When I was in college, the #1 thing I wanted to do, aside from discover my true passion, was to start my own business! I didn’t want to work for the man right out of college. I wanted to build my own startup company like some of the entrepreneurs I’ve read about, who even had the audacity to drop out of college.

I vividly remember being in the student library reading through this book, Campus CEO: The Student Entrepreneur’s Guide to Launching a Multi-Million-Dollar Business, and racking my brain for business ideas.

My very first business was kind of a dumb idea looking back, but I actually ended up making a little bit of money. I documented the experience here. I had several other business ideas at the time, which my friends and I laugh about now. One even verged on the idea of “Jello Shot Syringes,” which are actually sold now through another website. I should have tried launching that one!

Despite some of my failures, I finally stumbled enough that I learned how to hustle and go full time on a business out of college, which is what I’m still doing today. There are a few lessons that I learned along the way, that I’d love to pass on to other college entrepreneurs! Feel free to leave a comment below if you’d like to connect.

Step 1: Do you want to sell a product or a service?

Deciding whether you’d like to sell a product or service will impact how you do marketing, generate referrals, and begin to get a buzz going for whatever it is you’re offering through your new business. Both types of businesses come with benefits and drawbacks.

In a previous post, I documented building a small service-based business while in college. Ultimately, the success of the business comes down to three factors 1: Are you very good at what you do? 2: Do people recognize or can they be persuaded to recognize the value of what you do? 3: Do you have a good strategy to get the word out?

It might seem scary turning on the news to hear about a “downtown in the economy” that “college graduates can’t get jobs” or that “workplaces only want to hire people with a lot of experience.”

You might think “how am I going to build a service-based business if I don’t even stand a good chance of getting a job?”

That’s all compete B.S. and is hyped up by the media to keep you tuned into the next broadcast.

I had a multitude of paid internships in college. I was offered a job straight out of college for over $50k. And, to seal the deal, when I applied for that job, it was the only actual job interview I went on, because I knew I was going to get it.

I don’t say this to brag – I say this because once you have identified how to render a better level of service or be better at a given skill than others in your marketplace, you only need to sell the prospect on that fact and then it’s a pretty logical choice.

Would you hire the best lawyer or a third-rate lawyer given that they are the same price and competing for the same position?

The answer is simple. If you want to build a successful service-based business, you need to be good at whatever it is you do. That could be designing websites, editing term papers for colleagues, or teaching people to speak in public.

If you want to sell a product, then you must create something that fills a need in some way or solve the problem of a customer. For example, a customer needs to travel from point A to point B, but they don’t want to walk. One solution is a horse and carriage. Another is a car. What will the next better solution be? A self-driving car?

Launching a successful product-driven company begins and ends with the product. Don’t get me wrong, you need to have to have strong marketing to get the word out about it, but at the end of the day, you must have a product that is 10x better than the competition or solves a whole new need entirely. Who knew taking pictures of your personal life in order to brag about to your friends was a need until Facebook came around? Who knew taking pictures of your food was a need until Instagram came around?

Step 2: Who will buy the product/service, businesses or customers?

There are a few different segments that you can sell a product or service to: businesses, consumers, and governments.

Buffer (which I use) is a social media scheduling software that businesses buy. A new watch sold from an ecommerce store would be bought by a consumer. The government awards contracts to companies like SpaceX that might ferry cargo from the planet earth to the space station.

B2B vs. B2C vs. B2G all have their own various benefits and drawbacks. Before going out and telling everyone about your new business idea to get feedback, begin to think about who will buy your product or service and what elements of that item they would care or not care about.

Once you’ve determined which marketplace you will be pursuing initially, it’s time to think about how you will enter that market. If you’re a college student who is trying to start a business that develops electric cars, it’s going to be hard to enter that market given the various regulations unless you first study up on that and have the capital or investment connections to launch the initial prototype. If you want to start a new social network, then it’s easier to think about how that might start: right at your very campus!

Step 3: Assess the capital requirements

Every business has capital requirements. You might need to buy product inventory or set up an LLC or C Corporation. Depending on these requirements, you may need to invest a little money, pursue a business competition at your school with some kind of financial reward, or ask others for investment.

For extremely capital intensive businesses, it’s likely you’d have to seek out professional investment capital or launch the initial prototype on a crowdfunding platform (see my guide here).

I would not recommend “dropping out” or using credit cards at this stage of your businesses. Although there are some select cases that used these techniques to start a business, I think there are more people that crashed and burned making stupid financial decisions.

Step 4: Take Action

Lastly, it’s time to take action! No matter what it is you’re doing in life, whether that’s dating in college, learning how to exercise, or launch a new business, I think that having a bias for action is best. Remember, this is your life and your future!

I have way more regrets about some of the businesses ideas I had that I didn’t take action on than those that I crashed and burned on. Those are forgotten. You might joke about them with friends, but really, people at large only remember the success you’ve had.

If you need some extra motivation, I recommend checking out this book, Rich Dad Poor Dad: What The Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!

Let me know if you have any questions with a comment down below!