Life at Hope College

An Inside Scoop on Owning a Small Business in College

LLC (The three-page document making your company legal)? Check.

T-shirts ordered? Check.

Fifteen boxes in the back of my SUV? Double check.

Whose debit card did we use again, anyway? Just kidding.

But we’re a discombobulated mess… sometimes.

The three of us live only three blocks apart, but now we know why people who work for businesses work in one location together for a reason.

Regardless, things are going well.

Can you think of the first time you found someone you liked who really liked you back? You begin to spend so much time with them that you begin to stop spending time in other areas.

If you start a small business in college, it’s almost a requirement to “date” your business.

You have to spend time with it, take care of it, and spend money… but it’s all for a really great benefit.

Here are the tips we’ve developed to keep you on top of your schoolwork, social life, and business:

  1. Keep a planner. If you can specify certain hours for homework vs. business work, your time will be spent effectively.
  2. Don’t multitask. Complete one task at a time, and work on it until it is finished. Being able to check tasks off of your list is rewarding.
  3. Create an elevator pitch. People will want to know about your business, but they don’t want a two-second answer or a thirty-minute conversation. Create a concise and repeatable way to explain your purpose.
  4. Delegate tasks. You have a team for a reason. Separate out roles to ensure that everything is done, but you don’t have to do everything.
  5. Separate your personal and business accounts. Running grocery money and business money off of the same card can be confusing.
  6. Sleep. You won’t want to. You may feel like you can’t. Do it anyway. You’ll feel better in the long run.
Photo Credit: Haley Menzies Photography
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