advertisement
Some things don't change.
You can bet that on college campuses across the country this month, there's madness similar to what went on at the Delta Tau Chi fraternity in "Animal House," complete with epic food fights and insane amounts of booze.
But for some students, these first weeks mark more than a return to books and parties. For them, it's about getting back to business.
While many students hunt for jobs at the college bookstore or local restaurants, a select few start and run their own businesses. Entrepreneurs at their core, they become CEOs before exiting college instead of waiting for a corporate job after graduation.
At StartupNation.com, we saw this phenomenon illustrated as never before when entries to our first Dorm-Based 20 competition piled up. We chose winners who represent a cross section of these collegiate impresarios and divided them into three categories:
- The "huge upside potential" group, whose current businesses have meteoric growth prospects.
- The "very talented" group, whose personal talents are at the core of the businesses they've created.
- The "blocking and tackling" group, whose capacity to tough it out with basic entrepreneurial grit, focus and business fundamentals bodes extremely well for their futures as successful entrepreneurs.
The iPod generation
One thing was clear across all three groups: The winners embrace technology.This is, after all, the first generation seen frequently with white cords leading from ears to iPods. They used MySpace before corporate America caught on. These are the ones who know within milliseconds what every button on a smart phone does. They aren't intimidated by technology.
More from MSN Money and StartupNation
Take Jon Wood, who leads the "blocking and tackling" group and who runs a dog-poop-scooping business. You wouldn't think of his business as one that utilizes technology. But he designed his Web site and conducts Internet marketing campaigns to drive business his way.
The same could be said of Jared Sherlock, a professional magician who leads the "very talented" group. He places a huge emphasis on online marketing; you can watch parts of his act on YouTube.
This command of technology is part of what enables these students to be entrepreneurs. No longer does it take a big investment to get a business running or to market it. All you need are an Internet connection, a great idea, some tech savvy and a healthy dose of passion.
Age is no hindrance to these entrepreneurs. Many of the students who entered the StartupNation Dorm-Based 20 competition were making money from endeavors when they were still in high school. "Huge upside potential" winner Andy Tabar, who is launching a social-networking site, started making money building Web sites as a teenager. Ilia Nossov, the runner-up in that category, heads up a marketing company from college, but he started as an entrepreneur well before leaving high school.
Video on MSN Money
Training new employeesTraining new workers well is key to developing a productive office. Susan Wilson Solovic, the CEO of SBTV.com, shares some tips.
And don't mistake today's tech-minded college entrepreneurs for the reckless dot-com types of the late 1990s. This generation came of age during the "dot-bomb" and saw tech companies raise millions of dollars, only to come crashing down in failure. They saw the financial stress their families went through when the market tanked. The lessons were seared into these young bystanders, and they know to avoid the hype and ignore mysterious revenue models.
They also know that cool ideas are not enough. It takes more than a hip-sounding Internet business concept to get investors to write checks. They understand the thinking behind a sound business plan and the need to follow through with hard work. They have positioned themselves to overcome obstacles.
Continued: Not counting on corporate America
Rate this Article
High
