Advising Entrepreneurial Students
6.0 How should I advise entrepreneurial students?
Entrepreneurial students come in all shapes and sizes. Your advice to them needs to based on an understanding of their different needs, opportunities, constraints and skills. This section looks at various aspects of giving advice, then suggests a simple framework.
6.1 What different types of entrepreneurial students will I encounter?
6.2 What questions might I ask a student wanting to start a business?
6.3 How might they start their entrepreneurial career?
6.4 How can I best advise them?
6.5 Isn’t it risky advising students to start a business?
6.6 A framework for advice
6.7 Implications for you
6.1 What different types of entrepreneurial students will I encounter?
There are a number of types of entrepreneurial graduate you may meet. A key early part of an advisory session will be helping them to decide which of the groups below they best fit into.
a) Entrepreneurial, and have a very strong need for independence.
These students will be keen to set up a new venture straight away (usually a new business). This will probably work out well if they have a realistic idea, and appropriate business skills. If not, they might need to be advised to choose a period of employment or study, to build their skills and experience further. However, their strongly independent streak suggests that they will not settle long as employees.
b) Entrepreneurial, but feel able to work within an existing organisation.
These students can try a more intrapreneurial approach initially by joining an existing organisation that will value their enterprising approach. They can learn a lot about business in a few years as an employee, especially if they pick some key skills, such as selling. They can later switch to being an independent entrepreneur, if they wish to, or else develop an intrapreneurial career. They may need assistance finding organisations they will be comfortable in. For instance they may struggle to fit into a large organisation that demands compliance with the company system.
c) Enterprising (but not strongly entrepreneurial), and have a specific set of marketable skills. (eg web site design).
These students may be better advised seek employment initially, but will also probably be successful in setting up their own self-employment business, especially if they have networking and selling skills. A partnership of complementary individuals could be a very good starting point. They will probably move around between employment and self-employment in the first few years until they find the best niche for themselves.
d) Enterprising (but not strongly entrepreneurial) and have no specific marketable skills
These students are probably best to seek employment initially, and consider moving into business later in their career, but not in the near future. A franchise is also a possibility, if they can raise the funding. If so, they probably need a good business adviser to help them through the first year or two. They are likely to become very effective employees.
e) Enthusiastic to start some sort of business, but short on skills and/or resources.
These students may be looking to start a business, but will need a lot of help in formulating a realistic plan, and in deciding how to fill their skill gaps. Probably best to seek employment and run a part-time business to gain experience. However, a good business start-up adviser may be able to help them get something up and running.
f) Finding traditional employment hard to find (eg. for reasons of geography, profession, or social factors)
These students might consider self-employment if they have marketable skills, or can acquire them perhaps by doing a post-graduate qualification. However, they need to be aware that this option may be risky if they are not very entrepreneurial individuals, though they can be helped to learn to be more enterprising in order to survive.
6.2 What questions might I ask a student wanting to start a business?
As a Careers Adviser, you are not normally going to delve too far into their business idea and capabilities. However, as part of helping them map out their initial career options, you will need to get a feeling about their commitment to starting a business, and whether the idea they have in mind matches their capabilities.
A simple, but well-proven approach is the use the 'MAIR' model, which arose from research at Durham University. You can use it quite quickly to help the student think about the feasibility of a business idea.
| Motivation | How committed are they to starting a business? What are the driving forces? Are they courageous enough to take the risks? Have they clear goals? Does running a business match their personal and family needs? |
| Abilities/skills | Have they the skills to run a business – eg. marketing/selling, accounting, negotiating? Have they good awareness of their own strengths and weaknesses? Have they other necessary attributes – eg independence, hard-working, good communicator? Are they really good at the core skill of the business (eg web-site design)? Can they put together a good business plan? |
| Ideas | Have they a feasible idea for a business? If not, have they thought how they will find one? Does the idea address a gap in the market? Will the product or service actually sell? |
| Resources | Can they find the tools, premises, supplies etc the business will need? Can they survive initially on a very low income? Can they find the staff and subcontractors they will need? Can they build up the necessary networks around them? |
If you feel that you have the experience to explore these areas, and they are within your remit, this list will help you to judge which of the following starting points they should consider.
The MAIR model is part of a larger model of business start-up which the business advisers to whom you refer your students may use.
6.3 How might they start their entrepreneurial career?
There are many potential first steps, as in any entrepreneurial career. They include the following, which may be combined in some cases.
a) Get into business or self-employment straight away
In each case you should sign-post the student to business resources and business start-up advisers inside or outside the University.
b) Start off in employment to build experience
In these cases you should help the student to find employment which really will build up their skills and experience towards starting a business in the future.
c) Further study and networking to increase skills and knowledge
In these cases you should help the student to find training or experiences which really will increase their skills and knowledge towards starting a business in the future.
