Chapter 2 of the Entrepreneurship Guide for College Students: Starting a Business on the Road

Entrepreneurship is a very special path. We can see its starting point, but what we cannot see is its end point. A group of people set sail, but only a few reached the destination, not because the door was too narrow, but because the road was too difficult and far away. What kind of path is entrepreneurship? All must be in the right direction

Wrong selection of entrepreneurial projects and the infringement of bad entrepreneurial projects are important reasons for the failure of college students to start their own businesses. Whether you choose a project to start your own business, or choose a chain, franchise, or transfer cooperation project to start a business, you must have an in-depth understanding of the market related to the project, a rational understanding and analysis of your own conditions, and the formulation of a feasible business plan. These are essential basic steps for starting a business. At the same time, Also pay attention to discovering and avoiding many false or deceptive entrepreneurial projects in the market.

2.1.1 How to choose an entrepreneurial project

Choosing an entrepreneurial project is the first problem that college students need to solve when they start their own businesses. Should they choose an entrepreneurial project based on their own strengths and hobbies, or based on the market? The degree of hotness in selecting projects confuses many college students who want to start their own businesses. In fact, the same problem not only confuses college students who want to start a business, but also makes people from other walks of life who want to start a business feel at a loss because of being at a loss. If they can understand and analyze rationally, If you have the actual conditions, combined with market demand and regional economic characteristics, you can find projects suitable for entrepreneurial operations; if you devote yourself to entrepreneurship in the field of IT risks, there are many arrogant people in China who have become influential figures in the IT industry; taking advantage of China's agricultural status Large countries have traditional advantages in planting and breeding, and they can also find their own path to entrepreneurial success. The original hatching of chickens, raising quails and cultivating vegetable seeds also created today's Hope Group. Therefore, starting a business does not depend on the size of the project. The key is whether the choice has good prospects.

Experts say that entrepreneurship is like marriage: there is only the right project, not the best project. So, when we have the impulse to start a business like love, how do we choose a project that suits us? College students must follow the following principles when choosing entrepreneurship projects:

1. It must be suitable for you. As the saying goes: "Every line is like a mountain." Therefore, you should try your best to choose projects that are relevant to your major, experience, interests, and expertise.

Two; you must be aware of the market prospects of the selected project or product. For entrepreneurs, it is necessary to investigate the local market. There must be intuitive profits for the projects being developed. Some products are in great demand, but the cost is high and the profit is low. There are many people who work hard for a while and just make a living.

Three; we must proceed from reality and not be greedy for perfection. When aiming at a certain project, it is best to intervene appropriately and understand the market with less investment, and wait until a female college student's entrepreneurial story: Failed in a 40 million project

A 19-year-old sophomore girl took the initiative to drop out of school to start a business. She completed a commercial real estate project with a total investment of 40 million yuan, and she became an entrepreneurial star in Guangzhou University Town. More than half a year later, the entrepreneurial star’s cumulative losses have reached 200,000 yuan, and the leased real estate has not been fully opened. Falling into an increasingly embarrassing situation.

In the summer of 2007, Chen Xi rented a rough property with a total area of ??5,600 square meters on the second and third floors of a shopping mall near the university town, preparing to build China's first campus cultural club. According to her vision, the third floor of the property will become a part-time job and entrepreneurial park for college students; the second floor will become a gathering place for various niche circles, including teahouses, bars, clear bars and coffee shops. After operating for a period of time, Chen Xi transferred 2,600 square meters of the property to others to use as a hotel, and rented an additional 500 square meters of property on the first floor to use as a supermarket.

Since the project started running, Chen Xi has been busy renting and decorating it every day. In just half a year, she and the merchants have invested a total of more than 1.6 million yuan. She imagined that it would be fully opened on her birthday, but the reality was not as simple as she thought. If the funds are not poured in millions or tens of millions of dollars all at once to carry out renovations day and night, but if we rely on attracting investment bit by bit like now, it will definitely be impossible.

An important reason why Chen Xi is in trouble is that she has always wanted to build an ideal youth mansion. All businesses that rent her property must comply with her designed business projects and decoration layout. If She would rather not rent if she couldn't meet this requirement. She believes that insisting on her own ideas is not romanticism, but to consider it from a market perspective. Competition for similar commercial projects is now too fierce, and differentiated competition must be formed. Maybe she was right, but the reality was that she would die miserably if she didn't wait for someone to rent it. "

According to Chen Xi's idea, the youth mansion she wants to build will form an overall concept. "If you only sell chickens, no one will be willing to come, but if you sell an overall concept, then He will definitely come. We will first think of many details and highlights here. Then consolidate customers through pick-up and drop-off, membership services, etc. ”

2.1.2 Write a business plan

College students must develop a complete and executable business plan, that is, a feasibility report, on which you will write your thoughts Clearly explain what you are doing, how to do it, who will do it, where to do it, when to do it, etc.; you also need to answer whether the project you choose can make money, how much money to make, when to make money, how to make money, and Required conditions, etc.

