Of course, college can be tough: with all the things you need to manage, there is hard to find time for something else, including your relationship, hobbies, and job. Many students prefer to use helpful services like WritePaperFor.Me to cope with the great amount of homework they receive every day.
However, even with that huge workload, innovative students can come up with a great startup idea and implement it into life. Gone are the days when your biggest dream was a well-paid job in a good company. Now you can open your own business and never depend on someone else.
Top Recommendations on Starting a Business
The generation of millennials is the generation of entrepreneurs. In college, young people realize that getting a degree will not give them any guarantees of employment, so they need to start creating their future now. Have you heard about FedEx, Facebook, and Microsoft that all started in the college dorm?
While many successful businesses skyrocketed in college, the same amount, if not bigger, failed. Building your own business is great, but there are common barriers like educational debts and the lack of business management knowledge that can put your business at risk.
In this guide, we have prepared top expert recommendations that could have saved many college startups from falling apart. If you have not heard about it before, you probably don`t hear enough.
#1. Do the brainstorming
There are no bad ideas, so you should try everything at least once to see whether it may work out. Get some roomies in your team and discuss until something clicks. If you prefer to work alone first, create a private blog or just a standard Word document where you can store all the drafts and useful information. You should devote it lots of time, really. We don`t say you need to neglect your assignments, but all your free time has to be spent trying out your ideas, at least when you only start;
#2. Find the gap
If you are planning to develop a product or create a service, you have to understand whether it can work out. Your product can be cool and helpful, but it will mean nothing if nobody needs it. Luckily, due to the Internet capabilities, you can test the market need with simple surveys, forums, and social networks to see what people like and don`t like. This is a very important step before starting to actually do something;
#3. Take advantage of resources
Being a student is not a disadvantage when it comes to freely available resources you need for your business. For example, public Wi-Fi networks, unlimited access to the library and the ability to create a strong team attracting other talented students;
#4. Complete the courses
In addition to college studies, you need to have a deep understanding of entrepreneurship, principles of raising capital, leadership, finances, management, prototyping, innovations applying, strategies, marketing, and other things that can help you make your business successful. Investing in business courses, you are investing in your future;
#5. Find a mentor
If you know a person who also runs a business in the field close to the one you`ve chosen, he/she is successful, and you admire their style of business; you can try asking them to become your mentor. It will help you to achieve the required qualities and gain business skills while their professional advice is very valuable. Check with your college: many institutions have mentoring programs where students can learn from successful alumni;
#6. Become an intern
If you don`t have a mentor, it can be useful to see how the companies work from the inside. Take on internship (sometimes, multiple ones) to understand how the business is run, how the companies operate and get the ball rolling;
#7. Protect yourself
Once you have come up with a great startup idea, you need to make sure that nobody can steal it from you. You need to create a corporation or LLC to be the only owner of your intellectual property with all documents and patents on your brand. The sooner you do it, the better.
If you created a business with someone else, documents indicating what part of the business is yours would be very valuable once your startup becomes successful. Don`t give away too many shares otherwise even successful business will not make your rich;
#8. Raise smart
Websites like Kickstarter are great, but you need to be careful when raising money for your business. Experts advise asking for more than you actually need, but only if the total amount is not too high. If you are dealing with angel investors, in the majority of cases, you will have to give them a certain percentage of owning your business in exchange for money. Again, giving away too much is just useless as you won`t get any profit;
#9. Build an Internet presence
In the era of digitalization, having a blog, website, and accounts in popular social networks is a must for every business. You need to learn the main principles of SMM and other marketing types to attract users who can see your ads with the services you offer. Don`t post anything stupid not to scare off potential customers and target your audience, investors and just interesting people;
#10. Learn to negotiate
Besides talking to investors, you will need negotiation skills in plenty of everyday situations: to arrange a business meeting, to resolve a conflict, to make the best deal, to convince a customer, etc. You never get what you need easily, so you have to fight for it or at least agree to a compromise;
#11. Grow your network
Useful connections are the basis for your business. You can follow specific groups on Facebook close to your sphere; use LinkedIn to the fullest to meet interesting people who can bring value to your business. You should also attend different events and conferences to meet people and discuss your ideas.
Further reading: 3 Proven Strategies for Growing Your Network
When creating your business, you should focus not on yourself or your product, but the value it provides to the customers: only in this case, it can become successful. Show your customers how their life can become easier with the product or service you sell or how it solves their problem.
Don`t give up if you don`t become increasingly successful right away: doing business is tricky, and there is no universal solution to win. You need to constantly adapt to the changing demands and work on your skills to become a great entrepreneur one day.
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