Working while learning has become de rigueur for both undergraduate and graduate students, regardless of financial need. Student ingenuity and drive for earning money really stand out.
Ryan Rossi and Marcus Cheatham, juniors at Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove, Pa., were restless to shine at something other than academics or athletics. Cheatham, captain of the Lacrosse team since his sophomore year, wanted to escape boredom. Rossi maintains he was born an entrepreneur, having played with the stock market before the two started Paradigm Wear, a new brand of clothing and accessories representing their generation.
“It would be a change, a shift, a new way of doing things,” Rossi says, “a mixture of influences from the past with a sense of the future.”
Ruth Carter of Phoenix, Ariz., watched law school tuition and fees at Arizona State University jump more than 41 percent, from $7,518 her first semester to $10,630 last spring. Traditional jobs, such as graduate research assistant, paid nine dollars per hour and required their own schedule. Jobs clerking in a law firm were scarce. (On top of that, the ABA won’t let students taking more than 12 class hours work above 20 hours per week without permission.)
An advertising business she heard about on a friend’s podcast inspired her. She liked the pricing model – one dollar a day on January 1 to $365 a day on December 31. Customers would determine what day to start. “I have a blog,” Carter thought to herself.
“What if I use the same price structure creating a blogpost about a person or favorite cause if the person bought the day?” Sponsor A Law Kid was born online.
Successful entrepreneurs tend to have an entrepreneur in their background, such as parents or other relatives. Carter observed her father, an independent contractor. When Cheatham was 13, his older brother started a business. Rossi had no model except Carnegie and Rockefeller.
IN BUSINESS
All three entrepreneurs just “did it.” Carter scheduled her blog for 46 days, until her bar exam was over. When some members of the legal community gave her free publicity, her daily readership of less than 100 skyrocketed to 1,200.
She emailed businesses whose products she could endorse, ones she uses, explaining what she was doing and suggesting they buy a day. National companies didn’t bite, but smaller and local businesses proved a good market. She pulled in $3,200 – “I’m not a salesperson,” she interjects – which wiped out the last-semester tuition problem.
Rossi says they get their customers by advertising on social media and doing some celebrity marketing. He and Cheatham sell on-campus. “When a kid here goes home,” Rossi remarks, “his friends order. There’s a trickle-down effect that a college brings.”
“We generated over $1,000 in one day selling out a special edition,” Cheatham comments. “I’d rather spend three months and get one great t-shirt than one month developing ten of poor quality.”
The owners are striving for high quality and garments that are a joy to wear, not quickly replaceable. All profits at Paradigm Wear go right back into the company.
Do traditional jobs lie in the future for these entrepreneurs? Carter, who passed her bar exam and is waiting for admission, says she has to love what she does, “whether I’m working for myself or someone else. Right now it makes the most sense to strike out on my own and do my own thing.”
She plans to launch an updated traditional package of marketing vehicles, including social media, her blog, word-of-mouth and public speaking, among others.
“Once you get the taste of being an entrepreneur,” Rossi says, “it’s all you want to have.”
“It’s like it’s your child,” Cheatham adds.
Dr. Mildred L. Culp welcomes your questions at culp@workwise.net. © 2011 Passage Media.
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