Why you should Start Up an Online Business While in College

Posted on 07. Sep, 2010 by Davy Kestens in Tips

“Life is Either a Daring Adventure or Nothing”
Helen Keller

You are very fortunate to live in this amazing “digital age”. The internet, the most gigantic communication medium known to mankind, has created unprecedented opportunities and opened doors for millions to make millions easily and effortlessly. So, why wouldn’t you jump in and grab the opportunity? Still in college, well, that’s even a more compelling reason to kick off your exciting internet prosperity journey.

“No pain, no gain!”

Though it’s not a very positive approach, let’s disguise as a sceptical maniac and assume the worst possible scenario: You set up an internet business and it failed miserably! Guess what, you’ve done yourself a great favour by testing the waters and learning the ropes. Your valuable hands-on experience will give you the competitive edge you mostly need when you hit the job-market.

“Time is Money”

Let’s face it: your college years offer you a great opportunity to explore your future potentials. With loads of extra time on your hands, what are you going to do? Make the most out of it or just waste it in useless activities? You know the right answer to this one. So, let’s move on to the next reason.

Enjoy the “Sticky Sweet” Sensation of Few Extra Bucks

With some effort, you could make some money that you proudly call “my money”. It’s all yours to do whatever you please. Save it, have fun with it, and/or make a meaningful contribution to your community by donating some of it to great causes. You can also use that hard-earned cash to travel to numerous events. This way you’ll be able to develop your knowledge a lot faster than your competitors!

College Freebies at Your Finger Tips

Take advantage of the free consulting that you could get from your professors. You could seek their knowledge and advice about your newly born business. Please don’t be shy or hesitant to do so. After all, they’re paid to teach you and even more importantly, you’ll gain their respect as a self-driven and committed student.

No Pressure, Only Pleasure!

Hey, as a lucky student, probably the dreadful word “Bills” is not a part of your dictionary. In other words, there is no pressure. Nothing could irritate you except perhaps some nagging success-enemies. Take my word for it: starting an online business is much easier when you have nothing to worry about.

Learn to be Resourceful

Guess what, you and your colleagues are in the same boat. All of you seek your place under the sun. Motivated to build their portfolio and create impressive resumes, your colleagues could help you with any work you need at a fraction of the cost. Are you excellent in business but not that good in graphical design, talk to some art students to get the work done. What if you need some PR advice, who’s better than your beloved marketing colleagues?

Make Life-changing Decisions

Now it’s about time to get positive. What if your business was a smashing success?! Did you check out Facebook lately? See what I mean? Trust me, creating another Facebook is not impossible and YOU could be the one behind it. In this case, you could skip your last years of college and go have a blast.

When invited to speak to graduate students, Bill Gates, the richest man alive and also a college drop out, told the students that if they invited him to speak to them in their freshmen year, none of them would remain in college!! Now this’s not an open invitation for you to leave college. It just shows that there are so many ways to create wealth other than traditional education.

Build Your Soft Skills

When you start working on your business, you will meet amazing people along the way and learn valuable communication and negotiation skills.

Learn To Get Creative About Your Financial Resource

I guess you would agree with me that the world wouldn’t come to an end if you sacrificed your scared independence just a tiny bit and lived with your parents. This way, you could use the rent money for your business. The dorm is another very cheap option. Recently, I stumbled on this proverb that says: “Necessity is the mother of invention”. When stuck, your creative juices will flow and you will come up with amazing business ideas. For instance, I launched Ghost Bloggers because I was in need of extra writers to promote my blog.

Hey, You’re Internet Savvy. Use it!

Our generation is very fortunate that to us, using the internet is as easy as turning on the light. Older generations, however, dread Facebook, Twitter or even MSN the same way you would feel about studying rocket science in ancient Latin! You have the foundation handy. Use it!

Will You Ever Be As Motivated?

Take it from someone who had been there: you’re much more motivated during your college years than at any time in your 9-5 life! I fired my boss and went to college. I know what I’m talking about!

Brag About Your Success

I’m on top of the world because of the financial freedom my internet business created for me. It feels amazing to say: “hey guys, I just made a major sale today while I was in class. Let’s go out, drinks on me”.

There are so many options out there that can provide you with an income. In the present or future. Don’t stick your head in the ground and blindly join the rat-race. There’s more competition now than ever of recent graduates, all gunning for those mediocre 9-to-5 jobs.

Think big, find your own way out, and don’t ever let anyone tell you that you can’t fulfil your dreams.

Tags: online business, start a business, startups