entrepreneur

Why You Won’t Learn How to be an Entrepreneur in College

While a college education can provide valuable knowledge and skills, there are several reasons why it may not be the most effective way to learn how to be an entrepreneur in college. As an entrepreneur who never went to college and started multiple businesses on my own with no knowledge, money or mentorship, I can say that college would never have taught me what I learned first-hand. It also would have taken up 4 years of my time on top of tens of thousands of dollars of student loan debt. Instead, I just started with what I had and learned from trial and error.

Entrepreneur in college

Practical Experience:

Entrepreneurship is primarily learned through practical experience and real-world challenges. While colleges can offer theoretical knowledge and case studies, they often lack the hands-on experience of starting and running a business. Entrepreneurship requires learning from failures, adapting to market dynamics, and making quick decisions. These are better acquired through direct involvement in the business world.

I made a million mistakes when I started my first business, which was a cash-intensive manufacturing business based on my invention, the wrist water bottle.

Dynamic Nature of Entrepreneurship:

The entrepreneurial landscape is constantly evolving, with new technologies, market trends, and business models emerging rapidly. College curricula, on the other hand, can be slow to adapt to these changes. By the time a course is developed, approved, and taught, the information may already be outdated. Staying ahead as an entrepreneur often involves learning on the fly and staying updated with the latest trends, which can be difficult within the rigid structures of a college program.

Nothing beats learning on the job. There are so many things about running a business that you simply find out by doing them and making mistakes along the way.

Interdisciplinary Skills:

Successful entrepreneurship requires a wide range of skills, including marketing, finance, sales, networking, leadership, and problem-solving. While colleges typically offer specialized courses, they often lack an integrated curriculum that combines these interdisciplinary skills. Entrepreneurial success often comes from the ability to navigate different areas of business seamlessly. And this holistic perspective is challenging to develop solely through traditional college education.

When you start out as a solopreneur you learn how to do every job in your business. This will become valuable when you need to hire employees down the road to help you.

Networking Opportunities:

Building a strong network is crucial for entrepreneurs. College can provide opportunities to connect with like-minded individuals, professors, and guest speakers who may have entrepreneurial experience. However, networking within the college environment may be limited compared to the broader entrepreneurial ecosystem. Industry events, conferences, meetups, and startup communities offer a more diverse range of connections and potential mentors. This can be difficult to replicate within the confines of a college campus.

Some of my best networking has been at trade shows. I met a guy who got me into the promotional products industry at a really bad trade show, which would have been a disaster. But he completely turned my business into a very profitable one by introducing me to an industry I didn’t even know about. I also found my first manufacturer at a trade show, that ironically was also a disaster! Those are not the kinds of business connections you meet on a college campus.

Risk Aversion and Structure:

Colleges typically prioritize stability, conformity, and risk aversion. While these qualities may be suitable for some career paths, entrepreneurship often requires taking calculated risks, thinking outside the box, and challenging conventional wisdom. The structured environment of college may not foster the risk-taking mentality and creativity that entrepreneurs need to succeed.

I took a HUGE number of risks to start my business. And I worked 2 jobs for years to pay for it. Putting that money into a college education to be an entrepreneur would have been a waste of money. And I was able to get up and running while many of my peers were still reading books about business.

It’s worth noting that while college may not be the ideal route to learn how to be an entrepreneur, it can still offer valuable resources and opportunities, such as business courses, mentorship programs, and access to research and libraries. However, many successful entrepreneurs have found that hands-on experience, networking, and continuous self-education outside of formal education play a significant role in their journey.

Pros and Cons of a Business Plan

What are the pros and cons of a business plan? I asked a group of business owners and here are their answers:

Leisurehiking.com

I am a serial entrepreneur with both successes and failures under my belt. I have even lost 2 x million dollar companies, the last one due to Covid (travel industry). Entrepreneurship surely is a rollercoaster…

Here is my view on the pros and cons of a business plan:

As a serial entrepreneur, I can say that except for my first business, I have never done business plans. Despite the first and only business plan being both lacking and incomplete, I built the business from an investment of $3000 to almost $2 million over 6 years.

