(This is a guest blog post written by Matt Stout)
Matt Stout was once a college student. He is now a small business lawyer, an unrepentant serial entrepreneur and proud moderator of Biztag.com, where he blogs about entrepreneurs and the innovative companies they create. If you are an entrepreneur, he would love to hear your story.
When I was in college, during the pre-internet days, the only summer jobs available for college students were low paying and uninteresting. If you were really lucky, you landed a job as a lifeguard and worked on your tan. If not, you were glad to have a job mowing lawns or raking leaves. And in last place—any job that required you to learn the phrase “Would you like fries with that?” Well, not much has changed as far as summer jobs go, but for college entrepreneurs, the news is much better.
CNN Money has an interesting article on Landing That Summer Gig, which many college students will try to do as soon as school lets out. The numbers in the article are far from encouraging, and the advice for those students without work lined up is to “start looking now, be persistent and apply for as many jobs as possible.” To an entrepreneur that sounds like a horrible process just to land a job that the article states will pay you $10.20 per hour. And even worse, the columnist suggests that one “really can’t be too picky when it comes to seasonal work.” True enough. But if having a job for low pay wasn’t bad enough, how about a job you don’t even like? No thanks. However, this stark news may be a blessing in disguise since the tight job market will likely force many would-be clock punchers to take the leap and start their own businesses. Now that is a decision no college entrepreneur will regret when looking back on “How I Spent My Summer Vacation.”
More to the point, some entrepreneurial students are taking the next logical step and questioning the whole wisdom of going to college to find a “good job.” Fast Company Magazine asks Is College Really Worth It? using an elaborate “infographic” to frame the debate that economists have been arguing about for decades—what do students really do while in college and how does this activity translate into monetary terms upon graduation. What college entrepreneurs will appreciate about this blog entry is what is missing—no discussion about how these extra-curricular activities like “9 hours a day spent on games, cell phones, Facebook” can translate into businesses started by college students. Of course, this obsession with social media can also be turned into a positive. Interesting that the “debate” deals only with the earning power (read “median salary”) of those college graduates who go on to get the dreaded J.O.B. upon graduation. Calculating the huge payouts that many college entrepreneurs receive when selling their innovative companies or “going public” would skew the numbers so much that this upside is left to the imagination.
There’s a lesson in here, and looking back, it is that there is no better time or place in the world than college for a budding entrepreneur to succeed. Think about it—aside from attending classes on a semi-regular basis, everything else is taken care of. Hot food is provided on a regular basis, computer labs are open 24-7, libraries stocked with every book imaginable are at your fingertips, smart professors and students are everywhere, and even financially challenged students (like I was) can pay their way through with low interest student loans if family cannot help. With food, clothing and shelter out of the way, and before life’s other responsibilities get heaped on (children, mortgages, retirement planning, etc) college is the best time to start a business.
But how do you do that while majoring in Philosophy or English, like I did? Well, that’s a good question. In my day, you had to juggle the day’s required reading, and then stay up all night to work on your business. But if you know you’re an entrepreneur at heart, why not major in entrepreneuship? Sounds like a no brainer to me, and you can bet I would have been the first to sign up if my college had offered such a major. Entrepreneur Magazine has a section that helps students like this pick the right entrepreneurship program at the best colleges and universities. Each year they profile the Top 25 Graduate and Top 25 Undergrad entrepreneurial programs in the country. It used to be that you had to learn “how to” be an entrepreneur on your own, and outside of the classroom—now these top schools have majors in entrepreneurship, designed to keep the next generation’s Michael Dell and Bill Gates from dropping out.
If you’re somehow not already convinced to forgo the summer job flipping burgers to devote your time and energy into building the next great tech company, then how about some inspiration from your peers. Check out Inc Magazine’s America’s Coolest College Start-ups 2010. Inc.com profiled college student-run companies from across the United States. They are running very different businesses, and you can vote for your favorite collegiate entrepreneur and check out last year’s picks to see how their dorm room start ups have grown. Talk about inspiration—these nine student entrepreneurs took cool ideas and launched their companies while still in school, and that’s not easy. The first step was telling their parents “No, I’m not going to get a summer job. I am going to build a business and I need your support.”
After announcing your plans to become a college entrepreneur instead of a summer wage slave, you’ll need resources and support from those business owners who are your age and also balancing their schoolwork. No better place for that interaction than YoungEntrepreneur.com. The YE Blog is frequently updated with insightful articles geared toward, not surprisingly, “young entrepreneurs.” More than that, the site itself is packed full of inspiration and resources which will be useful for entrepreneurs of every age.
Matt Stout was once a college student. He is now a small business lawyer, an unrepentant serial entrepreneur and proud moderator of Biztag.com, where he blogs about entrepreneurs and the innovative companies they create. If you are an entrepreneur, he would love to hear your story.
