If you graduated this year, student life may already seem like a lifetime ago. You might be in your first 9-5 role, back in study or making plans for your next move, but have you considered running your own business? A growing number of graduates are deciding to bypass climbing the corporate ladder by starting their own company and going in at the top! Read on to find out what’s in it for you…
Why work for yourself?
While graduates leave university with more debt than ever before thanks to growing tuition fees, relatively speaking, they tend to have fewer financial commitments than other groups. Once you’ve been in your career a while it can be hard to quit a stable job and potentially take a cut in salary to start out in business. When you own your own business, you and your salary will hopefully grow with it, you’re likely to work hard but do it for yourself and you can tailor your business to things you enjoy and are good at.
Entrepreneur vs employment
Research by the Simply Business Start-up Index shows a 29% increase in the number of firms set up by 18-25 year-olds since the recession’s started in 2008. Faced with fewer job opportunities it seems the young are creating their own. The top three sectors for young entrepreneurs are internet based businesses, retail and apps. As nearly 75 per cent of Brits say they would like to set up their own business but never get round to it, technology is fuelling opportunities and business development among the young.
In contrast, graduate jobs are in shorter supply with the Times Higher Education reporting that too many UK graduates are moving into non-professional jobs after graduation, which is pushing average salaries down. The European Social Survey reveals that 58.5 per cent of UK graduates are working in non-graduate jobs, a number only surpassed by Estonia and Greece. Last year the average salary of a recent graduate was around £18,615 - £22,785 with variation for different sectors and geographical location.
The reality of owning your own business
Depending on the sector you move into, you could have the chance to put into practice the things you’ve learnt at university and play on your natural skills and interests. You may be able to set your own hours too and perhaps even work from home, which can be preferred in the first instance since renting business premises means an additional cost coming out of your profits!
If you don’t have a spare room where you can set up an office, consider sectioning off an area within a larger room. Understanding parents may let you fit bi-fold doors in your living room or dining room, so that you can portion off an area to use as your headquarters. These type of doors let light through so it’s not quite as dramatic as constructing a wall! You could also try visiting co-working spaces, many of which offer facilities such as meeting rooms, phone lines and Wi-Fi for an affordable monthly or daily fee. However, in reality you might find that you are working outside of normal 9-5 hours and when your friends are clocking off for after-work drinks, you may find you’re still hard at it, particularly when you’ve just started out and have no one to delegate too. The good news is, unlike the hard work you put in your dissertation, you’ll likely be receiving an hourly rate or other financial rewards for your efforts.
Getting help
There’s lots of help available to you if you have your own idea for a business including guidance and funding from the Princes Trust and 1:1 mentorship – check out http://www.mentorsme.co.uk/.
Your local council is also a good first point of call as they’ll be able to point you in the direction of any local support schemes and even co-working spaces in the area. Though the funding for new businesses from government has reduced in recent years there are still some training schemes place funded by the EU and even some grants, so it’s worth enquiring before you get started. There’s a lot of research to be conducted before you get started in business. With this in mind, it pays to find local networking opportunities and mentorship schemes where you can not only benefit from the experience of others but also hopefully make new contacts for the future. Check out Eventbrite to see what’s going on in your area.
Do you know where you are headed after graduation? If you started your own business after graduation do you have any tips you’d like to share?
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