Student life is not just non-stop learning or, on the contrary, partying day and night. It’s a perfect time to gather your classmates, make them your teammates, take a little risk, and launch your first business. Start your own company before graduation – sounds excellent. However, building an enterprise at this age can be challenging, especially when you don’t have much experience.
That’s why we collected seven tips on planning your start-up when studying in college. These simple recommendations will help you avoid the most common mistakes of young entrepreneurs. So, you will save your time and money to invest in your own business.
Don’t Forget About Your College Duties
Many great business people started their companies in dorms (for instance, Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Berkowitz, and Michael Dell). Inspired by these cases, students sometimes forget about their college responsibilities. They focus on their start-up projects and miss their essay deadlines, fail exams, and, as a result, don’t finish their education.
Despite the number of examples when people who never graduated were able to build multi-billion-dollar companies (like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates), it’s always better to have a diploma. Graduates are more likely to be employed and have more earning potential.
Make your life easier. Use an online proofreading service to spend less time on academic duties so that you can build your business. It’s the professional help of well-educated editors who can make your papers much better. Be sure that everything is under control and you balance your educational and entrepreneur responsibilities.
Dedicate More Time to Planning
Planning is the base of every start-up. The more time you dedicate to planning now, the fewer problems you’ll get in the future. In this process, you should determine your goals and prioritize them according to your needs. Being a student, you must never forget how these goals match your school life and reconcile your activities. PaperWriter will help you get your homework done on time.
There are many free planner apps you can use for this reason, such as those outlined below.
- Friday: a perfect program for remote work. It also has a Google Chrome extension for your convenience.
- Todoist: a practical application where you can create tasks and subtasks, share them with your teammates, and check their work on the project.
- Notion: a program where everything is in one place. With the help of this app, you can organize all of your documents and collaborate with other team members.
Choose the Courses With the Most Practical Knowledge
Being a student and an entrepreneur at the same time can be very challenging. That’s why, before adding any course to your curriculum, try to think about how you can use this knowledge in your private project. Try to focus on learning not only within your major but also on developing some soft skills.
For example, take some communication courses and consider public relations or public speaking. These courses will help you be the best at pitches, so your start-up will win contests. Moreover, it is beneficial to choose some studies in economics and business. Even if your idea is genuine, you should know how to sell it.
Source: https://unsplash.com/photos/rxpThOwuVgE
Develop Networking Opportunities
To be successful in a business, you need connections. Luckily, when you are in college, it’s not a problem. Surround yourself with individuals interested in start-up topics; meet new people at parties or in the library. Don’t be too shy to tell them about what you are working on now. Maybe, a random person with whom you engage in small talk will later become your best project manager.
You should also check whether your college has alumni cooperation. These kinds of organizations are perfect for finding an investor. Because many successful people have sentiments for their alma mater, they would donate money to the project of their college student rather than to someone else.
Check Your Product on Your Classmates
College is also an excellent way to check some theories. Many people of approximately the same age, who have similar interests and needs, can be very representative when analyzing the market. Give your classmates the prototype of your product or service and ask how they like it. What would they improve? Are they ready to pay money for such a service?
These kinds of questions would give you an understanding of your audience’s needs. It’s a brilliant way to build a strategy that eliminates possible waste. Moreover, if the youngsters are your target, you can find your potential clients with such surveys. Facebook and Tinder started to grow decades ago with the same algorithm.
Remember About the Milestones
One of the most common mistakes of young entrepreneurs is forgetting about the milestones. They try to do everything at once, but they feel overwhelmed, burn out, and just quit their project. It’s better to improve time management: divide the project into parts (milestones) and finalize the results after each of them.
That’s how you would see how much work you still need to do and how much you already have done. It helps save motivation and meet deadlines. You can also use a small checklist every day.
Find Inspiration
Inspiration, as much as motivation, is essential in business. Read business books about successful cases, listen to thematic podcasts, or watch relevant YouTube videos. You should always see the positive results of others to believe in your success.
We would also recommend you find a coach or mentor who can guide you in the early stages of your start-up. You can use such services as Envelop or FledgeWing to find a person who will consult you about your entrepreneurship. People are glad to help newcomers, especially when you are a student who builds the company from scratch.
Conclusion
Creating a start-up is a unique way to build your own company with an idea but no money. In college, you have many opportunities to grow the audience, meet different professionals, and don’t pay much because you can find anything you need on campus. With these recommendations, you will make money even faster than you thought.
