A day in the life of a Student Entrepreneur!

Thursday September 05, 2013 , 5 min Read

Having covered a quite a few student entrepreneurs I wondered is it really tough for a student to be an entrepreneur at the same time? The inputs from quite a few student entrepreneurs had quite a different tale to talk about.

Varun Banka, the Cofounder of SocialCops, has very optimistic views about being a student entrepreneur. He believes that the ecosystem is providing a lot of resources both in terms of knowledge as well as money for young aspiring entrepreneurs if they are solving the right problems. He also tells that every student must use their "student card" before it expires and make the best use of it. Though he graduated just two months back, he doesn't mind being a student entrepreneur again just to avail all the opportunities.

Being a student entrepreneur has got its own perks. You get free access to wifi and cheap accommodation is always present along with potential hires or co-founders could be right amongst you. Also it becomes quite easy to spread the word via friends. But all this doesn’t put a shadow on problems being faced by them.

The common trait seen within students is that they are not satisfied with what is on their plate already and the numbers of opportunities are so high that they wish to avail most of them. This causes the time management and setting the right priorities become problematic. When success gets associated with salary packages, it might have an impact on some budding student entrepreneurs with brilliant potential.

Abhishek Gupta of Zumbl also a student at IIT Delhi, states that when we start we aren’t taken seriously compared to people who start up at later stages having gained some experience. Another major issue faced by the student entrepreneurs is managing academics while being entrepreneurs at the same time. Many Colleges and Universities should now have a progressive thinking and allot credits for works done of such a kind, in the student does learn something, Kshitij Rihal, the cofounder of AdHog Interactives resonates similar thoughts.

Majority of the student entrepreneurs had one thing in common, they felt that most people be it mentors, angels, or the investors lack the confidence on what these young ones try to do. The Indian Society is to be blamed here. Many a times we are under the notion that a student cannot do wonders unless they have attained experience in life. What we tend to ignore is that we need good mentors who can tell these students what could go wrong from their experiences in life and instill confidence in young minds. Rohin, Founder and CEO of MyTi comments that at least not to discourage the person who is trying to do something rather polish his approaches.

Tarun, who is the CEO of Fuccha, mentioned that being a student, you don't have huge amount of money in your bank account, you just save your pocket money, so funding is again one of the challenge.

Yograj Patel from Countryside also tells us to look at the positive side when you get learn, experience and live an entrepreneur life while still being a student. One can always take that risk, learn and fail. Hence, not jumping to conclusions, but we can picture the life of a student entrepreneur as a roller coaster and this experience is not to be missed.

We also asked a few student entrepreneurs about their timetable which summed to the following on comparison with the fellow students and experienced entrepreneurs in most general case

Time	Student	Student Entrepreneur	Experienced Entrepreneur
Early Morning (around 6:00am)	Sleeping	Sleeping	Either sleeping or Checking out social media and the calendar for the day
Morning (around 8:00am or 9:00am)	Goes in a hurry to the classes	Goes in a hurry to the classes checking out social media and makes the calendar for the day	On the way to office
Late Morning (around 11:00am)	Listens to the classes and if they sound boring then start talking to fellow classmates or is hooked onto the mobile playing games and checking social media networks.	Listens to the classes and if they sound boring then starts working on his/her venture and eventually approaching like minded people via email and other networks.	Assembles everyone for a meeting discussing the company and various growth opprtunitites
Afternoon (around 2:00pm)	Has lunch and in case got a leisure time then goes for a quick nap	Has lunch and in case got leisure, tries work on anything that is pending and completes the job.	Has lunch and then tries to mingle with the colleagues sharing their “dubba” or rushes for a meeting with a prospective client or investor.
Evening (around 5:00pm)	After a tiring day, has snacks and goes out to do something productive like playing games or prepare for competitive examinations.	No day is a tiring day. It is the time when actually the day starts for a student entrepreneur. He/She contacts the whole team and allots them the tasks to be completed.	Evening is a leisure time after a day’s hard work and that is when they can take a break,in case they are not held up in a meeting.
Late Evening (around 7:00pm or 7:30pm)	Hobby timeortime to study	This is the time when everything starts getting serious and getting the job done is the sole aim.	Back on completing the days job.
Night (around 9:00pm)	Dinner time	Dinner timeAnd time to check the to-do list of the day again.	Pack up for the day or complete the job and get dinner.
Late Night (around at 12:00pm)	Sleep	Get the job completed by hook or crook	Sleep
Very Late Night Or Very Early Morning (around at 2:00am or 3:00am)	Sleep	Pack up and decide what to do the next day	Sleep