I identify with Mark Zuckerberg’s “Move fast and break things”. I believe that business plans are for the most part, a waste of time. Get going and take action, then course-correct. Having said that, I do believe that business plans have their place, especially in larger ventures. However, just because I don’t believe in business plans, does not mean that I am not analyzing before I start a new venture. Far from it. I research heavily! I simply do not spend time making elaborate business plans and use them as guiding documents for running my business.

Marketing plans, however, are a totally different story! I use Allen Dib’s 1-page marketing plan framework in my businesses.

Thomas Sorheim

Founder of Leisurehiking.com

Web: https://leisurehiking.com/

Mirrorcoop.com

I’m John Linden and I am an interior designer from Los Angeles(www.mirrorcoop.com). When I started my business 7 years ago, my partners and I developed a very detailed business plan. We projected revenue, expenses, cashflow. We looked at where we wanted to be in 3-5 years.

And we did it all on paper and used it as a road map for our progress.We hired an accountant to do projections and answer questions throughout the year. He was vital in making sure our projections were accurate – which helped us reach our goals or course-correct when we were off track.In the end, I’m glad I had a business plan!

It helped me make decisions and set goals all along the way – from finding investors to deciding whether each opportunity was worth pursuing or not. Today, I still refer back to it (even though things have changed so much since then). Now, I don’t know if a business plan is essential for every startup.

If you’re in the early stages of brainstorming an idea with a couple of friends/co-founders, maybe it’s not worth writing one up. But for those who are serious about getting your idea off the ground as a legitimate business – it might be worth giving it a shot.

Also, there are plenty of free templates online to help you get started. Don’t pay someone to write one for you – many times these plans will turn out very generic and non-specific! Write your own or ask people you know for feedback. You can also find templates at your local library.

I do remember one thing that helped me when writing my business plan: I wrote it from a customer’s perspective. Where do you see yourself in 3-5 years? What problem are you solving? How does your product/service make someone else’s life easier or better? If you can answer those questions, then the details about prices, revenue projections, etc.will fall into place.

John Linden – Designer

(424) 252-2359

www.mirrorcoop.com

Income.ca

“When I first started my company, one of the first things I did was create a business plan. Looking back, although making the business plan was time consuming and not always accurate, I believe the positive impact of the plan helped my business to become more successful. The business plan helped me to understand where to allocate my finances and which parts of the business would need more investment.

By knowing what I needed to achieve before I could begin making a profit, this made the high initial financial investment seem less painful, because I had a goal I was aiming for and a clear way to achieve this goal. The business plan also helped me to focus on my target audience more efficiently. I was able to shape the business and advertising in a way that made it more appealing to my core demographic. If I could go back in time, I would definitely still create a business plan. I believe it has played an integral role in the success of my company.”

Randy Charach

https://INCOME.ca

GreenPal – Uber for Lawn Care

Our business just surpassed $20 million a year and annual revenue.

I remember the first year we got started eight years ago my two cofounders and I spent three months writing our business plan.

Writing a business plan in futile yet indispensable exercise. The excise is a forcing function to cause you to really understand if you really want to proceed with the business endeavor.

However, no business plan survives first touch with actual customers.

Its important to organize your thoughts, and your plan of attack, however, much of what is assumed and forecasted in a business plan for a new start-up are just placeholders and hypothesis.

My advice to start up entrepreneurs is to spend less time planning, and more time building something to get into the market place to begin testing assumptions.

Bryan Clayton / CEO
bryan@yourgreenpal.com / 6154974175 (M)

GreenPal
1-866-798-4485 (O)
1312 5th Avenue N Nashville, TN 37208
http://www.yourgreenpal.com

Resinartsupply.com

I bootstrapped my e-commerce business in early 2019 without a business plan growing 100% year over year to $1 million in revenue. Not having a business plan or investors allowed us to adapt and bring products to market faster than our competitors. WhileI don’t think a formal business plan is necessary when capital isn’t being raised it is still vital for entrepreneurs to understand their value proposition, potential market share, and margins to ensure there are sufficient demand and profit for their product or service.

Amazon listing: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0826KNT8W

Website: ResinArtSupply.com

Founder, ResinArt

Levi Parker

660-265-9803

Digital Harvest

I have a successful digital marketing company today and made a comfortable living with my previous two ventures.

