Start a Business at University – 3 Reasons

Posted by mdraycott on Mar 23, 2010 in Blog, Education, Enterprise, Entrepreneurship, Students | 2 comments

The last two weeks have been really interesting here at work, we have had some amazing speakers over two really distinct conferences, but the same message keeps popping up over and over…University is The Best Time to Start a Business, as someone who did this I find it impossible to disagree, so I thought that it would be worth sharing my top 3 reasons for any students who still can’t decide whether or not to take the plunge.

1. Time: although university life feels pressured you will never have more free time then you do now, the problem, most students don’t manage it well, cut down on the ‘student lifestyle’ and instead do some research, go to a few networking events, start some conversations and see what happens.

2. Resources: universities are bursting at the rafters with resources from specialist staff (like me) working in enterprise departments, to books, journals, reports…this list is endless, not very often you get access to all that is it?

3. Money: even before I finish this I can hear you cry…but I’m so poor! I know most students aren’t loaded, but lots of you waste more money a week then I do a month. He’s a challenge cut back on one luxury and save some money. One CD per week would be £520 pounds per year in your pocket, that’s a laptop last time I checked, they key element of any modern home business.

In addition to this saving, there are tonnes of funding and competitions aimed at university students and the recently graduated…lots of these offer once in a lifetime opportunities to meet interesting people and get cash for your ideas, sounds pretty good to me!

So don’t be afraid, take a chance; get an idea together, print some business cards and hit the streets, what have you got to loose? If it doesn’t work you can always try again safe in the knowledge you have three years to get it right!

Peace

Matt