Business Opportunities Weblog

Grads, Think About Starting Your Own Biz

By on May 28, 2008 in Ideas


Rhonda Abrams at USA Today:

Graduating from college or graduate school? Congratulations! What are you going to do now? Send out resumes, look for a job?

Well, I’ve got another idea. How about starting your own business?

I don’t have figures on what percentage of graduates will launch their own companies, but I do know many students start businesses while still in college, roughly 70% of students want to start a business, and entrepreneurship is one of the fastest growing fields in academia.

As a young person, you’re at the forefront of entrepreneurship. Your tastes drive decisions in new businesses, new products. Successes like Yahoo, Google, and Facebook means venture capitalists and investors will actually take you seriously — especially if you’re a guy.

Yes, unfortunately, women still have a much harder time raising money, even though they start more businesses than men. But let me encourage young women to dream big, start businesses with the potential to change the economy or society. Keep knocking on those VC (venture capitalist) doors and force those old white guys sitting atop billions of venture dollars to pay attention to you, too.

After all, graduate, this is probably the best time in your life to take a risk. You’re used to living on the cheap, surviving on pizza, and no, you don’t really need a new car or that Coach purse. So, move back in with the parentals, get a few friends together and start something in your garage or den.

    • Do something cool. Lots of people succeed in business doing something completely mundane — there’s plenty of money to be made selling dental supplies. But you’re young, so do something fun, challenging, interesting.

    • Choose a business that will make a difference. Go ahead, start a business that will save the planet, people or animals. The hottest thing in business today is “social entrepreneurship” — for-profit companies with a greater purpose. You can make money and make a difference.

    • Develop a business plan — at least a very simple one. Sit down and think through what you’re going to do, how you’re going to do it, and how much money it will take. And you’ll need a business plan when you go out and raise money to fund your new venture.

    • Choose a concept with low start-up costs. After all, you’re broke. But I was broke when I started my first company. Internet-based companies can be dirt-cheap. There are still plenty of opportunities in social networking and user-generated content sites. Personal and business service businesses are also inexpensive to launch.

    • Start with a friend, or friends. But draw up a simple agreement to clarify who owns what, who does what, and what happens if someone drops out (Hint: They should lose everything). Hey, you could be starting the next Facebook; you don’t want them coming back and suing you for their share of the billion dollars.

Photo by a51media.

small biz startup youth

Rich Whittle has added 6,226 posts to Business Opportunities Weblog.

Another Idea: How to Start a Business Plan Consultant Business

  • http://www.pennyjobs.com Curt

    Excellent ideas. I think the job market is going to continue to deteriorate, even the service sector. As the dollar weakens, the manufacturing sector is due for a comeback, so find something that you can build or something that can help people cut back on extra spending.

    I wanted to start a business in college, but I couldn’t find anyone else to join me.

  • http://studentbusinessblog.com John Peden

    I study in the UK and over the past 18 months I’ve been working on a few startups. I’ve been blogging about my experiences in the hope of informing and inspiring others to follow suit.

  • http://tlmarketing.net Tom Lindstrom

    Creating multiple streams of income is a very good idea.It is not wise to trust that you will have a steady job until you get on a pension.

  • Tamara

    Too bad some companies don’t realize that most of the coolest ideas come from women.

  • http://www.mos-apartments.com XLOR

    I have already graduated a year ago and now I have got an idea to start bussines that you can see on my site)))

  • Kimberly

    What about investing in technology? Do you think it’s important for young entrepreneurs to understand the value of investing in data security and managed hosting in addition to these other important factors — especially since the majority of young entrepreneurs are using the web in some capacity (e-commerce or not).