Want to start a business and get college credit too? Do it as a
class project. In a college setting, you get feedback and can
revise your plan. Some students even take it a step further,
turning their projects into real-life businesses.
Luke Skurman, 25, conceived of College Prowler, a publisher of
over 200 guides to different colleges (including information on the
local atmosphere, campus dining and so on), as an undergraduate
class project while he was majoring in business administration with
an emphasis in entrepreneurship. A junior-year course at
Pittsburgh's Carnegie Mellon University required him to develop
a business plan, so Skurman hashed out the idea with his professor.
"We thought we would collect information [for the guides] and
have an ad-based revenue model," says Skurman. Instead, his
professor advised him to offer a product he could sell more
readily, like the book itself.
After getting an A on the project and modifying the plan
throughout his senior year, Skurman recruited CMU friends Christina
Koshzow, 25; Joey Rahimi, 26; and Christopher Mason, 26; as well as
University of Pittsburgh alum Omid Gohari, 24, to help officially
found the business upon his graduation in 2002. Their varied
degrees--ranging from economics to communications--were assets. In
2005, College Prowler expects revenue to grow more than
tenfold.
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Even if you don't get an A, you don't have to forego the
idea. For example, Frederick Smith, founder of FedEx, initially got
a C on his class project for the now-behemoth company. So an
average grade doesn't automatically equal failure. Jennifer
Kushell, co-author with Scott M. Kaufman of Secrets of the Young & Successful,
advises students who receive lower grades to ask their professors
why. Was it the project's feasibility? The work you put in?
Learn what you need to improve from the feedback.
Also, use on-campus resources like mentorship programs,
incubators and so on to help take your classroom business project
to the real world. College Prowler, for instance, secured
reduced-rate incubator space from a professor and mentor who was
also president of a local incubator. "Use your professors as
resources--[for] the respect they command in the business
community," says Kushell.
In all your excitement, don't overlook the challenges. Fred
Kiesner, professor of management at the College of Business
Administration at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles,
cautions both undergraduates and graduates to consider the
realities before jumping ahead.
Do you have enough startup capital? Being young and without
business experience can make it hard to get funding, says Kiesner.
Do you know enough about the real business world to move forward?
Use class time to seek out qualified teammates (not just friends),
set realistic goals for securing funding, and research the industry
in which you hope to start your business to see if you'll
really like being part of it.