Student startups are amazing. Brilliant college kids sitting in a dorm are inventing the future. Heedless of boundaries, possessed of new technology and youthful enthusiasm, they build a new company from scratch. Their early success allows them to raise money and bring an amazing new product to market. They hire their friends, assemble a superstar team, and dare the world to stop them. The best time to startup would be is while in your college. It has become a popular choice for college students to startup early. They might not be next Facebook or Apple Inc., but starting up early has many advantages of its own.
1. A great place to find your team members
Your college is the best place to find the right team. Your co-founder may be just in the room beside you. An ideal founding team should have people from diversified backgrounds. I bet you really can’t find a more diversified place than your own college. People with various majors, backgrounds, passion make your search for the right team easier and smoother.
2. No commitments/pressure
You really have nothing to lose as a student entrepreneur. You have time on your hands in between classes, little commitments, and nothing to lose. You are free from financial pressure. In other words, there is no excuse for not trying to start something now.
3. Building a Network
The contacts with friends, Professors, business owners which you make when you are in college are going to help you with your business and probably may become your customers as well. In other words your college could be one of the best market places to test your product.
4. Free or dirt-cheap Resources
You get a chance to use many resources when you are a student like Library, Free internet, strong alumni network, College connections with local businesses. Do not underestimate the power of using your status as a college student to get information needed to start your business.
Not to mention you don’t have to worry about paying rent or utility bills. What else do you need?
5. Access to Entrepreneurship Clubs
The entrepreneurship club in colleges helps in network with other students and to learn more about what you are passionate about, whether that is entrepreneurship, the arts. You even get a chance to explore other startups and probably partner up with them to improve your business.
6. Access to free funds
Colleges often have grants, scholarships, and competitions that are available to students interested in starting their own business, take advantage of it! Enter every business plan competition and elevator pitch competition available and speak with an advisor to see if any scholarships or grants are available to you.
7. Identifying your strengths and weaknesses
You get a chance to identify your strengths and weaknesses while building your startup which helps a lot in future. Whether you succeed in business or not does not measure who you are, but it will help you to discover your strengths, weaknesses, and what you are passionate about. What you tend to spend the most time on in your business is most likely what you enjoy the most. Use this information when deciding on a future career or another business to launch.
8. Learning from Failure
Last but not the least starting up something on your own will surely give you a lot of valuable mistakes to learn from.
If you’re not failing every now and again, it’s a sign you’re not doing anything very innovative.
