Study on The College Students' Self—employment

Abstract. The College students’ self-employment is a kind of new approach and new form to obtain employment.But the low rate of success is the chief problem which puzzled the college students. Here is the analysis about The college students’ self-employment acitivities， include the advantage analysis and opportunity analysis，the weakness analysis and threat analysis. At last， give some advices to college students who want to start Self-employment.

Key words： Colloge students； Self-employment； Weakness； Opportunity；Advantage；Advices

1. Introduction

In recent years， Many people lose their jobs because of the recent financial crisis. I read many stories about people with high salary who suddenly found themselves out of work and found it difficult to get new jobs. For them， self-employment could be the only way to go because the job market isn't as good as it was. The competition has become more and more fierce in Human Resources Market， and employment has become the most troubled problem because of the "Enlarge Action" among many colleges and universities. Confronted with such pressure， some college students turned to continuing their study， and some of others attend the Civil Service Exam.But the recruitment quantity of postgraduate and civil servant is limited.In addition， many undergraduates found that they have not more superiority than others who were lower academicians.This situation is likely to continue for a period of time and will not change in a short term. That being said， the freedom and security is still worth it. With the world and the job market becoming more unpredictable， having your destiny in your own hand seems to be the best alternative.Therefore， more and more students are inclined to do poineering work independently and take it as an important way of obtaining employment. However， it is very dangerous to do pioneering work without intellectual analysis.

2. The situation about the college students' self-employment

2.1 The situation

Students' Entrepreneurship is the Students apply their own knowledge and skills，and independently establish various forms of company or enterprise.

But according to the current situation， there's few successful cases， Many related investigations show that the success rate is very low. This is related to the fresh Students' capability， which is far from satisfaction.However， that doesn't indicate that college Students can not venture. It's advisable that they start to venture in the area where they are familiar with. Moreover， starts from the minor matter so as to accumulate capital and precious experience.

Students can form a partnership， or become the shareholder.In that way they can participate in the start-ups. That's true especially when the small and medium enterprises are in the growing phase. From a long-term point of view， it's necesssary to have highly-educated personnel involved in business. it also provides conditions for college Students to participate in entrepreneurship.

2.2 Analysis for the survey

（1）More and more college students went to choose starting their own business

According to a survey， the numbers of students who went to choose starting their own business are more and more， As shown in Figure1.

（2）self-employed motivation distribution

The university Students think that the startup ideal is the most important entrepreneurial motivation （42 percent）， rather than not finding the job.While during their university life， the summer internships and part-time job can help a lot with entrepreneure.The college and government provide entrepreneurial training and consulting can simulate the university's entrepreneurial activity.They can hold such as entrepreneurship competition， etc. So universities can strengthen the cultivation of students' autonomous pioneering consciousness and related entrepreneur contest activity. As shown in Figure2.

（3）self-employed capital source distribution

Results showed that the college Students who come from "private entrepreneurs"， "enterprise managers" and "individual and industrial and commercial " family bear the highest startup ratio. University Students's venture is influnced greatly by their family entrepreneurs cultural. Moreover， 82% of the venture capital depend on their parents， friends and personal savings .The capital source which comes from commercial venture investment and government funded is almost none. So， those Students who bear entrepreneurial ambition but family economic conditions is not so good will not easily realize their entrepreneurial dream.Accordingly，there is a need for the government to help with the start-up capital economic difficulties of entrepreneurs. As shown in Figure3.

In addition.The university Students entrepreneurs think that the top three risk for failure is lack of fund ， market promotion difficulties and lack of enterprise management experience. So， it's suggested that the government needs to help them reduce entrepreneurial failure risk in the operation fund， marketing and enterprise management.

3. The analysis about Self-employment

3.1 The Advantage

（1）The income source won't depend on one party

If the student works for a company， his boss could fire him and eliminate his income source. Then he will not feel comfortable giving the control of his entire income to someone else. Being self-employed means that nobody can fire you.

（2） The income won't drop to zero if something bad happened

If the student got fired from his work， his income practically dropped to zero. Those who are self-employed won't experience that. Sure， you might lose clients， but it's unlikely that you lost all of your clients at once. If something bad happened， it wouldn't be drastic. Instead of having your income dropped to zero， it would drop gradually and therefore give you time to work on something else.

（3）You can cut work-related expenses

Since the student work on his own， he have more control over the way his work. This often translates to saving on work-related expenses such as transportation costs.

（4）Your have more control over your time

In most cases，if the students self-employed ，he can arrange his own work time. This flexibility means that it will be easier for the students to allocate time for other things in his life.

（5） The reward is more proportional to your effort

When the students are in a corporate environment， providing twice as much value doesn't necessarily mean getting twice as much reward. But when you work on your own， that can happen more easily. You contact with the market directly so any extra value you provide is more likely to be rewarded.

