Entrepreneurship. Not just an impossible-to-spell word! It could also be… your major. We don't want to lie to you. Entrepreneurship as a major can be a risky choice. Schools read that and think Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg. Not because of your clear genius, but because you kids are more prone to dropping out of college to pursue your dreams. So how can you counteract these malicious, untrue stereotypes? By proving you’re in it to win it. How can you prove you’re in it to win it? Extracurriculars.
Figure out what your deal is
Okay so for other majors, this is less of a thing. But if you want to start your own business, you need to think like a business owner. We believe that entrepreneurship is more of a personality trait than a learned skill, but there are things to learn about entrepreneurship and how to build a better business idea that is valuable. If you’re someone who’s prone to coming up with solutions for problems, this might be the major for you. If you’re someone who is interested in business in a general sense and just think entrepreneurship sounds cool, then this probably isn’t for you. We did write a guide on how to do this for business majors though!
Reading
You want to become the next mogul. A mogul’s mogul, perhaps. Well, moguls don’t just become moguls overnight. They read books written by other moguls. Reading is one of the best ways to start learning about entrepreneurship, because a lot of entrepreneurs have talked about how they got started. Popular books in this area include Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel, The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses by Eric Ries, Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear, and The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss.
Online Classes
Are you a self-starter? Time to self-start taking online classes. You can look at platforms like Coursera, Open Yale Courses, and LinkedIn Learning to get started. Yes, you can take classes about entrepreneurship, but we also recommend taking classes that would help you start your business. You’ll need skills in management, accounting, economics, etc. to be successful. If you are already thinking about your future company, it might be good to take classes that reflect what that company aims to achieve.
Summer Programs
Like online classes, you need to start building out your skills through practical application. Summer programs will allow you to dive in, head first, to learn what you need to be successful. You can look at pre-college programs at schools with great business schools, or you can attend more specific programs like Wharton Essentials of Entrepreneurship, Stanford Silicon Valley Innovation Academy, Harvard’s Secondary School Program course Introduction to Entrepreneurship, or the Georgetown Entrepreneurship Academy.
Research
Hard to get but wildly impressive on a college application, research is one of the best ways to explore your interest area. Research can be tricky when it comes to entrepreneurship, so just like the online classes and summer programs, you should try to research something that clearly demonstrates how you will go about starting and running a business. Maybe it’s research on market trends or the economy or behavioral economics or marketing psychology! We don’t know! We aren’t you! Start out by cold-emailing some professors at local schools (or not local) and see what develops from there.
Intern
“Interning? For Entrepreneurship? Groundbreaking.”
Interning is a great way to get real, true practical application of the skills you’ve been developing. We recommend interning at the type of company you’d want to start. Start with start-ups, small businesses, and local operations. The latter two will be pretty easy to get your foot in the door with, so give it a shot. Make sure the intern work you’re doing is more than just making copies and getting coffee–you should have an integral role or work on a project that you can then use as evidence of a job well done.
Get a Job
Okay, so imagine all of that, but you’re making money doing it. Same advice goes for what types of organizations you should reach out to. You could get a job, or you could…
Start a business
Do you want to prove you’ve got the entrepreneurial spirit? Then start a company. If you want to study entrepreneurship at Wharton, for example, we highly recommend starting a business. Easier said than done, we know, we know. But there are literally an infinite number of things you could do. One way we recommend starting is by thinking of a small problem you’ve encountered in your everyday life, especially one that impacts your neighborhood or community. One of our past clients told us that parking at his favorite restaurant was a disaster, so we told him to start a valet company. We helped him build his company and change it as necessary, and eventually, the company became profitable and he was able to hire other people too.
Like we said, entrepreneurship is not for everyone who is interested in business. It requires more niche skill sets and is better suited to specific personality types. Exploring this avenue early is key to finding out if it’s the right one for you. Better to find out now if you’ve got the chops than 10 years down the line. But if it’s a good fit, we hope to see you on Shark Tank someday soon.
If you need help developing your extracurriculars and strategizing for college admissions, reach out to us today.