Hi, my name is Alan Phung. I am a senior this year, and I major in financial economics. I wanted to talk a bit about why you should try to start your own business. I will begin by talking about my background and then go into the plusses of starting your business in regards to your career.
My Background
I started my startup business called Mai coffee in my Freshman year. I went through blood, sweat, and tears while working on my business. I give you a small run done of some highlights.
- At the beginning of my freshman year, I wanted to bottle Vietnamese coffee and sell it to grocery stores. I sold my product at street markets in the summer and learned that people liked it. It was time-consuming work that took me 16-hour workdays.
- In my sophomore year, after researching more, I realized that if I wanted the coffee to be shelf-stable(which it was not yet at the time), I would need to pay $10,000 to $20,000 to a food scientist to get that done. That startup cost was too much of a risk for my liking at the time.
- In my junior year, I pivoted to importing Vietnamese coffee beans, which was easier and allowed me to work at my own pace. From there, I was introduced to David Hirsh and Nelson Kuo, who both have been running separate importation businesses for the last 40 years. They taught me everything I know about importing.
- As a senior, I am selling my coffee to a couple of places in Ohio and Chicago. Here in Granville, Mai Chau carries my product, and I will soon have it in Slivy’s as well.
How does this help with your career?
- This helps you gain research and communication skills- Most research you gain in school is from reading online or books. However, running a startup business pushes you to do research on actual people. You must get creative on how you find answers and how you talk with others. These skills are essential if you want to work in consulting or business management.
- You build a network- You will get to know many people when you are trying to sell your product or trying to learn from more experienced business owners. This allows you to grow your businesses and, at the same time, get potential jobs from the people meet. In my junior year, I landed full-time jobs in Columbus since I talked with so many people.
- You potentially build yourself something that you can earn revenue on for a long time- A lot of the time, people think about building a business that can be sold for billions. However, the fact is, not every business can be sold for that much money. The proper way to think about business is that maybe it can be a side gig. Something that makes you money while you work a full-time job. The typical path I see is that people will turn that side gig into a full-on business or end up making multiple side gigs. Both these options allow you to work for yourself.
- YOU GAIN GRIT- A quality you usually can’t learn from anywhere unless you work hard and long hours. This can carry over to every part of your life. You will start to enjoy the challenge, and once you get grit, you will feel superhuman no matter what you do as a career.
These are just some perks of starting your own business. I highly encourage people to give it at least a try for a year. Find a mentor and see what you can learn from the experience. You can transfer the skills you gain to anything you decide to do after.
