Want To Start a Business as a Student? Read This First!
The right way to balance school, work, and business.
So, you want to start a business huh? You want to be a student entrepreneur, eh? Good. No not just good, great!
You have an entrepreneurial spirit and for that I salute you. Before you embark on this journey however, I feel obligated to inform you of a few things.
I started my first business when I was 11 years old, a snow shoveling business where I went door to door every time snow hit the ground in the winter to see if I could and make a buck on my own instead of having to wait till I was old enough to work. That was my first real taste of entrepreneurship and it felt awesome. I did this for a few years until I got a “real job” but then I quickly realized that I made more money shoveling driveways than I did at my part-time job so I would still do it every once in a while to make some extra cash.
I continued to scratch my entrepreneurial itch in highschool by selling out school dances and talent shows, designing and selling school branded clothing, and raising money for local charities. My next true venture came along as an opportunity when I started my bachelor’s degree at the University of Ottawa. This was my first time being a so-called “student entrepreneur”.
I joined the Enactus club on my campus, a non-profit student run organization that uses the power of entrepreneurship to empower people to improve their livelihoods. With the help of this club and my co-founder, we managed to start a social enterprise called Ottawa Sports Officials (which my co-founder later scaled to Sports Officials International). The initial objective of this enterprise was to hire new immigrants and homeless individuals as sports referees so that they could begin to support themselves and improve their livelihoods. In order for this model to be sustainable, we also delivered financial literacy and soft skills workshops to them so that they could understand how to manage their earnings. I worked on this initiative for a year until I moved on to a different role within the club.
We co-founded an e-commerce clothing brand and ran it successfully for almost a year.
At this time I was also starting to get super busy at my part-time job with TD bank, where I was working almost 25 hours a week as an investment adviser. It became really difficult to pursue any entrepreneurial interests but for a while it was nice to just be able to focus on my work and not worry about all the stress that comes along with starting a business or working on a venture. It wasn’t too long though until I felt the entrepreneurial itch bother me again to the point where I quit all the clubs I was involved with at school and any extra-curricular activities outside of school so I could divert my attention to a new entrepreneurial venture I thought up with a close friend.
We co-founded an e-commerce clothing brand called ENVSN and ran it successfully for almost a year. It was going pretty well during the summer but as soon as school started it became very difficult to sustain amongst all the other things we had going on in our lives.
As you can see, I have dabbled and experimented as an entrepreneur for quite a while. It’s worth noting that I am failed entrepreneur as none of my businesses have been able to survive in the long term…yet. It is my belief that failure has made me smarter and more prepared for any and all future projects I take on (I’m actually working on one right now but shhhh, it’s a secret).
All of this to say that as a student entrepreneur, I feel obligated to pay it forward and help out other students who might want to start their own business while still in school. I have laid out a few tips that might better prepare you or inform you before you start your entrepreneurial venture.
Don’t do it for the money
It’s not wrong or bad or selfish to want to make money, especially in business. That was me when I started my snow shoveling business, I didn’t particularly enjoy shoveling people’s driveways, but I did love making money from it. The issue here is sustainability. Making money is fun for a while, but if you don’t enjoy what you’re working on whether it’s an entrepreneurial venture or day job, it can become very difficult to sustain in the long term.
Steve Jobs once said, “You have to have a lot of passion for what you are doing because it is so hard…if you don’t, any rational person would give up”.
This is essentially what happened with ENVSN. Myself and my co-founder both could have likely continued the venture and been profitable at the same time, however we realized that we really did not feel emotionally invested in the company any longer and wanted to be challenged in other ways. Had the passion been there, we would have made the sacrifices necessary to do what needed to be done, and that brings me to my next point.
You are going to have to make major sacrifices
Do not take this point lightly. When building a business, time is your greatest asset and your worst enemy. You’ll never feel like you have enough and amongst a full-time course load, extra-curricular activities, and/or a part-time job it can be very difficult to set time aside to work on your business. I haven’t even brought up spending time with family, friends, and just maintaining any resemblance of a social life, even though I guess I just mentioned it.
You will have cut things out of your life whether that means on skipping out on Toonie Tuesday every week, quitting your job, or taking on a part-time course load (I am considering that you want to do well in your courses). If you want to challenge me and continue to start your business without cutting anything out be my guest. If it works out I would love it if you could send me an email at tanveer.mostafa35@gmail.com and teach me your ways.
My last and final point is this…
Find your superhero squad
I am convinced that everyone has their very own superpower, something that they are extremely good at, whether they are gifted with it, inherently talented, or are completely self-taught. This could be a particular skill, personality trait, and/or a number of other things.
The point is that by having the right people around you, you’ll be able to accomplish what many might deem impossible, because that’s what superheroes do. These people should be smarter than you, passionate about the cause, and should challenge you when they feel you are wrong. This is not only how you can grow, but how your business can grow as well.
Your business is not defined by you, it’s defined by your team. Without my co-founder that helped start Ottawa Sports Officials and the team that supported us, I guarantee you that we would not have gotten very far with our project. Everyone was extremely passionate about the cause and having all the members hold each other accountable made the business that much more successful.
These few tips will help you set a foundation for yourself before you start your next business. Remember: don’t do it for the money, be ready to make sacrifices, and surround yourself with people smarter than you. Listen to these three tips, and you’ll be well on your way to starting an awesome business. I wish you the best of luck on your next venture!
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