I always tell students that the best time to start a business is when they are in school and I have my reasons. The most important reason why you should consider starting your business while studying in school is that you do not quite have many financial responsibilities at that time.
A business startup requires you to have an alternate source of income so that you don’t depend so much on the profits made from it. That way, you can reinvest the profits into the business until it is well-established. While in school, you can get financial assistance for your upkeep from family and friends.
While other positive reasons for starting a business while studying in school exist, starting a business while undergoing academic rigors can be a formidable challenge, particularly for students who already face a heavy curriculum.
Despite the challenges associated with starting a business while studying, the benefits outweigh the risks. Being a ‘business student’ allows you to learn and develop your business acumen at a young age. It affords you the time to establish something worthwhile before or shortly after you graduate.
With determination, meticulous planning, and leveraging the inherent advantages of doing business while in school, you can efficiently wear the double hats of being a student and an entrepreneur. This guide will show you how to start and run your business without compromising your academic goals in school.
Benefits of Starting a Business In School
As mentioned earlier, being a business student presents you with many advantages. Immersed in an environment fostering knowledge, with a treasure trove of resources and a vibrant network of industry connections, students stand on a launchpad for great entrepreneurial success.
Here are the major benefits of starting a business while studying in school explored.
1. Early opportunities
Starting a business early enough gives you the opportunity to understand more about the business landscape than other people. There are some big business lessons I learned when I was in school. I failed several times and I keep learning.
You also have an early opportunity to connect with great minds, many of whom will be great business, political, and intellectual leaders of tomorrow. These connections are invaluable for any business success.
2. Priming you for the real-world experience
School is not only supposed to teach you book knowledge and theories but also be a place where you learn about other aspects of life, like business, relationships, general health, and well-being, and developing soft and hard hand skills and craft.
Students who enter school with the sole purpose of obtaining a certificate and nothing else end up being mediocre adults, or may realize late when they are learning the harder way.
Starting a business in tandem with your academic pursuits allows you to juxtapose your theoretical knowledge with real-world applications in real-time. It also teaches you that life requires you to balance every aspect of itself without compromising any.
3. Building a professional network
The teeming population of other students gives you a good starting community to influence in your entrepreneurial journey.
Active engagement in business operations and ventures while on campus facilitates interactions with industry stalwarts, potential investors, and experienced mentors. This early exposure can be instrumental in shaping one’s entrepreneurial journey.
Moreover, these connections can become cornerstones when seeking business opportunities, partnerships, or even employment in the future.
4. Lesser financial strain
This, to me, is one of the most important reasons you need to start your business alongside your studies. As a student, you are entitled to some financial packages from friends and family, for your upkeep, pocket money, and school fees. This can reduce the financial strain on your new business until it is big enough to stand independently.
How to Start Your Business While Studying In School
Starting a business while in school is not so much different from starting a business elsewhere. You just need to have the mindset of being able to combine business with academics and be determined to pay the sacrifices and balance everything on your table.
In this section, we explore the steps to starting a business while incorporating the special situations of doing so while studying in school.
1. Validate your business idea
Every business venture begins with an idea that can materialize into a successful business or business. But not all ideas translate into success; some were never born, others were not viable.
It is crucial to think deeply about the potential of your brainchild as you plan to invest your time and resources. How feasible is your business idea, and what do you need to make it succeed?
Engaging in thorough market research, demographic study, and seeking feedback can help you refine your idea and see what you need to make it succeed.
Seek to understand the needs of your immediate business community and provide solutions to them. Leverage tools like surveys, focus group discussions, or pilot surveys to acquire insights into the viability of your business concept and what you need to make it work.
Validating your business idea is not all about trying to see reasons not to go on with your business idea. It is about trying to find ways to make it work. Remember, no business idea is too big to become successful.
2. Draft a business plan
I have once talked about the benefits of drafting a business plan for your new business. A detailed business plan is a quintessential roadmap for every entrepreneur. It outlines the vision, goals, strategies, and financial contours of the entrepreneur and his venture.
A business plan also serves as a reference point, providing clarity and direction to the business student. This can make it easier for the student to handle the business simultaneously with his academics while achieving success in both.
Furthermore, as already mentioned, a well-articulated business plan can be pivotal when seeking investments and partnerships. Ensure that it encompasses your market analysis, marketing and sales strategies, operational plans, a clear value proposition, and financial projections.
3. Seek mentorship
The realm of business is very vast and requires intricate wisdom and guidance. Even if you were studying business administration or any other business-related course in school, that academic knowledge is not all you need to succeed in business.
Any student can venture into business and be successful at it. Even as a medical student, I started a couple of businesses while in school.
Academic curriculums only offer insights into the real world, real-world challenges require experiential wisdom which you can get via mentorship. This is why you need to follow and seek guidance from seasoned professionals who can guide you on how to succeed in your business venture.
