If you want to become successful, you need to start working on reaching success right now. Today, you have no time for thinking and dreaming, you need to act if you want to be successful. While you are dreaming how to become rich and famous, any other student has already started his own business and got the experience that he will be able to use in further life. Of course, running a business still being a student sounds quite risky, but we will tell you 8 proven steps to becoming a successful student entrepreneur without facing the extra risks of losing money and getting lower grades at the university.
We have interviewed several students who have already started their businesses and combined the process of education with real experience. These students told us what challenges they’ve met and what was the most difficult for them so that we could write a guide that will be effective for all students who want to give running a business a try.
According to research, about 10% of all students start a business while studying at university. About 17% plan to start a business before they graduate from university. And 27% are sure that they will continue their business career after getting a diploma.
So, now let’s talk about how to become an entrepreneur while still studying at the university.
#1. Know your strong and weak points
To run a business successfully, you need to understand your strengths. Perhaps, you are good in time management, you have good knowledge of some field, or you have some special skill that may become a platform for your business. Use this information to create a basis and find out what exactly you will use for your success.
It is crucially important to understand your weak points before you start a business. When you get to know that in advance, you have time to fix those problems and perhaps even to turn them into your strong points. For example, if you have problems with time management, you need to start working on this problem now by creating schedules, developing plans, and following them.
#2. Create a good idea for your business
After you have determined your strong and weak points, you need to choose the industry of your business. Perhaps, you want to try yourself in selling your own goods or offering PR services for companies. Everything depends on your competence and your desires. You may also try yourself in different spheres just to choose the one that is most interesting for you.
When you have chosen your field, you need to create a detailed idea of what exactly you are planning to do. First, you need to understand your target audience and people who will contact you to get your services or order your goods. Next, you need to understand how much money they are ready to pay for that. Think about unique selling point of your product or service.
#3. Study the market
As a young and inexperienced entrepreneur, you may underestimate the power of studying your competitors. However, this investigation will help you determine the mistakes you might make and develop a good marketing strategy that will distinguish you from other strategies on the market. Remember that there are several types of competitors, for example, the direct competitors who provide the same product or service, and indirect competitors who fight for the attention of your clients in other spheres.
#4. Develop a business plan
After you have determined your competitors and studied how they run their businesses, you need to develop your own plan. You need to estimate your budget, set up timing for accomplishment of different tasks, decide whether you need to hire someone or if you can cope with all tasks by yourself.
#5. Create a blog
A beginner entrepreneur faces many challenges. One of them is promoting their business. When you release your product or service, you need to make sure that people get to know about it. For obvious reasons, you can’t yet afford to place expensive ads both online and offline. But what you can do is create a blog and start filling it with great content that will surely attract the attention of the potential customers. In order to achieve success here, you have to improve your content writing, develop
#6. Get registered!
Keep in mind that when you start a business, you need to legalize it. So make sure that you have registered it not to have problems with the law. Keep in mind that when you have registered a business, you need to get ready to pay taxes!
#7. Find companions
It is always better to start something being supported by people who share your goals and intentions. Besides, when you have a couple of people in the team, you may distribute tasks and get more time for education. If you can find a person who will support you when you start your business or even become your partner, do that. For example, you may be good with the technical aspects of your product or service, but have absolutely no idea how to create a marketing strategy, thus, it is better to find a person who is interested in marketing and wants to develop skills in this sphere.
#8. Find a mentor
For a beginner student entrepreneur, the challenges in running a business are many. However, a student can always find a person who will help them and give a good piece of advice. Of course, it is better to find a mentor who has experience in running their own business and can tell you not only how to write letters to reach out to investors, but also how to settle budgets properly and create effective plans for merchandising and product realization.
Running a business, you need to remember that you should also visit classes as you still are a student. You will be able to use your experience in writing essays and making presentations and implement the knowledge that you get in university directly to your business.
