If you are fresh out of university, you might have already started to send out your CV and resumes. But, before you do you should know that the job market has become increasingly competitive. Unless you left college after being at the top of your class, you are going to have a tough time beating back the competition. That’s not to say it will be impossible to find a job, but it might be a couple of months before you find your footing.
For this reason, many leavers are starting their life in the business world as entrepreneurs. As hard as it may be to believe, this might be an easier path than pushing the envelope into the hands of every business owner you can find. It’s also true to say that a lot of investors are willing to take a chance on a bright young entrepreneur with a unique idea. Here’s how to get started on this path.
Start Making A Name For Yourself
Ideally, you should have started doing this while you were still studying in college. There are plenty of ways that you can do this. If you are a blogger, you can guest post on topics relating to your chosen industry. Be sure that you link these guest posts back to your own blog that is also about the business you are going in to. So, you might consider setting up a tech support business, and this will most likely begin with you offering advice for free on your blog.
Be sure to include the social networks in your campaign as well. These are crucial for getting your name as the one people are talking about. Any social media is useful, but you should be trying to focus on ones that relate to image sharing, such as Pinterest. Sharing images automatically increases your SEO, and this will get your new business more interest online.
Build A Team
One of the most famous examples of a start-up business that began in college is probably Facebook. But, both Microsoft and Apple also began while the owners were still in college. Apple is widely known for beginning in Steve Job’s garage. All three of these companies have one thing in common. It took a team to set them up and get them running. You should not try and set up a company by yourself because it is better to share what is a rather heavy load. Do not just rely on yourself when you can ask for the help of some fellow students that you trust. These will most likely become your business partners so choose wisely.
Once your business is up and running, you will be looking for more employees. However, be careful how far you stretch out your resources in the first couple of years. You might be better off keeping your company small, enabling you to claim a higher profit with fewer costs involved.
Find The Funds
If you have savings, you might be thinking about using them to kickstart your business. But that is not a wise move. Instead, you should consider the many different options for finding funding. Start, by looking at Businesscomparison.com. Here, you will find examples of all the different types of investments, loans and financing. One example is asset finance. This means taking out a loan to pay for the products or tech that you need to get your new business off the ground. A lot of major loan companies offer this possibility. It can be useful if you have been rejected funding from the government.
That said, for a lot of new business owners, government funding is their first point of call. They find the idea of gaining funding from the government attractive because it is a stable resource. They also believe they can trust it more, rather than taking the chance on a private company.
If you think you have a completely original idea, then you are most likely going to want to start looking at crowdsourcing. We are talking about the person who has the software concept for the next Facebook. Experts believe this will be a program that allows you to point your phone at someone and instantly view their social profile. If you have a concept like this, you are going to find success somewhere like Kickstarter. But this type of resource will not be valuable for those who are looking to start an already established business concept.
Once you find funding, your business will almost be ready to enter the market. Remember you need to spend a lot of your resources on marketing in the first couple of months. If you do that, you will attract a good number of customers you can use to keep your company afloat.
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