I have never used a business plan and believe they are a waste of time. Several business plans were written in both my undergrad and graduate programs, and most of what goes into them is completely made up. The only real important part of a business plan is the marketing plan which details how you will bring your product/service to market, position it, price it, etc.

Companies live and die on sales, and marketing is responsible for bringing in the prospects to sell. It doesn’t matter what your projections are for revenue, or what the SWOT analysis says about your company/industry unless you’re able to generate sales.

Once you start generating sales, all the other plans go out the window because nothing teaches you what you need to know to operate your business like real-world experience.

Avram Gonzales
Chief Strategist, Digital Harvest

P (505) 365-1545

E avram@digitalharvest.io

W https://DigitalHarvest.io/

Viva Flavor

I run an online food and drink business that I launched in 2019. I’m very much in favor of producing a business plan, even if you’re bootstrapping the entire operation and aren’t seeking outside funding.

When you launch your first startup in particular, the post-launch excitement can quickly give way to self-doubt. The benefit of a business plan is that it gives you a personal contract of sorts that you can refer back to. You know what the business objectives for success are, and you’ve assigned hard numbers to your output goals.

Having this sort of “emotionally neutral” reference point is a powerful tool when the early days enthusiasm runs out. If you haven’t met those targets, you haven’t earned the justification to doubt the viability of the business.

Bio: John Bedford is the founder of Viva Flavor, a site dedicated to helping amateur cooks explore the world of food and drink.

Name: John Bedford
Title: Founder
Company: Viva Flavor
URL: https://vivaflavor.com

SportzPoint

Being a startup, my business needs lots of business plans. However, here are the pros and cons of a business plan.

The Pros of a business plans –

It provides us with a overview of what my business should or might look like in near future.
Business plans outlines the work we need to do make something happen.
It also provides us with a list of things that we should cut out from our business.
A long term business plan also gives us a roadmap to future of our business plans.

The Cons of a business plans-

Time consuming. Sometime while planning for the future we tend to lose our focus on the present.
Having static business plans gives us no options to overcome they failure, if there is any.
Sometimes, business plans makes us stay within a roadmap, which hinders our will to think out of the box.

The Conclusion: With all the cons, I still think having a plan is important. Though, being flexible with the plan is the most important thing. Going with the need of the hour is what a startup needs. Moreover, if we waste too much of time planning something, it might be an issue for a small business to flourish. It can also cause some financial criticalities too.

So, I rather think about small plans and small goals. I try to tick them off, then move on with another target or goal. This gives me more time to focus on current things. Also I only try to achieve the goals which will have a long term impact on my business.

Koushik Biswas,

Founder,

SportzPoint.com

Certain Pay

My mentors have both said this about the pros and cons of a business plan:

Pros:

Allows you to think creatively
Allows you to create a plan
Forces you to map out your attack
Gives validity to your cause
Helps you and investors see the big picture

Cons:

No one will read it

Lol, that’s the long and short of it. Most investors don’t care about a business plan. They care about the team they’re investing in and want to know they have a plan. The ProForma is more important, and if it’s formula-based and the entrepreneur/team can think “big picture” in unison, it allows them to pivot faster given unpredictable variables.

adamniec.phonesites.com

Adam Niec

Co-Founder

Certain Pay

My Digital Business Card

When it comes to the pros and cons of a business plan, entrepreneurs have different ideas about whether they work or not. What do you think?

How to Overcome Fear of Starting a Business

Don’t let the fear of starting a business stop you from becoming an entrepreneur! There’s always a little nervousness when you’re starting out on a journey into the unknown. But the best way to overcome your fear of starting a business is knowledge.

I have to admit that I haven’t always taken that advice. I’ve started many businesses but I’ve always just jumped into them without learning what I was doing. It was great that I actually did it, but I could have saved a lot of time, energy and money if I had done some homework first.

Being a business owner is never predictable. Make peace with the fact that you will probably always be living outside of your comfort zone. If you’re looking for a steady paycheck and no drama, get a regular job. You might still have some drama, but you’ll have a steady paycheck. You also get to shut off the business at the end of the day. Business owners never can.

Most people have a list of excuses that stop them from ever taking the first step. In order to overcome the fear of starting a business, let’s get the excuses out of the way first.

