Traditionally, the routine has been for those who choose to pursue higher education, to devote all time and energy to their studies and wait until they receive that “official piece of paper” before making some “real money.” Textbooks, papers, and exams don’t keep the bills from coming, you still gotta eat, and your landlord won’t accept “broke college student” on your rent check.
Towards the end of my first year of a graduate program, I opened an online thrift/vintage store in honor of my late grandmother called Mae’s Closet that served as much needed and greatly appreciated supplemental income. Although I have only spent a short period as an entrepreneurial scholar, I want to share some of the many benefits of having a business and things to consider while pursuing your education at the same time.
- Readily available resources/people
When starting my online store, I wasn’t savvy to much else besides the curation of vintage apparel and taking pictures of them to resell. I reached out to the law school on my campus and began making visits to the legal clinic to help me with the necessary paperwork to make my business legit. I was also able to access media equipment through student services that I would not have had access to if I were not a student. Also, many of the faculty and staff members who were aware of my side hustle turned out to be a great network and always offered support (whether that be an introduction to someone of importance in retail to sharing tips on how to increase my sales).
2. Trial Market
College campuses are one of the best, if not the best trial markets for a business (contingent upon what type of business). I would always wear my clothing from Mae’s Closet on campus as well as share information about my pop-up shops on our student page. My classmates would ask where I got my apparel and I would always lead them back to my site or invite them out to my next vending event and they would always come out to support. Here is where trial and error works best because the risk is minimal while the reward is great. Free advertising, free feedback, increased sales.
3. Cheap/Free Resources
As I mentioned earlier about my trips to the legal clinic, their services were free because I was a student. They helped me turn Mae’s Closet into an LLC for free 99. Students who were studying photography or graphics and wanted to thicken their portfolio would offer their services for free and my classmates who wanted to dabble into modeling would offer to model my apparel for my Instagram and website. The media production department allowed me to rent equipment or studio time for a very reasonable price because I was a student that would have cost 3x as much elsewhere around the city.
4. Reprieve from academic responsibilities
I studied Social and Economic Development in Social Work for my masters program so I literally researched, read about, wrote about, and talked about racism, oppression, police brutality, Black Lives Matter all day every day. Mae’s Closet brought me the reprieve from thinking about social ills all the time because it grew to be extremely exhausting. While manning the business carried its own challenges, it became very therapeutic for me to shift my focus somewhere else that would generate revenue while I was working on my masters.
However, with all benefits, there have to be some things to consider when taking on this additional task:
- Time management and establishing boundaries
Being in academia is extremely demanding and requires a lot of discipline just to stay on task and complete what is asked of you on top of your other daily responsibilities (marriage, parenting, etc). It requires you to strengthen your level of discipline and forces you to prioritize your responsibilities by the level of importance (which could change by the day). You have to be intentional about how you are spending your time: what to say yes to and HOW to say no.
2. Sacrifice extracurricular activities
It isn’t everyone’s cup of tea to be ultra-involved on college campuses but that is where I thrived. I enjoyed joining organizations and holding leadership positions and going to conferences. Once I started Mae’s, some of those tasks I had to let go of or seldom participate in. I enjoy being around people and am a natural busybody so making sacrifices on campus was very hard for me. To go to class, then to go home, then to go to work may have to become your life when taking on a side hustle.
3. Work smarter not harder
This takes a certain amount of pre-planning which can be mentally exhausting. On days I knew I had assignments due but had an upcoming vending event that I had to prep for, I would complete my assignments days in advance (which I hated) so I could have the time to sit down and make sure all the necessary tasks for Mae’s was completed. I wanted my customers to take my store seriously (even if it is only a side hustle) and the only way that could have happened was if I showed how serious I was about my business.
4. Money Management
Set a financial goal for yourself before you start merging your funds. I opened a completely different bank account just for Mae’s and I only use the funds to pour back into my business. I told myself I had to make $1500 before I started using the funds for anything else (bills, school tuition, etc) outside of Mae’s.
5. Don’t hustle backwards
Understand that this is a “side hustle” and your job as a student is the priority. It is very easy to get caught up in the idea of making money then and there, but don’t lose sight of where you are. Your side hustle shouldn’t have your grades suffering and force you to leave your work incomplete. If that starts to occur, reevaluate your daily activities and where you need to pull back for the time being until you get back on track.
In the words of Ms. Ebony, “make the money, don’t let the money make you.”
