Welcome, class, to "Biz U," Entrepreneur's
new monthly column detailing the who, what, when, where, why and
how of college entrepreneurship. For many business owners, college
consisted of roommates, lectures, parties, all-nighters, football
games and finals. For today's students, however, college
isn't just a time to learn how to do your own
laundry—it's a time to build a business.
"Over the past five years, there's been an explosion of
interest [in entrepreneurship]," says Gerry Hills, co-founder
and chair of the Collegiate Entrepreneurs' Organization (CEO) and
Coleman Chair at the Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies at the
University of Illinois, Chicago. He credits some of the interest to
the dotcom boom—which, despite its bust, had a noticeable
effect on entrepreneurial awareness. "It's been a positive
factor because it brought to the attention of masses of students
that entrepreneurship is a viable career path."
The growth in recent years of not only the number of college
business owners, but also entrepreneurship education and on-campus
organizations to encourage entrepreneurship speaks for itself.
According to the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, more than 1,500
colleges and universities currently offer some form of
entrepreneurship training, compared with the handful of courses
available 15 years ago. And Hills has seen CEO's presence at
colleges grow rapidly since its inception five years ago, to 120
chapters nationwide.
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But college students aren't just learning about
business—they're putting that learning into practice. In
fact, says Hills, many students enter college with business ideas
or even businesses already in the works. "Students used to
come to college and assume that five to 10 years down the road,
they'd start a business," he says. "[Today],
particularly in the graduate programs . . . they come in preparing
to get ideas and launch."
Finding that killer business idea occupies much of an aspiring
college entrepreneur's time. Often, inspiration comes from
college life itself. Students launch products and services to meet
the needs of their college comrades, from food- or laundry-delivery
services to dorm-room furniture retailing. "Students are often
oriented toward very low-cost startups," says Hills. And since
most every college student today is tech-savvy, online businesses
have become one of the best routes to college entrepreneurship.
College students may not have a lot of resources at their
disposal, but they do have one significant advantage over their
older, more established counterparts: They're bound by nothing.
Generally, notes Hills, a college entrepreneur doesn't have a
mortgage or a spouse. In other words? "They have less to
lose," says Hills. "They [may] have less industry
experience, but I think if students pick an industry where there
are an above-average number of opportunities cropping up, they can
do better than somebody who has all those financial
commitments."
In upcoming months, we'll explore hot topics like college
business trends and how to get started. And we'll be profiling
some of the most successful college entrepreneurs around. Be sure
to check out our next "Biz U" column in the February 2005
issue. Until then, class is dismissed.