Why it is Easier to be a Student Entrepreneur
Celine pointed out various aspects about being a student entrepreneur in her post titled the anatomy of the student entrepreneur. One quote in her post that stuck out in my mind was
“If being a professional businessman isn’t daunting enough, how much harder is it for student entrepreneurs?”
Personally, I look at being a student entrepreneur in a very different light. Although I am aware of how difficult it is to find time to work on your business amidst midterms, homework, and studying, I think that being a student entrepreneur is a lot easier than being a professional entrepreneur for several reasons.
1. No Pressure
Students have no pressure in their entrepreneurial ventures while still in school. Generally speaking, students don’t need to make money through entrepreneurial businesses because their living expenses can be covered by their summer job earnings and student loans. This greatly contrasts professional entrepreneurs. Professional entrepreneurs have real expenses that students have. These include most notably Insurance, rent/mortgage, and student loans.
So without the stress of making ends meet, being a student entrepreneur allows you to experiment and take risks that professional entrepreneurs cannot afford to take.
2. Free Summers
Simple, yet the second most important aspect of being a professional entrepreneur. Summers give student entrepreneurs time to devote to their business. Starting in a business doesn’t mean you can’t have a job as well. Personally, I both work a full time job in the summer and develop my online businesses. It does get fairly busy sometimes, but it’s very manageable because there is no pressure. Having flexible summers is something many people don’t have, and it should be taken advantage of.
3. Easily Accessible Market
Being a student at a university gives students a huge market that is easy to target, if he chooses to do so. This huge, ‘built in’ market is the student population at a university. Being a student at the nation’s second largest university, this is huge advantage students have. Sure, professional entrepreneurs can target college campuses and students, but in doing so, they do not have the marketing resources that students have. Whether posting fliers in dorms, or spreading viral Facebook events/Groups, students naturally have a very easily accessible market that is begging to be exploited.
4. Networking
As a student in a nationally ranked business school, I have more networking opportunities than I can handle. These come in several forms.
- Clubs - There are around ten excellent business clubs that are a great way to meet like minded people. Most notably, the entrepreneurial club is a good way to learn and meet people who you can partner with.
- Events - Atleast once a week, major fortune 500 companies hold networking/recruiting events for business students. These contacts can be invaluable to the student entrepreneur.
- Dorms - Living on campus in the residence halls lets you meet a very diverse group of students. Meeting as many people as possible can only be beneficial in the long run.
But to get back to my original claim, all of these advantages that students have give them an edge over the professional entrepreneur in many aspects. The only thing professional entrepreneurs really have over student entrepreneurs is time. So if you’re still on the fence as to whether starting your venture as a student, I say go for it. You have nothing to lose.
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I agree with the networking and free summers completely. However, I can’t say I’ll be free this summer because I need to take some credits for my practicum - and I can’t take it during the regular semesters. It’s true for most colleges here in the Philippines.
Coming from my own experience, I can’t say that “No Pressure” is something I agree with. That may be true for some people, but I come from a place where there’s no such thing as student loans, and that working/entrepreneurial students really NEED to make money to pay for their schooling and living expenses. The good part is we don’t need to pay for student loans later on in life
As for the easily accessible market, it depends on the business. For my baking/catering business, it works fine because sororities and fraternities are my market. For the web development and web content writing stuff, it’s a completely different ballgame.
So I guess it’s different for everyone everywhere. Opportunities and business models differ greatly all over the world and across different businesses. I was just speaking from my own experience and the experiences of people around me.