The Advantages and Disadvantages of Starting a Business in College

College is a time of opportunity. Students are given a chance to learn a variety of new skills and to put those skills to use. One way to do this is to start a business. Starting a business isn’t something you should jump into without careful consideration, though. You need to take a look at what you stand to gain from it and what negative aspects come from starting a business are.

Sole Proprietorship or Partnership

The first distinction that needs to be made when you start a business is what kind of business it’s going to be. Will you be the sole owner? Will someone else be co-owning with you? If it is the former, this is referred to as a sole proprietorship. The advantages of this type of business are the fact that they are easy to start up and close if need be as well as giving the owner the flexibility of being their boss. Owners of this type also retain all profits earned.

There are downsides to this type of ownership. The biggest one is that the owner has unlimited liability. In other words, if the business fails, struggles, or falls into debt, it’s entirely on the owner.

On the other hand, if a student wanted to start a business with a friend, they could go into it as a partnership where each person holds a certain level of responsibility for the company. For one, two students starting a business can pool their resources and knowledge. Unfortunately, the development of a partnership doesn’t take away the idea of unlimited responsibility for the owners if they are general – meaning equal – partners.

“Never start a business just to make money. Start a business to make a difference.” – Marie Forleo

A Chance to Do Something Important to You

When a student is in college, they might end up taking whatever job they can to make ends meet. After all, the price of college is high, and many college students work entry-level jobs. It means that the posts you work at the start of your career might not be the ones that you are passionate about.

Owning a business, on the other hand, gives you more freedom. This is because a student’s business can be revolved around anything they are knowledgeable about. It gives them a chance to find their passion and profit off of it while having a job that they love.

The opposing side to this is that college students do work on lower funds than someone who has settled into a career further down the road and has savings built up from that. It means that for a student, start-up costs can be a little more challenging to reach.

The silver lining to that train of thought is that college students are only starting their career. They don’t have to worry about leaving a job that they’ve been working on for decades to take a risk and start their own business.

It Takes Dedication

Starting a firm, as we’ve pointed out, isn’t something that you do on a whim. The owner has to be dedicated to the business to have a successful company. It can be difficult at first because many people start their own business with the idea that they will create their hours. The truth is that you will probably find yourself working overtime and doing every menial task that the company needs to be done at first

It is mainly because you will be starting out on your own. Even if you have a partner, you won’t have employees to start out so there won’t be many delegations of tasks. If you are genuinely passionate about a topic, you will be able to find the dedication it takes to get your business off the ground. Remember, as the company grows, you’ll be able to hire more help – if the industry is a success, all responsibilities won’t fall on the owner forever.

“Don’t wait for the right moment to start a business. It never arrives. Start whenever.” – Lauris Liberts

Leadership

We already looked at the fact that owning a business means that you are in charge of all the goings on within your business. As such, this is an excellent opportunity to show your skills as a leader. If you don’t have strong leadership skills, this is a great chance to develop them fast because, without them, you will be watching your business go under.

Leadership doesn’t just mean organizing teams and delegating tasks. You will also have to take responsibility for less desirable functions within your business. For instance, as the owner, it is your job to fire someone when it comes time to let them go. It isn’t a job that anyone wants, but it is a task that needs to be done to keep a business running smoothly.

It all boils down to risk and reward. Starting and owning a business in college is something that can bring you a lot of good as well as a lot of bad. If you want a company to succeed, you have to consider both sides of this and decide if starting a business in college is the right choice for you.