Why College is the Best Time to be an Entrepreneur

Why College is the Best Time to be an Entrepreneur

College students; now is the best time to be an Entrepreneur. It’s easy to fall into that trap of thinking I’m a broke college student I don’t have money to start a business.

Or; I’m in college having fun, they’ll be plenty of time to make money later. Or, maybe being an Entrepreneur just has never crossed your mind.

Sure maybe you throw an after hours keg party and charge five bucks a cup. Is this Entrepreneurial? I suppose so, heck it’s how I paid my rent through college, but this isn’t what I’m talking about. College is the perfect time to start an actual business.

College is the best time to be an Entrepreneur for a variety of reasons. In this article we’ll explore why college is an ideal time to be an Entrepreneur. I’ll also provide you with a few ideas of low start up cost businesses you can start as a college student in a series of future articles, so check back soon.

Were getting ready to release a series of articles about businesses you can start as a college student. This is the kickoff, and were letting you know why now is the time to be an Entrepreneur.

Friends...

Never again in your life will you have as many close friends, acquaintances, and as large a social circle as you do now. Friends can be a great tool when starting your business.

If you were to start a business, let’s just say a dry cleaners for example. Providing your in the area and provide a good service at a fair price your friends, family, and neighbors will most likely use you for their dry cleaning to help support you and your new business.

You have the ability to do this same thing as a college Entrepreneur. You probably have a large circle of friends. In addition to this you also have probably at least 4 classes per week all with anywhere from 30-200 other kids in each class. This on top of all the people you know casually from parties, intramural sports, bars, etc.

Use this large social circle you have to your benefit. After college friends will move away, get serious about their careers, get girlfriends, wives, and have kids. It’s amazing how quickly you’ll lose touch with many of them. While you have this large social circle and college community leverage it to your advantage.

Time...

Again, never again in your life will you have as much time on your hands as you do now. The one thing I always loved about college was the lack of responsibility and the amount of leisure time I had.

At many larger colleges attendance policies don’t exist. Countless times myself and a few buddies would just up and decide to drive down to New Orleans for a few days or head home for a few days to visit friends.

Instead of using all this free time you have to slack off why not use it to start a business?

Energy...

Again, as a college student your young and full of energy and enthusiasm. Never again will you have so much energy and enthusiasm to throw yourself into a business.

Risk...

These college businesses I’m proposing you start are generally low start up cost and don’t take a whole lot to get going so there’s not going to be a whole lot of risk.

That said you do have a ton of time on your hands in college. Later in life in order to give your full attention to a potential business you may have to take a huge risk and quit your 9-5 job. Now is a great time to start a business without all that added risk of the business being your sole source of income.

College is likely the only time in your life you’ll have the time to start up a business and devote a lot of attention to it without putting other parts of your life on the backburner.

GIANT Target Market...

The college I attended was in a town of about 10,000 people. College students easily outnumbered year round residents during the school year which gave the town and day to day life a surreal feel to it.

Most people in your college are probably relatively close to you in age, are attending college, and probably have somewhat similar interests. Your pretty much surrounded by depending upon the size of your college up to 50,000 people just like you.

When again will you have an opportunity to have such a huge target market right at your doorstep?

Community Support...

 In college not only do you have the support of your friends and classmates but you also have business professors. Professors can be a valuable tool in helping you start your business.

I took an Entrepreneurship class in college. Our sole project for the semester was creating a business and running it. Our professor had a lot of good business connections and helped many of the students.

One girl in my class, her business was photography and greeting cards. Our professor helped her find a printer and get her cards sold in a local bookstore. Another student in my class made a board game. Our professor got the school to donate 50K to do market research on the game and have it made. It’s now being used as a teaching tool at schools across the country.

These are just a few examples of how you can use your professors knowledge to help you start your business. As a college student you also often will have access to things at your college to help you run your business be it high tech expensive video cameras, empty classrooms, libraries, etc.

Unique Time and Place...

This is going to be a hard thing to describe to you without talking about a specific business idea. One of the businesses were going to be suggesting is a Take Out Taxi type business.

This business would basically be a delivery business. You could deliver food from restaurants that don’t deliver. You could also deliver groceries, beer, and cigarettes.

Back home a business like this may be tough to run. There’s probably not that much demand and most likely your city back home is pretty spread out meaning your deliveries will take more time and gas which cut into your profits.

In college however your in a unique atmosphere where a business like this could work. Your probably in a small town meaning everything is a close drive. College students also often don’t have cars so if you have a car or bike you can use this to provide a service to your fellow students and make some money for yourself.

The unique aspects of college life and college towns may lend themselves to making a business idea of your successful that may otherwise not work at home or in other places.

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As I mentioned earlier. Were getting ready to roll out a series of articles about college Entrepreneurs. We’ll give you some ideas of potential low start up costs businesses you can run and how to go about running them. Check back in the near future for this series of articles.

Any thoughts you have on this article? Are you currently a college student running your own business? We’d love to hear about it, and are always open to having guest bloggers. 

This will give you a chance to both talk about your business and give others advice who want to start theirs. It’s also an opportunity to get a free plug here. 

Shoot me an e-mail or comment below if your interested in becoming a guest blogger here.