Finding a physical mentor and teacher whom you can meet for specific questions is not so hard when you are in school. Some of your teachers who are also interested in business can offer to guide you through.
But you don’t necessarily need to have a physical mentor, particularly if that is seemingly hard. You can have a distant mentor whom you have not met but who is successful in his/her entrepreneurial journey. For example, here are some valuable business lessons from some African business leaders you can follow.
4. Manage your time
The beautiful thing about starting a business while in school is that it trains you about balancing your life in the future as well. Life is multidimensional. You need to learn to balance your business, family life, personal well-being, spirituality, relationships, and other aspects of your life simultaneously.
To be able to succeed in both academics and entrepreneurship, you need to craft a meticulous schedule, set priorities, and utilize productivity tools to make the work easier for you. For example, you need to know when to switch to your academic work and when to resume business activities every time and every day.
Also, leveraging productivity tools can help you better manage your time. For example, you might consider seeking external assistance like a website to buy essays online when you are overwhelmed with work and academics. Leveraging such resources can provide the necessary balance and support as you navigate your dual roles of student and entrepreneur.
5. Manage your money
Managing your money is another valuable step to being a successful business student. You need to avoid wasteful spending of your business money and learn to account for all your money spent and received in your business.
Of important note is the fact that your business money is not your money. If you need to use a part of it, make sure you have a backup plan to pay back the money you used. It is not your money, it’s your business money.
Common Challenges and Keys to Be Successful
No entrepreneurial journey is without hurdles and challenges. Being a business student is no exception. However, with the right knowledge (some of which I have already talked about in this post), you can transform those challenges into opportunities for business growth.
To be successful, you need to sustain your resilience, and perseverance, and adopt strategic interventions. Here are some challenges to look out for and key ways to overcome them and become successful as a business student.
1. Financial constraints
Given that most students operate on stringent budgets, financial constraints can often stymie entrepreneurial ambitions. It is not easy to cater both to your personal and your business’s financial needs.
Exploring diverse funding avenues becomes imperative, and thankfully, there are numerous avenues to garner funds. These include seeking grants, participating in business plan competitions, and exploring crowdfunding platforms.
Self-funding or bootstrapping can be a viable option for many students, especially in the initial phases of the business.
2. Lack of experience
When employers ask for many years of experience before giving one a job, they forget that experience begins somewhere. You might not have all the experience you need to start your business while in school but you can build it from there.
Being a novice in the business landscape can be both exhilarating and daunting. The enthusiasm to venture into uncharted territories can be the exhilarating part, while the pitfalls of inexperience can make the journey so hard and unpleasant.
To mitigate that, surround yourself with people who have some helpful knowledge to share.
It might not be easy to establish a team at the early phase of your venture as a business student, but if you do have one, ensure members of your team are knowledgeable and diversely gifted to be able to turn every setback into a learning opportunity and stepping stone towards future successes.
3. Discouragement and problem with staying passionate
Pursuing entrepreneurship while in school demands an unwavering commitment and passion to succeed. You might see a lot of discouragement from other experiences related to your studies, alongside some unexpected occurrences related to your business. This double hit can make you lose your passion if you are not determined enough.
The initial phases of starting a business in school can be fraught with challenges but an undying passion fuels your perseverance. To succeed, you need to hold onto your passion and core vision for the business, while also being diligent in your studies.
4. Dynamic information
The business landscape is ever-dynamic, with constant shifts and evolutions in the information required to succeed at a point in time. This requires the business student to keep up with the new knowledge and information obtainable in his/her area of business.
First, the student should have an insatiable thirst for knowledge and a proactive learning approach in his/her entrepreneurship journey. To stay updated, you might need to subscribe to industry journals and attend webinars and workshops.
Student entrepreneurs who want to continue learning and simultaneously focus on building their businesses can look to augment some of their academic responsibilities and make more time for more important academic and business responsibilities.
Again, you can learn about how to buy an essay at marketbusinessnews.com. This way, they can balance their academic and entrepreneurial pursuits.
5. Tight schedules
Tight schedules in school can make doing business in school extremely difficult. This can affect how much you put into your business, academics, and into building active business networks.
You need to plan your time effectively and more importantly, follow your inner clocks that tell you to stop and do something else. Many business students are unable to balance their business-academics life because they fail to listen to their body when it tells them to make a switch.
In business, networks transcend net worth. In other words, your connections or network is more valuable than money. While tight schedules can make you not focus on networking, building robust relationships, fostering collaborations, and actively engaging with industry peers can unlock great business opportunities.
Conclusion
Starting your business while studying in school can be an arduous endeavor that requires the business student to be strongly audacious. Yet, with the right knowledge and adequate preparation, you can harness the extraordinary opportunities to start your business while in school.
There are challenges but if you stay determined, you can overcome them and succeed greatly in your entrepreneurial journey even after you graduate from school.
