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How to Start a Business While in College

Recently a user for YE asked me How to Start a Business While in College and in particular selling online.    With his permission we are going to move the conversation from Facebook to my Blog so that everyone can read what we’ve talked about.  I think you’ll find that a lot of people have the same questions.  I’m not sure they all have the same motivation as Michael G. but hopefully you’ll find some use for all this.

How to Start a Business While in College Conversation

First Message sent 2-2-2011

Hey you’re the Roger Bryan from youngentrepreneur.com correct? If so I was wondering if I could just ask you a couple of questions if you don’t mind. Thanks

My Response sent 2-2-2011

Sure.. You can send them on FB or you can call me when you have time 440-821-4332

I’m now going to move the conversation to comment threads so I can give Michael G. the opportunity to edit his posts for information he would like to keep private.

I do encourage everyone else to join in on the conversation.  Learning How to Start a Business While in College can be intimidating especially when you pile on a full college workload on top of that.  My goal here is to help as much as I can so that everyone can enjoy the possibility of success.

Hopefull if you are looking to learn How to Start a Business While in College you’ll find this thread useful!

What I’m now considering is do I keep this idea to myself so that I can continue to sell it or do I post it on my blog so everyone else can use?  Secondly, if I post it on my blog – how should I do it?

Ideas:

• I could make the list a free PDF Download with subscription to the site.   This is a great marketing tool that many people use to get more subscribers.

• I could post the list to my site directly.   I like this idea because I would be able to better explain the list this way.  I would also be able to create 100 pages of content off of this list if I was to link each line of the list to a page describing what I mean.  The problem here is that the search term ‘business plan’ is a very competitive keyword.

• The other option is to keep the list private and continue to use it internally which means I can keep charging for it.

I’d like to ask my readers what they think?  Leave me a comment below and the person that gives me the best idea will get a $25 iTunes Gift Card.

1- Planning: They say that when you write a business plan and you estimate that you need $X to get the business going that you then need to multiply that by 5. Well my experience with this business is that you’ll need to do more then that.

The key elements of my underestimations were based on my lack of knowledge of how much space books can take up. You can envision how much space it takes to hold 10,000 books but until you actually have them inventory you have no idea how much shelving is actually needed. I currently have 55,000 books online and I have a goal of having 75,000 online by the end of 2010. I believe that I will max out my 9000sqft facility at that point. Plan ahead or you’ll end up paying for it in the end.

2- Supply: People always ask me where I get all my books from. The reality is that there are so many used books out there that you can find them a ton of places such as Bookstores, Libraries, Schools, Universities, Charities, and Private Individuals. The key here is to understand your local market in order to find and profitably buy the inventory you need. If you remember the guy from Detroit I mentioned earlier well he got all his books for FREE! He found a few libraries in Detroit that were paying to get rid of their old books. He offered to pick them up for free… Next thing you know he’s picking up 60,000 a year! The books are out there you just need to go find them.

3- Facility: The key here is room to grow. The hardest thing to do is to find a few months in that your facility is too small and that you need to completely move your inventory. I started out in a 1200sqft office and then moved to a 3000sqft warehouse and again (all in the first six months) I had to again move into my current 9000sqft facility. I wasted countless amounts of money have to continually move and redesign my facilities. Plan ahead and you will avoid many of the problems I encountered.

4- Software: There are two major players in this industry Monsoon, Inc and Indaba, Inc. While I started out with Monsoon’s Pro-warehouse Edition I had numerous problems with their software and their support team. This led me after a few months to switch to Indaba Inc’s Program. Since switching I’ve been in close contact with the company’s owner Gary Jones and his whiz software designer Shin Yu. These two are the reason that I would recommend Indaba over Monsoon 10 to 1. Finding the right software provider is a key element to profitability in this industry.

*Software note* – You’re also going to need shipping software! I’ll write about this again later.

5- Logistics: Once you have your supply, your facility, and your software you then need to find a way to pick-up and/or have your inventory delivered. You then also need to be able to get your sales to the post office and/or to get them picked up by your shipping broker. This is a very complicated task at first. Making a decision as to whether you want to have your own truck or if you want to outsource your transportation is mostly dependent on where you inventory is coming from. If the inventory is local then you it may be cost efficient to have a box truck for local pick-ups. If it is coming from various states then you may want to utilize a trucking or logistics company.

This is a very basic overview of what it takes to sell books online. I’d be happy to answer any more specific questions you may have!