GREELEY, Colo.—The economy may be suffering, but for a host of business owners and entrepreneurs out there, there are no excuses.
This is a time for innovation, progress and hard work—even if they are college students.
Greeley is becoming a hotbed of business ideas as students try their hands at the business world, be it opening bars, running Web sites, painting houses, or simply finding a niche in an otherwise stagnant market. More important, students are learning to navigate a business world in some of the worst economic times, making their own way rather than counting on someone else to do it.
“I don’t want to work for an hourly wage,” said Greg Farnsworth, a senior at the University of Colorado who recently opened the long-awaited Patrick’s Irish Pub in downtown Greeley. “You have all these business ideas and never start them.
“Finally, I said I have to stop making excuses. I’ve got to do this.”
College is the perfect time for students to try their hands at business, said Dave Thomas, an assistant professor of management at the Monfort College of Business at the University of Northern Colorado. The college offers an entrepreneurship certificate to its business majors, but it will soon offer an entrepreneurship minor for all students at UNC—the first in the state to do so.
“The beauty of doing it in college is you’re not risking a lot,” Thomas said. “They use the coursework to learn how to start a business. They’re using the time to start out their idea. The point is, the idea is tested in a college setting, where there was not much risk, they have access to great resources and a platform to connect with (the business) network. … A lot of students don’t want to go to work for a big corporation and get laid off when they’re 40.”
Sara Rigney, a freshman at UNC, is starting early. For her, the learning starts now while she’s working through her general studies. She recently signed on with College Works, a franchised house painting network, in which she’ll operate her own house painting business during the summer. She hopes to create a $60,000 business, organizing crews to paint houses throughout Arvada, her home town.
“I’ve always wanted to be a huge business owner and make an impact,” said Rigney. “I feel like waiting for it is putting off an opportunity for something I can take advantage of now. … I want to run a business right now, where I can get started and take risks in a fairly protected environment.”
Her predecessor in the painting business is UNC junior Steve Calley, 23, who now manages the networks of painters, and teaches them how to succeed. Last summer, through College Works, he ran a $60,000 college painting business.
“It’s been a great process for me as far as learning and overcoming obstacles,” said Calley, a business major who wants to work in international business. “I’m realizing the business world is not perfect. … Now, I’m mainly teaching people how to run a business. … It’s something that’s not typical of a college student, but it’s challenging and exciting and a big learning experience.”
Farnsworth has three more courses to take before graduating. He’s spent the last eight months developing the bar of his dreams, and he’s learned quite a bit during that time.
He learned that sometimes business plans don’t count on every contingency. Sometimes city fees and permits are more than initially thought. Good ideas that change everything occur daily.
“I really like this. But this is not at all what I planned,” Farnsworth said of the pub, as he prepared last month to finally open it to the public. His friends and family helped him create the bar, from organizing the weekly Irish music sessions, to Irish music singalongs, to having a night for free Spanish classes. “I copy every good idea I see.”
Many times, good ideas developed in college bloom in the real world. Just ask former UNC students who are running their own shows: Jeff Crabtree of Crabtree Brewing in downtown Greeley; Blake and Gabby Leavitt, who own Salvador Deli downtown; Ryan Gentry, who owns the Penalty Box downtown; or Brandon Jansson, who started Brandon’s Mobile Lube Service last year in Greeley.
“I didn’t think about it until I took the business plan class,” Jansson said of starting his business, which is now breaking even in its first year. “I got on the Internet to see some ideas, and I knew I wanted to work on cars, so I just decided this was something no one else did. I figured I’d write a plan. I was young enough that I could start, and if it did fail, I still had time to do something else.”
For all, entrepreneurship is a trial-and-error process that began years ago, when they were kids. Farnsworth operated his own maple-syrup bottling business when he was in school in Ontario, Canada.
Rigney started at 9, with Beanie Babies.
“I had a bunch of Beanie Babies when I was little, and they were never something I was interested in,” she said. “I would sell them to friends and make a profit. I had the lemonade stands, too, but I tried to get people around the neighborhoods to do the lemonade stands, and I would manage them, but nobody wanted to pay me a cut of their profits.”
Now, even in a tough economy, these students are making their own worlds.
“I decided I was not going to allow the economy to become an excuse for anything,” Rigney said. “If I don’t do well, it’s going to be because I don’t work hard enough.”
For Farnsworth, after eight months of solid work to open Patrick’s, it’s time to let it go to see how well his idea is received.
“I’ve come to the point where I have to accept whatever happens,” he said. “I have lots of hope, and I think it’s going to work. I think I got the bar I wanted. We’ll see what happens when people start coming in.”
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