business on my radar when I was in college. So many bored afternoons I could have been setting the stage for financial success now…
I’d go so far as saying it’s dumb not to try things when you’re in college. The worst case scenario is learning something new and possibly adding a few skills and experiences to a resume.
Makes sense. I always tell my friends, “you have nothing to lose.” This is especially true for those of us that live at home. Get a life and stop complaining.
Nice blog ! I really appreciate the concept. Business should be started as early as we can, While we were in college it doesn’t feels good on asking money for our pocket from parents always. So, whatever business it is, whether big or small. It will help out a little bit and give a big hand while learning. Business also makes the times meaningful. There are many people who got lots of spare time in life and don’t know how to spent it.