An Equilibirum

Despite billing the blog as the story of a young businessman and university student I have not really focused much on the latter aspect but I feel this is a mistake because it gives a less holistic view of what it's like to juggle business and university.

In fact university makes quite a significant impact on my business life. It can be very hard to judge which to put first: I need to concentrate at university to obtain a degree, but that degree will be used to make money in the future which is the aim of my business does now. I try to strike a middle ground where possible but I lean towards university whenever I have to make a choice.

For an example, university started up after Christmas in the second week of January. After then until the end of January I had to put a stop to almost anything to do with the business bar the bare necessities such as posting off orders so I could focus on studying for the winter examinations. Since you're left on your own to study you essentially have weeks of free time and it's up to you how you spend it. As such it can be very tempting to forgo revision in favour of the immediate gain of concentrating more on the business aspect and potentially seeing more sales.

However it's also easier to ignore the business side of things because there are few if any 'deadlines' to adhere to which remove the sense of immediacy that coursework or examinations have. Competition is tough however and I'm up against people that do this for a living. Ignoring the business side of things too much (particularly on eBay/Amazon Marketplace) means competition can sneak in and take advantage of my idleness. It's a matter of fact that on quite a few items I sell there are price wars between myself and the competition where we each try to outdo the other by a penny. It sounds petty, but when you see two identical products for sale with a penny difference in price, would you buy the cheaper or more expensive one? If you're not careful and on top of the game you'll soon lose out on sales which means lost money and if you're not making money then you run the risk of losing your business entirely.

It's tough to find the equilibrium - the sweet spot in terms of time spent focused on business/university work to extract the greatest benefit from one while not at the detriment of the other. I don't believe there is a right answer, but whatever it is caffeine is certainly inclusive in it.

The Beginning

On the 13 August 2009 I officially registered my business with the Companies House and became Director of my own company. Two weeks ago I managed to get my company's website up and running and I thought I'd set up this blog to document my journey into the world of business. I'm also a University student so I've got to somehow juggle studying and managing my business, along with whatever else life throws at me. This is my story.

I don't want this whole blog to be a plug for my business so for the meantime I won't be identifying my business, although if this ever does get popular and enough people are curious about it I might reconsider. I've always thought it a bit sad to come across random blogs that were updated diligently and suddenly stop. It makes me wonder why they stopped and what happened to that person. Did they give up? Have they moved on? It's like reading a story without an ending. So regardless of whether this blog becomes popular or not I'm going to try to keep this going as long as my business. It is informative for anybody interested in starting their own business, particularly university students, but moreover it's a way for me to record the day to day happenings of my business. After all, it is a learning experience for me. The business I have started might not be the one I'm still working on in 20 or even 10 years time but the experience I gain from it will be invaluable in the future. I also like writing so this is a good outlet.

So to give some background information I am running an online retail website. It has been officially open about 2 weeks now and I've had 10 sales so far. These have mostly come from the eBay section of my business; unfortunately my own website has not registered any sales so far. Since launch I've been trying to get the word out about my website, posting it wherever I can and I've had some help with my family members spreading it to friends and colleagues but it's hard to get people to trust a new website. After all, why shop at an unknown Internet site when you can go to a brand name like Amazon or a high street shop? This is a big obstacle for me and definitely something I have to overcome if the business is ever going to truly take off.

University starts again at the end of September which is on the other side of the country from my parents' house but luckily due to the nature of my business it's quite flexible in that I can simply take stock with me and post it from my term time house instead. I'm starting as a fresher although I'm 20 years old because I took a gap year and am restarting my first year due to changing the course I'm on. I was doing a joint honours degree last year but decided to major in Psychology since that is what I am best at and is where I will find my preferred career.

Starting first year again is inconvenient in the sense that all the friends I made the first time round and am due to live with this year will graduate a year before me but it does allow me a slightly easier first year as I've already done half the work that will be set last year which gives me more time to focus on my business.

I don't want to set myself an update schedule for this blog as I don't want to force posts out in the event nothing significant transpires between one post and the next but I will try to update at least once a week plus any time anything significant occurs.