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College: The Best Time to Start a Home Business?
When he was 25 years old, Aaron Patzer started the website Mint.com. Garrett Camp created the now acclaimed StumbleUpon while he was a graduate student. Ben Cathers, now in college and opening a third business, was a mere 12 years old when he successfully begun his first Web marketing and advertising corporation.
It's never too early to create a home business, and launching a successful start-up on a college income is not only plausible, but has been executed time and time again.
Unemployment is an epidemic that is laying siege to the industrial economy as a whole, leaving many working people without jobs, but also leading to numerous students lacking a college income.
Unemployment rates for those under 20 years old has reached as high as 21.5%, resulting in more and more young people entertaining the conclusion of starting a home business of their own. In fact, in 2006, there were 492,000 people younger than 25 who were self-employed, according to the Small Business Administration.
Now is a fantastic time for college students to start a home business! Especially if your target audience is teens or college students, being in the comparable demographic gives you an advantage that older entrepreneurs could only beg to be granted by the stars.
Advantages to starting a home business are plentiful. You have the good fortune to acquire information about the mechanical details of business as you go. Eyewitness experience is invaluable, and provides information that is incomparable in any other job you might take.
Of course, there are some hurtles that you'll have to clear away. Balancing a business with a college agenda can take solid preparation, and some opportunity to get acquainted to. Insufficiency of experience will likely lead to unpredictable obstacles that you will have to beat, and may result in more work required to earn the trust of some customers.
Additionally, with little college income and without credit history or collateral, acquiring a business loan could be noticeably difficult for a college student. If you aren't yet 18, you won't legally qualify for a loan, which means you may have to search for backing elsewhere.
There are solutions for all of these issues, however. You may encounter obstacles, but clearing them will help you become larger and will result in a healthier business. Additional capital, if required at all, can be obtained elsewhere. Another alternative is to get a co-signer whose support may improve your chances of collecting a business loan.
The best part about opening a business now, still, is that time is on your side. You are young, and your business has time to increase.
A home business can help boost your college income now, but if you take steps to organize a truly solid business, it could even result in ultimate financial assurance in the future.
To receive more about starting a business in college, I strongly encourage you to read the eBook, "The Power of College Entrepreneurship and Income: A Practical Guide to Leveraging Your Experience." It expands on what is discussed here, and will guide you toward creating a successful business as a college student.
