Just Half of Recent College Graduates Have Full-Time Jobs; Fewer than 1% Consider Their Own Start-Ups
While the job market for graduating college students is better since the 2006 survey and there are continual signs of improvement, that’s little consolation to the newly-minted graduates without a job offer in-hand.
A surprising finding from the Rutgers report is that a scant 1% of graduating college seniors described their prospective job situation as “self-employed.”
Entrepreneurship: Overlooked Opportunity by Recent College Grads
“Starting a small business is an often overlooked option that can help build experience and keep a career on track,” said John William Geranios, Ph.D. the Executive Director of Brandings.com, a California based start-up resource for small and mid-sized businesses.
“In addition, the experience of starting a business right out of college not only demonstrates initiative to future prospective employers but it is also a solution for long gaps of unemployment on a resume,” he notes.
With that in mind, the Brandings Startup Team asked Dr. Geranions if he would share his top 3 tips for grad looking to start their own business, and this is what he said:
3 Tips to help Recent College Grads Start their own Businesses:
Tip for Grad Startups #1: Pick a Business Idea Related to Your College Major.
To develop a set of marketable skills and help bolster a resume, your start-up should be related to your college major and your career objectives. Consider your new business an extension of your education and your major. You might want to think of your start-up as a self-directed internship,” said Geranios.
Tip for Grad Startups 2: Focus on a Niche Market.
“You can’t be everything to everyone. The most successful start-ups for recent grads focus on one small segment in a marketplace,” Geranios notes. “Your chance for success is increased by targeting one slice in an industry. You can always expand the scope of your business as your company grows.”
Tip for Grad Startups 3: Have a Clear Plan.
The best classes have a course syllabus, as the most successful start-ups begin with a well-crafted strategy and a focused roadmap for execution. “When you develop an actionable plan there is less chance that you’ve overlooked something. Like a syllabus directs a college course, a business plan guides your business,” advises Geranios. “Recent grads shouldn’t be concerned with producing a highly-formal business plan. For non-business majors, there is no need to include complicated terminology and business jargon,” Geranios added.
What’s most important is that the recent grad create a functional “how-to” user’s manual for their new business. A good plan pushes the entrepreneur to think about each and every aspect of the new business before it’s launched.
The Brandings Startup Development Team encourages everyone launching a business, recent grad or not, to check out our Free Business Plan Template and Planning Guide to help get any entrepreneur off to a strong start.
“With just over half of recent college grads fully-employed, there is a huge overlooked opportunity for driven individuals who have just received their college diplomas,” Geranios notes.
“If the start-up really takes off, the venture could provide a lot more than experience on a resume. You may find that you never have to fill out another job application again.”
Examples of startup names perfectly suited for a recent college grad:
Find a Great Company Name Now
If you are one of those recent college grads and you’re ready to launch your startup now and you just need your startup name, Brandings has thousands of pre-developed company names, product names and domain names in the Brandings company name database. Just click on this link to search for the perfect startup name here.
Here is a Sample of Start-Up Names Ready for a Grad to Create Something Big:
Find the Perfect Catchy and Memorable Startup Name Now
You can find thousands of pre-developed catchy and available startup names and catchy business names in the Brandings® company name database. The best thing about our database is that you know that any of the company or product names you see on our site comes with the exact match dot-com domain name. Start the search for an available name for a startup right here.
Brandings is different from the other startup naming sites. There’s no finding the perfect startup name only to find out that the domain name has been taken; we already own the corresponding domain name to everything you see on this site!
If the idea of launching your own startup right out of college but you’d like some more info, please use our online articles page as a resource. And if you have any questions, or just want to bounce some ideas around, give our Brandings® Brand Development Team a call today at 1-800-852-8900 (Toll Free USA) +1-310-246-5100 (Worldwide) or simply click here to contact our office via e-mail.