Click here for a diagram of the entry points for a graduate, depending on their business idea and business skills (in new window)
6.4 How can I best advise them?
The NCGE research shows that there is rarely a clear decision point to start a business. An entrepreneur will typically mull over many options, discuss them with lots of people, seek advice from several sources, observe other practitioners, ‘Google’ endlessly for more information and a decision will emerge. You may be one of the many sources they consult.
Your Careers Service should be able to contribute to the decision-making process. In particular, an entrepreneurial student may think that starting a business is the only option open to them, whereas there are other initial career steps that might lead to a much better business later.
The advice that any of these students need will be very varied, so in line with good guidance theory and practice, you can deploy a range of useful approaches including:
a) Pros and Cons: If you are familiar with the material in these pages you should feel confident enough to have a discussion with them about the pros and cons of employment, self-employment and starting a new venture
b) Immediate issues: You can try and identify some immediate issues in their minds for which you are able to give immediate assistance. This is good for your credibility as an adviser. To do this effectively you will need to know a little about starting a business. Your Careers Service should have dedicated business-related resources and those listed in 'Further information' may be helpful.
c) Options: You can help the student to identify a range of possible options for the first steps into entrepreneurship.
d) Entrepreneurial employment : You can point those initially seeking employment to employers who will value their skills and personality and give them the experience they need to pursue their entrepreneurial career.
e) Business Start-up : You can point those planning to set up a new business to the appropriate business advisers and other resources for additional help.
f) Other new ventures: If any of them are wanting to set up non-commercial ventures, you can point them to resources to help them develop their ideas further, and confirm that they are realistic.
Overall, your role as a Careers Professional is to inform, encourage, advise and enable them to explore the options that interest them.
6.5 Isn’t it risky advising students to start a business?
On the face of it an entrepreneurial career might seem a risky option and, if you have limited experience of advising would-be entrepreneurs, you might be concerned whether this route is appropriate for a student.
What if you inadvertently encourage them to follow an entrepreneurial option they cannot cope with? Linked to this is the sense is that if a student follows a conventional career route any future problems are down to them, but if they do something more entrepreneurial and it goes wrong, they may feel that you should have ‘talked them out of it’!
It is important to remember that you won't be actually advising them to start a business. The most you will be doing is making them aware of it as an option, and providing them with information and guidance if they want to explore it further. The onus is on them to explore the options thoroughly and consciously take any risks themselves.
Careers professionals who regularly deal with entrepreneurial students suggest it is vital to be able to direct them towards business advisers who can assess their business plans: “I never worry that I might 'wrongly' encourage them to start a business: I give appropriate advice and guidance, as I would to a student considering any career, knowing that downstream from me there is a business adviser who will pour gallons of cold water on their business idea if it’s not a goer”
Starting a business certainly is risky for the student. The chances of their first business succeeding are not high, and even if they do succeed the financial rewards may be quite low. Fortunately most students are quite accustomed to living on a low income, and can delay repaying student loans.
If they take advice from business advisers (and they should be strongly advised to do so), they can learn ways to manage the risks so that failure is not too painful, for instance by not committing to expensive leased premises. Whatever the outcome it will have been a good learning experience, and they will then be well placed to try a second business or take some other entrepreneurial career step.
The preferred approach is therefore to help them explore the options and then sign-post them to reputable business advisers for the next stage of their investigation of the options – eg your HEI's Enterprise Centre, or Business Link. To be able to do this your Careers Service will need to know a range of people to refer students on to, and have referral processes.
Although the framework below is presented in neat steps, in practice it will be more of an iterative process. For instance your impression of the student's entrepreneurial capabilities will emerge gradually as they respond to different parts of the process.
a) Is the student entrepreneurial?
Establish where the student lies along the spectrum of entrepreneurial, intrapreneurial, enterprising, or in need of development. Use the list of 'student types' in the first section above.
b) Have they the potential to start a business?
If they have an idea for a business, try to get an approximate feel for how feasible it is by using the questions in the four sections of the MAIR model. More detailed questioning and advice can be provided by the business adviser to whom you refer them.
c) What career starting points might be appropriate?
Help them to explore the pros and cons of the possible career starting points described above.
d) What sign-posting is needed?
Sign-post the student to resources and further guidance as appropriate to the most likely starting points.
Click here for a diagram showing the types of advice that might be appropriate (in new window)
If you are experienced, you will probably already be doing most of the things in this section. However, it is hoped that the information about types of entrepreneurial students, factors for successful start-up, and possible career starting points will broaden the range of options you can bring forward, and help you to establish a rapport with entrepreneurial students.