Eric
Would it be foolish to start a business and work for myself after graduating?
I will be graduating with a degree in computer information technology at the end of this semester. At the start of college, my post-graduation plan was to pursue full-time work as a programmer; however, lately I have been considering starting a business of my own instead. I currently work as an I.T. consultant in my spare time, and already have two regular clients. Rather than working for someone else after graduating, I would like to expand my consulting work to ten or more clients, turning it into a full-time job. Working for myself would undoubtedly be riddled with difficulties and much overhead, which concerns me. Regardless of the outcome, would working for myself be worth the risk, or would such pursuits be folly? Furthermore, would a failed business venture diminish the value of my resume in the eyes of future prospect employers? #college #career #entrepreneurship #information-technology
4 answers
Paul A Coulter
Paul A’s Answer
Good questions! My question for you is have you done the math? How much money will you need to generate to pay your personal and business expenses, pay self employment taxes and some extra $$ to have a life compared to what you presently will bring in? Consider a part time job driving Uber or joining up with a CPA firm either in joint projects or as a business service they could offer. My main point is you should have a more solid financial footing to launch a business from. I have been self unemployed several times! Not pretty or fun! Doing the work and marketing your business now becomes your "job". Are you entrepreneurial and strongly self motivated or more tactical, like structure and like financial security. All of these are self awareness attributes you will discover along the way. Always time to evolve your business into a paying proposition. It is not an either or decision. It is a matter of creating a solution that offers you more stress free moments as you expand and grow/ I personally like the freedom and flexibility of being self employed. Suggest reading Rich Dad Poor Dad or watching some Robert Kiyosaki video's at u tube. The best! Paul
Karine LEFRANCQ
Karine’s Answer
Good question I would suggest you to have a first experience first and do your homework linking with start up's CIO's on linkedIn to understand their challenges and prepare yourself !Wishing you the best of luck !
Cicily Smith
Cicily’s Answer
Hello Eric,
I want you to start researching at least 2-3 people who have made it without an educational background in business, and also research 2-3 that have. When this is done please compile your thought, and give yourself direction based offs of what you find to be a true statement for you. True is not everyone makes without a degree, but also in equal to, there are people who have made it without a degree as well. Follow your heart!
Ken Simmons
Ken’s Answer
Hi Eric!
Generally, it a good idea to work for someone who already has an established business like the one you want to have, so that you can learn from their experiences and successes and will not have to make all of the mistakes that they have made along the way. Although you might want to start a similar business, you would not want to tell them so. Many people have either become partners in such an arrangement or have taken over the business when the other person was ready to do something else. Many possibilities exist.
If you are sure that you want to start and grow your own business, there is a great organization called SCORE, Service Corp or Retired Executives, a part of the Small Business Administration, which offers free consultation and workshops for people such as yourself. You can find them on the internet.. They are a great organization of executives who, unfortunately (fortunately for you) reached retirement age and were "put out to pasture" and are doing this to continue to use their expertise to help such people such as yourself.
Please let me know if and how this might have helped. I would like to follow your progress! Keep me posted.