Here are 5 excuses for not starting a business and how to overcome them:

It’s Too Risky Yes, it can be risky to start a business. Risk comes with the job of being an entrepreneur, but so does reward. And the more you risk, the more chances you’ll have to be rewarded. In the past it was considered more risky to start a business than to work a steady job. But in these uncertain days of rampant unemployment and the constant fear that the axe will fall even if you do have what you think is a steady job, starting a business sounds a little less risky. Like any game, the only way to win is to play. You’ll never reach your dreams sitting on the sidelines.

I Don’t Have the Money Guess what, unless you get really lucky and find someone to give you a lot of money with no attachments, you’ll never have enough money to start a business. The best way to start a business is with no money. You simply have to be more creative. And it’s usually the most creative things that work the best anyway. You’ll have to run the business yourself, which means you’ll learn every single aspect of running a business from the ground up.

I Don’t Have the Time If you’re working another job, great! You’ll have an income and you can work on your business on the weekends or after your regular job. If you’re unemployed, great! This means you’ll be able to spend all of your time on it and can get it up and running even faster.

I’m Too Old Colonel Sanders was 65 when he franchised Kentucky Fried Chicken. And Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel when he was in his seventies. Ray Croc started McDonald’s when he was 52. No excuse.

I Don’t Know How There is a wealth of information out there to help you. Do research on your own. The Internet and your local library are gold mines of information. Treat it like you were in college and study every day. Look for a mentor. Those that have gone before you can offer knowledge you won’t even find in books. Seek them out. The best advice is to keep chipping away at it every day and never, ever give up. Any successful business owner will tell you that it takes time, perseverance and passion to get a business off the ground.

The #1 Reason For Being an Entrepreneur

After watching the documentary “Burt’s Buzz” I was reminded about why I have to be an entrepreneur. Everyone talks about passion, but the real reason for being an entrepreneur is freedom.

This was the running theme in the film about the unconventional life of entrepreneur Burt Shavitz, the icon and co-founder of Burt’s Bees. Before there was ever a billion dollar, all natural brand of personal care products, there was just Burt and his bees.

On the surface, Shavitz seems like an unlikely businessman. But if you trace his history, being an entrepreneur was really the only thing he was ever suited for. He had no interest in a 9 to 5 job, and ended up using his skills with a camera to pick up freelance photography work for publications like The New York Times and Life magazine. He was in the right place at the right time and capitalized on the turbulent times of the ’60’s in New York City. But as TV became more popular as a way of highlighting the emotion of the times, he saw that as his chance to move out of the city and reinvent himself in a small town in upstate New York. [Read more…] about The #1 Reason For Being an Entrepreneur

Shark Tank Entrepreneur

Guest post by Ivan Serrano

The Shark Tank Formula for Startup Success

If you’re reading this now, you’re probably an entrepreneur who’s thinking about launching a business. If so, you’re about to learn some valuable advice that can make or break your success as a startup founder.

Over the course of nine seasons, ABC’s Shark Tank has given hundreds of entrepreneurs the opportunity to pitch their business ideas to investors (otherwise known as Sharks). Throughout the show, 186 deals were made and the Sharks offered to invest over $20 million in 109 companies.

While it might seem like entrepreneurs who go on Shark Tank are extremely successful, there are a number of lessons to be learned. The reality is, launching a startup is a challenging goal and not every startup is successful even if they receive the funding they need. In fact, only one in 17 startups on the show have actually earned a profit.

When it comes to launching a startup and attracting investors, there are a number of variables to keep in mind. First, it’s absolutely necessary to know your product inside and out. Investors expect entrepreneurs to be able to explain the purpose of their product and how it’ll benefit their target audience. If you’re able to come up with a great product at fills a need, you’re on your way to a successful startup.

Next, it’s important to perfect your pitch and understand your numbers. As you approach investors, they only care about the numbers regarding your business and how you’ll be successful in upcoming years. When you meet with investors, be ready to explain how much profits you plan to earn in the next five years. This will make investors more interested in your idea.

These are just a few of the valuable lessons to learn from Shark Tank. To learn more about the Shark Tank formula for startup success, check out the infographic below: [Read more…] about Shark Tank Entrepreneur