Guest Post: University-Based Entrepreneurship in 2010

As part of our commitment to bringing you information and opinions about the future of technology and entrepreneurship, this guest post features Jessica Schweitzer, of the Campus Connect. Jessica is a graduate of Central Connecticut State University, where she began Campus Connect.

Jessica’s post focuses on the importance of university-based entrepreneurship, trends in 2010, and tips for budding entrepreneurs.  You can also follow Jessica’s Twitter and Facebook pages.

The typical person I run across on any given day would most likely see the romanticized version of being an entrepreneur before they see the “nitty gritty.”  The reality of the situation is that there are both positives and negatives to being an entrepreneur in a university.  I am not your average nine-to-five worker; in fact, one of the beauties of owning my own company, Campus Connect LLC, is the freedom to choose my own lifestyle, to call my own shots. Entrepreneurship is in a way like a sales position because you can dictate your future and excel at a pace you set.

The harder you work, the more you benefit monetarily, and the more freedom you have to make your own decisions about the future path your company will take. Besides, why work for someone else and make them rich when you could be putting money in your own pocket?  The major contrast between my generation (twenties) and the older generation is that when the older generation was brought up they were encouraged to graduate from high school, go to college, get into a good job at a stable company and stay there until you collect your pension.  Times have changed and with that, the mindset of the business professionals has changed as well.  The younger generation thinks first about owning their own business and controlling their own destiny.  This was exactly my thought process while attending school.

I am now twenty five, and the owner of Campus Connect LLC, www.CampusConnectCentral.com, a website that aims to help reduce the high cost of textbooks and save students money by offering them value added coupons & savings while promoting social interactions on college campuses. I knew two years ago when I first started the company that I had the ability to create a more promising future for myself by starting my own business. The changes relating to generations became evident to me early on when I learned that almost everything was now done on the Internet, and social networking was key to starting and maintaining my own business. With the prominence of computer use in today’s society a social media market presence is necessary to reach a target market for the age group of 32 and under. The younger generation expects an on-line presence, and if they don’t find it, then they don’t find your company. The bonus is that social networks are not only used to promote your company, but also to network and maintain relationships with everyone. It is second nature for my generation to use the newest available technology, and by capitalizing on this fact you have a significant advantage of reaching your market and making an impact on them through Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, and for the older generation, Linkedin.

While there are advantages, there are also disadvantages to being an entrepreneur.  Although the social networks make finding people easy, they don’t necessarily help you find people who are as passionate about your ideas as you are, and will want to work to get the company to a profitable state.  Here are some of my tips for a beginning entrepreneur:

1. Pick good co-founders. In a start-up you can change your idea easily, but changing your co-founders is hard. I’ve heard that the success of a start-up is almost always a function of its founders.

2. Get your product to the market quickly. You haven’t really started working on it until you’ve launched. Launching teaches you what you should be working on building.

3. Understand your users. The better you understand them, the better the odds or providing a service they really need/want.

4. Offer extremely good customer service. Customers are used to being mistreated. Go out of your way to make people happy. In the earliest stages of a start-up, it pays to offer customer service on a level that wouldn’t scale, because it’s a way of learning about your users.

5. Avoid distractions. Nothing kills start-ups like distractions.

6. Don’t give up, even if you get discouraged. You can get surprisingly far by just not throwing in the towel.

All in all, because of the tough situation our economy is in, it is tough to effectively market your idea and appropriately allocating the funding to channel into maximum efficiency.  But I firmly believe that success is based mostly on motivation and drive factors, not what college degrees you have received.  It’s proven that countless entrepreneurs without higher education have succeeded because of the drive and passion they had in their idea.  So, if you have an idea that you think it may be marketable, then really sink your teeth into it.  The results may just surprise you.

If you’re an expert on a topic of interest to entrepreneurs in the Northeastern US, and are interested in contributing a guest post, we invite you to contact us

Related Links:

Can Entrepreneurship be taught?

“The Idea Incubator”

Entrepreneurship across Campuses

Best Colleges for Entrepreneurship: US News Ranking