How to Set up Your College Startup and Make Your First Money

As soon as you start thinking about a startup, you might be set back by the anticipated hardships. A lack of experience, too much time spent on studies, the need to combine education with some social activities – all these competing needs seem irreconcilable with a business idea.

But just look at these inspiring examples of college startups, and you’ll see that you won’t be a pioneering student entrepreneur. Thousands of students did that before you, and hundreds of them were highly successful.

• Bill Gates founded his brainchild, Microsoft, together with Paul Allen during his studies at Harvard. Though both didn’t study that long and decided to sacrifice education to promote their business, Microsoft is definitely a grand success.
• Yahoo was also born in a university dorm, becoming a startup of Jerry Yang and David Filo and growing into one of the world’s largest web platforms.
• Even Michael Dell, the founder of the world-famous Dell corporation, had hard times during college. He balanced studies and business but suffered some business struggles at first. He ultimately decided to drop out to dedicate all his time to the firm and not in vain, as we can now see from Dell’s #1 position among PC monitor suppliers across the globe.

Business Success Components

So, what’s the secret of business success in college? Here are some pro tips from those who have already gone through that path and have survived.

Plan and Manage

Even if your company is a one-person firm, you still need to organize everything neatly for the business to survive. Website support, communication with clients, product development, marketing, payments, etc. – all these routine business activities don’t tolerate lateness or carelessness. After all, it’s all about the money, and if you make mistakes, you can lose money.

At the same time, as a college student, you have some roles and obligations. Attendance of lectures, completion of regular assignments, project and group work, communication with your supervisor – these daily routines also require time and attention. So, what is the way out? How to clone yourself?

The answer to the challenge is in careful planning and time management

. If you’re strongly determined to succeed both in studies and business, you need to have a strict schedule for all activities. Keep a notebook or an assisting app not to forget about any vital activities or appointments. With time, you’ll get used to such a crazy schedule and will do everything quicker.

Find Fellow Thinkers

Setting up and developing a business on your own is very hard. As you can see from the success stories of many college startups, students generated new ideas and organized startups together with friends – fellow thinkers with a similar passion and interest. If you find such a pal, business activities will go much smoother.

Be Ready to Leave

Studies are essential, and business is important as well. During the hardest times in your college, you may feel unable to meet the competing needs and duties of studies and business, and if this happens, you may have to choose. Dropping out of college may be a drama for some ambitious students who came there for a prestigious diploma. Besides, those who were lucky to get to an educational institution like Harvard or Stanford may never receive the second chance to enrol.

But still, ask yourself, is your business a fair payment for a diploma? If it is, then close the firm and graduate first, then return to the idea of your life. If not, then maybe it’s time to concentrate on your business and then go back to college once everything gets scaled and automated?

Final Thoughts

One thing we want you to keep in mind – no matter how successful your startup gets, you’ll always have hard times combining studies and business. As a case of Larry Page and Sergey Brin showed, these two great minds creating Google were ready to sell if for a tiny price during their college years simply because they couldn’t cope with everything. In your case, you can always find academic support; for instance, the best essay writing service online can give you a helping hand with assignments in the hard times to keep you in line with the academic deadlines.

Hopefully, you’re more inspired to start your venture today. Don’t be afraid of hardships; a business experience, no matter whether it fails or flies, will become an invaluable background knowledge for your future entrepreneurial activities. Those who start early learn quicker and outperform their peers soon after graduation.