Tomorrow, I Become An Entrepreneur
Aisha shares some insights about what it takes to be a student entrepreneur and how to survive the sudden hike in fees while juggling schoolwork.
When the price of fuel rises, every other thing follows. It becomes the more you spend, the less you get. The value of everything reduces, and you begin to ponder about your wealth and how you — as a student and entrepreneur — can explore life, how your business can thrive, and how long you can survive.
These are the never-ending questions in your mind that can begin to choke you. But, pause, breathe, and let’s rethink things together—because I’ve been there, I’ve had those thoughts, too. So, tag along as we explore how an entrepreneur comes to be and how they can strike a balance, especially as med students and businesspeople. But first…
What does it take to become an entrepreneur?
A Lot of Math
If you were like me, some months back, when I struggled with my finances, all I needed was a headstart. I’d get a piece of paper and a pen and begin the calculations. Every fund that went into that monthly reward outing or the high-priced school book—which I still haven’t read—I’d write out and calculate everything.
As an entrepreneur, you must be at the top of your game. Where would the first few batches of income come from? This would help you evaluate how often and how long your primary source can begin the funding of your first business.
Branding and Business Models
You have probably heard of branding before. It’s when a business decides to become more noticeable. Your business has to consider four things for this: your idea, customers, strategy, and profits. These are called your business models.
When it comes to branding, you’d have to highlight what you’re prioritizing to fetch the most revenue and which you have the best resources for. What business idea do you have in mind? How much money can you pour into it? How much can you get from it?
No matter how high the costs are, people will buy from you. However, that would depend on how well you can market your business idea to your audience. For example, COMPSSA houses multiple food vendors, but it’s a no-brainer that Chijioke sells the best spaghetti in the school.
Now that the who is out of the way, let’s get into how you can thrive as a student and entrepreneur in the College of Medicine, UNILAG.
Never Sell or Buy on Credit
Installment payments instead of credit in business are a lifesaver, trust me. It’s an “I am making progress towards making sure I settle my debts.” This is extremely important because it keeps you accountable for your wealth. Remember that pen and paper from earlier, and use them here again.
Issues arise at points when you have to calculate your income across multiple debts, but with part-payments, it’s much easier to spread the costs and find profit from whatever is left.
Prioritise investments over savings
Money appreciates; money really… appreciates. Someone once asked, “Imagine saving $20 for 2 years and investing the same amount in Google for the same period, which would earn you more returns?” The latter, definitely!
Invest three-quarters of your wealth in stocks and shares from companies with high futuristic growth graphs. Although saving money is a tale as old as time, in reality, it will help you a lot as an entrepreneur, especially in the short term.
Apply the Pre-Order System
It’s a rule of thumb that you have to use more to get more and make more. As a growing entrepreneur, your leverage would be the opposite, spending less with pre-orders to get more.
Take Temu as an example; they implement a pre-order system to know how many customers are interested in a particular product and work with that value. This means that at the close of every month, you have little to no products to carry over. Also, it leaves you with more profit when you buy in bulk.
Have No Breathing Space (It’s Not Figurative)
You know how the quote “leave no stone unturned” goes: the truth is, that’s what makes the most successful student-preneurs—from strict deadlines, crossed t’s, and dotted i’s to making up for assignments before their due dates. Juggling two hectic things requires twice the effort you’d need if you were doing just one of them. Remember, you have zero time to waste.
For a very good amount of time, have no breathing space and set the earliest deadlines. Then, after a ticked-off goal, have a reward system that suits your expenses without any extra charges.
Conquer Tasks as They Come
There’s a popular saying, “Thinking will not overcome fear, but action will.” At the College of Medicine, the deadlines never stop, from assignments to late-night lab manual filling, and don’t get me started on the seventh and thirteenth weeks and their fair barrage of in-courses.
Usually, now would be the time to freak out, back down, and overheat from all the tension; instead, take your deepest breath and face the issues one step at a time.
While you could have your content calendar, say, you have to post on the morning of a test day or a bulk order to sort, schedule it ahead of that week, run through your notes in preparation for your in-course, attend that event after the necessities have been sorted, and cross off these tasks on your checklist way, way before their deadlines.
Expect Some Fails
It happens to the best of us, whether it’s a carryover course or a low score in an exam. What would differentiate you from others, however, would be the frequency. How often do you fail? What do you do to avoid failing? How quickly do you realise where the failure stemmed from and what it had taught?
Back in my first year at college, when I became an entrepreneur, I had no idea what the best way to merge school and my business was. I was merely passing. As time went on, I saw that failure wasn’t attached to how much you knew; it was based on what you were able to produce with that knowledge.
If pharmacology meant studying drugs, how could you convert that study into making them? Think of schoolwork as a business model you’re about to launch: how do you pitch to investors and customers? It’s about the same as your courses and the lecturers.
Be Assertive
Combining business, life, and school gets easy based on the decisions you make. As a student, knowing and understanding that your primary aim is school first, the rest would fall in place.
What does that mean? Say no to extra workload when you have to; say it when you NEED to. To have that steady footing and be all-rounded, you have to prioritise what matters most to you, and that’s what marks your courage to make the right decisions in the College of Medicine.
Not everyone can become a CEO, but everyone can be involved in entrepreneurship. If you realise that heading a business doesn’t work for you, be involved in someone else’s or multiple people’s. The end goal remains the same: no more sapa.
In all, pray first and make it happen. You’d figure things out, and God would come through for you and your efforts.
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