(Background: In case you’re new, I graduated in May with my undergraduate business degree in Supply Chain Management from Michigan State. After graduation, I decided to move to Chicago and embark full-force on a start-up about a week after graduation.)

Well, it’s 5 months later and I’ve learned a lot – but the most important advice I’ve learned is if you’re considering founding a service-based start-up straight after college: don’t do it. Although Chic Geek is doing very well, it’s nothing but a consecutive stream of headaches, questioning, and learning curves dealing with things I really have no idea how to deal with. (which is where google becomes my best friend…and half of the time I still have no idea what I’m doing – but hey, I’m trying) From my experience, here’s how I see it:

GO FOR IT IF:

• you come from money - i.e., your mother/father don’t mind paying your rent/expenses for the next year or so until you start making actual decent money
• you have an extremely experienced and committed business partner or mentor that walk you through all the struggles you’re going to run into – even when it gets really tough. And if you have a business partner, define roles, %s, responsibilities, everything you can think of right away…and get it in writing.
• you’re willing to work odds and ends jobs on the side to make ends meet (like I bartend to pay the bills – although I do like bartending a lot, it’s changed my whole sleep schedule so it’s really hard to get a lot of work done during the day)
• you can’t find a job [which is where I'm at at the moment] and don’t think starting a company is really impressive to most HR/recruiters…at least not in my experience, most I’ve spoken to could’ve cared less.

DON’T DO IT IF:

• you expect to live the lifestyle all your [business school] friends are living as they all sign for conformable salaried jobs with nice signing bonuses
• you are moving to a city where you don’t know almost anyone - working from home is great on days where you don’t want to get out of your pj’s, but it makes it difficult to meet new people (and if you move to a city – it’s expensive, realize you’re not going to be able to really experience it until your business is up and running and you’re making money)
• you paid for undergrad with student loans, although I’m hoping there’s a way to get them deferred until I can find a real job, they are constantly in the back of my mind & growing crazy amounts of interest by the day
• it’s a business you can do on the side, which was probably the biggest thing I didn’t realize, I was able to consult while going to school full-time, holding 2 part time jobs (totaling about 28 hours/week), president of a student organization, hold a chair position on student senate, and sit on president’s council while maintaining a fairly active social life. Think about your workload, if you’re doing your start-up activity on the side – don’t think you’re going to be able to hit a near full-time workload right off the bat (..or even a 5 months later)

On a brighter note, when you tell people what you’re doing they’ll think it’s really cool. (or they’ll give you the ‘yeah…right…’ look, which I’ve gotten quite a few times) I love start-ups and I will probably always be involved in consulting and startups on the side – but it is a chaotic lifestyle. Maybe the grass is always greener – but from where I’m sitting, the stability of a full-time pay check more than compensates for the monotony of a cubicle and potentially lame coworkers.