Let’s face it, the economy still stinks. In general, unemployment still sits at close to 8%. For those with bachelors degrees, the unemployment rate is lower, currently hovering around 4%, but this doesn’t include all those recent graduates who are working in low paying retail jobs instead of in their field of study. As a result, you might want to seriously consider starting your own business when you graduate.
You might think that sounds crazy, but hear me out. I’m not saying you should be looking into opening up a Burger King or Auto Zone. Those times of businesses are gong to require a lot of up front capital; a lot which you don’t have. Instead, you can look into starting a business that requires little to no start up money.
Jobs You Can Start
If you enjoy writing, you can start a blog writing about a topic that interests you. If you are good with graphics, you post gigs on Fiverr or eLance. You can use those same services if you design websites too. There are tons of other options as well. With how far technology has come, it’s easier than ever to start your own business with little money.
Why Now?
When you graduate is the perfect time to start your own business. The reason is because you don’t have that much to lose. You don’t have a family to support, you don’t have a mortgage payment, you don’t have a car payment. The only large obligation you will have is your student loan payment. Because of this, this is the perfect time to start your own business.
I put off going to grad school for close to 10 years after getting my bachelors degree. When I went, I didn’t have a family to raise. When I looked at my fellow classmates, there were those that were married with kids, who were going to class at night after working a full time job. I have no idea how they did it. I had to work hard at managing my time without having a family. The same idea goes for starting your own business. When you first start out, you can’t work three-hour weeks on Tuesdays. To be successful, you are going to have to work 80-hour weeks. There will be no such thing as the weekend as you will be working on Saturdays and Sundays as well. When you add in a family, it becomes that much harder to focus on your business.
Don’t let that last paragraph make you think that it isn’t worth it to start your own business. It is extremely rewarding. And even though you might work that many hours per week, you don’t really consider work since you are doing what you enjoy.
Resume Builder
Even if you start your own business and you fail miserably, it is a great item to add to you resume. If you take away the learning experiences, you can apply those to many facets of a typical job. Potential employers will be impressed with your work ethic and the skills you learned from running your own business.
Possible Downside
The only downside I can think of when it comes to starting your own business is you might pass up a great job. But that might be worth it if you are going to be doing something that you truly love to do.
Final Thoughts
Overall, there are many advantages to starting your own business right out of college. If I could turn back time, I would jumped at the chance to start my own business when I graduated. Remember, great rewards come from taking great risks. As long as you do your research before jumping in, and knowing that you are going to have to work hard if you want to be successful, starting your own business when you graduate is a great option.
Readers, what downfalls can you think of when starting your own business after graduating?
I agree with you it’s always best to start a business right out of college, because some younger people are even able to do so while in school, especially now that the internet has enabled lots of people to be more enterprising and you don’t even need to put up a huge investment to make things work.
I agree, recent grads should start businesses if they can. However, I think they should also get full-time jobs and start their business on the side.
I only know a few people who started their own business right out of college and they are all doing fine. One is financially independent. A few other are working traditional jobs. You can always fine a job if you’re good at what you do. Taking 10 years off to start a business isn’t a bad thing. It will be a lot more difficult to start a business when you’re older.
You’re right, there is very little downside. The only negative is you may spend too much time trying to build it up and miss out on other opportunities. It is a bit isolating for new grads and they may lose sight of the bigger picture. There are still a lot of skills you learn in a conventional job/career.
If they are passionate about it and they have enough knowledge about how business works, then I don’t think that’s a bad idea. Somehow, they got to take the risk. All entrepreneurs do.
Yup. And in the worst case scenario, a bankruptcy you declare at 23 is off your report by 30. And in that time, you’ll learn more about management, operations, supply chains, and accounting, than you ever would in school; and your retirement accounts — which you should have the foresight to max out — have some protections in bankruptcy