Answers to these questions must be based on realistic and effective market research and cannot be based on imagination or subjective judgment. Based on the analysis of the plan, we will then formulate corporate goals and decompose the goals into sub-goals for each stage, and at the same time determine detailed work steps. For college student entrepreneurs, writing a business plan is a necessary step to give your business project a clear outline. The simplest function is that it will make you always aim at what you are doing!

How to write a business plan

A business plan generally includes: summary, overview of entrepreneurial organization, products and services, market analysis, business strategy, management team, route research, financial analysis , opportunities and risks, capital needs, etc. The common format of a business plan is as follows;

1. Summary

It is a one to two page summary of the business plan. Concisely proposing the design and overall plan of the business plan requires a certain degree of attractiveness and concise language. This enables people to understand the main content of the plan as quickly as possible.

2. Overview of entrepreneurial organization

Purpose

Name, structure

Goals

Business strategy

The value of the product

Need facilities

3. Product and service entrepreneurship failed, college students sold the company for one yuan

Xiao Hu is a famous brand in Beijing Students majoring in international trade in colleges and universities. I was excellent in all subjects during school. Once, Xiao Hu accompanied his senior classmate who graduated that year to attend a job fair for college students. That day, he and his senior classmates kept running around various recruitment sites and widely distributing application materials. However, after working hard all day, his senior classmates, like most other graduates, did not find a suitable job in the end. This incident greatly touched Xiao Hu. He thought of himself and his classmates, and that 2003 was the first year of graduation when colleges and universities expanded their enrollment, and by then the employment pressure for college students would be even greater. If you start a company to help college students find jobs, and then charge a certain agency fee, which not only helps college students find jobs, but also finds jobs for yourself, wouldn’t it be a win? Just like the law of survival in nature, the fittest survive by natural selection. , various problems will be encountered in the process of university entrepreneurship, any of which cannot be solved well may lead to the failure of the entrepreneurship. Every difficulty is a test for entrepreneurs. Only by overcoming it will you have the chance to succeed.

2.2.1 Insufficient entrepreneurial funds

According to the Shanghai Municipal Labor and The Social Security Bureau announced the main survey results. Funding is one of the main reasons that troubles college students to start their own businesses. Many entrepreneurs have no problems in project selection and operation and management, and the market is gradually opening up after hard work. However, due to the lack and serious shortage of capital turnover, the operation cycle of entrepreneurial projects is lengthened and the prospects are unpredictable at best, and the project is forced to Stagnating and quitting midway; doing business is actually a game of "money begets money", it's just a question of distinguishing between high and low project investment returns. The story of a white wolf with empty gloves is difficult to perform in this society where people's IQs are generally high. Following the laws of the market and looking for the laws of value is the way to do business. Starting a business requires money, and college students generally don’t have much money. How to find startup capital? It has become a real problem facing college student entrepreneurs!

1. Bank Loans

In fact, it is not an easy thing to obtain entrepreneurial loans for college students. Before commercial banks provide loans, in addition to understanding the credit status of the lender, they must also Conduct detailed checks on person, occupation, loan purpose, collateral status, etc. For college student loans, they require college students who start a business to not only have a physical store, but also have a certain ability to repay principal and interest. However, it is generally difficult for college students to meet these two conditions, so they often have more "flowering" and less "fruit". This is also related to the imperfect credit system in our country.

Currently, various places have introduced some preferential policies to support college students' entrepreneurship, including providing preferential loan conditions to college students. Take Chengdu as an example; small loans for self-employment in Chengdu: College graduates who do not have enough self-raised funds to start their own businesses in Chengdu can apply for small guaranteed loans of no more than 50,000 yuan; those who operate in partnerships and organize employment can apply for The actual number of people is relaxed to 200,000 yuan, and the loan will be fully subsidized by the government within three years. Of course, banks also put forward a lot of requirements for applicants; after starting a business to a certain extent, various problems will arise, and failure to grasp many details will cause unnecessary losses to the company, so College student entrepreneurs should strengthen their awareness of risks and strive to make every detail possible.

Compared with the risks of other events, entrepreneurial risks are characterized by a long chain of occurrence. From project selection, fund raising, team building, product production, market development, business development and expansion, etc., the front is long and the variables are large, and there may be risks in any link. Successful entrepreneurs take calculated risks. Smart entrepreneurs get other team members to share the risk. This requires entrepreneurial talents to learn the ability to avoid risks, transfer risks, compensate for risks, suppress risks, evaluate risks, predict risks and manage risks in the process of starting a business.