3.2 The opportunity

Firstly， the college Students choose self-employment not because of necessity but because of opportunity. They find that self-employment gives them more freedom and flexibility， not to mention the potentially big financial reward they could get.From starting self-employment can make college students become more and more convince.I ofen hear stories about college Students through the path of self-employment and get success.

Secondly，the Internet opens new opportunities.The Internet allows the college student to deliver his value directly to those who need it without any middleman. In addition， the Internet helps the college student aggregate potential demand. Let's say the college student have a specific skill that only one in a million people need. Without the Internet， it will be difficult to find even one client in your local area. But thanks to the Internet， the college student now have access to over 6000 potential clients. It means that the college student ability to make a living from that specific skill increases exponentially.

Thirdly， in my opinion. Self-employment can give the college student more security. The college students are less likely to suddenly fall into a deep financial trouble because of lost income.

3.3 The Weakness

Of course， there are also negative aspects of self-employment. First of all， it's not easy to start a self-employment career. It could be difficult to get consistent income in the beginning because of the difficulty to find clients. You might also need to work harder than when you work for a company since you are now on your own. There are three main reasons.

One of the main reasons is that they have not developed a keen awareness of creating things by themselves， such as starting their own business. Due to the test-oriented educational system in China， families and schools do not focus on developing students' qualities of risking and facing difficulties. Just like what Li Jiajun said， "Risk always co-exists with opportunities. Opportunities are fair to everyone. It depends on whether you dare to take risk or not". They want to be immune to the frustration and failure when start their own business for they lack of self-confidence and afraid of risking. Unaware of their potential abilities， most college Students might think that starting own business is not fit them but those who don't fear failure. So they just want to lead a common life.

Secondly， college Students are short of social experience. Though the students grasped certain knowledge from books， they are short of necessary abilities of practice and experience of business management ultimately. In addition， due to college Students' lack of marketing， they are under qualified for the role of manager. College Students stay in the College campus for long time， which makes them lack of understanding of society， market development and enterprise operation. Besides， they are hard to find an enterprise job or internship to accumulate the related management and marketing experience. There are few chances to receive professional guidance so that they can't gain necessary business knowledge. Especially， all young college students are followed "from school to school" development path，they are ingenuous and lack of social experience. But the competitors that they faced were not the people of the same age， on the contrary， they are veterans in commerce. So， undergraduates are more likely to be deceived and defeated in the relentless competition .

Thirdly， college Students will be under the pressure from parents if they start own business. Because of their constraints of conservative ideas， the parents hope college students to find a real job； don't want them to start their own business. If college Students choose to star their own business， they will not only lose parents' trust， but can even make the family to be not harmonious. It's difficult for them to handle the problems which they will face in the absence of material and spiritual support from their parents. According to one survey， forty percent of college Students believe that "capital is the biggest difficulty". Indeed， without funding， any good originality will hard to transform into real productive forces. For the sake of considering their parents feelings and making the family harmonious， most of the college Students give up their idea of starting their own business. So many students blindly followed the upsurge. Many choices of entrepreneurship are not based on the good self-localization， but repeated others among the pionnering work upsurge. Finally， they became depressed and frustrated when confronted with a heap of difficulties，and then they gave up.

For another， the lack of the spirit of bearing hardships and the awareness of work hard and perseveringly had became their disadvantages. At present， the majority of college students are only one child in their family. The good family environment and the spoiled from their parents made most students were empty of rough experience. However， in poineering process， many successful people have experienced the "eat steamed bread， drink cold water" difficulties before they success. So it is difficult to attain success without work hard and perseveringly .

3.4 The Threat

There are many threats among external conditions. One is the competition from the ordinary entrepreneurs. There are two kings ordinary entrepreneurs： one is the lower groups for a living need，such as laid-off workers， unemployed. Another is that entrepreneurs has already in the workplace after a few years， and accumulated much experience of entrepreneurs， so they had strong competitiveness than students.

The second is the pressure from the family. According to the survey. Among the college students who hold the idea of entrepreneurial， more than half of them were opposed by their families， lack of experience was the main reasion that considered by their families. Most parents wanted their child could found a stable job， got stable salary after graduation， and they disagreed with their children's choice of start an undertaking and assume corresponding risk.

The third element is the consequences of failure . Many students gave up this idea because they did not know what to do after them failure. Although they could choose to start all over again， when comparing with their classmates， they not only lost years salary， but also had to adapt to the new industry and new job. So many students step back due to the fearing of failure results.

4. The path about the college students' self-employment

（1）Start with an idea.

This doesn't have to be a brand new invention or new product. In fact， many successful small businesses have found a way to deliver an existing service more efficiently or economically or have customized an existing product or service.

（2）Put together a business plan

This doesn't require hundreds of pages with thousands of charts. Use the plan to research things like how much you can charge for your product/service， how much it will cost to produce or deliver （include variable & fixed costs）， and the size of your potential market （i.e. # of customers）. The plan should evaluate your competitors - how many competitors， how strong are they， where are they， how will you compete. The plan should state what is required to enter this market， barriers to entry such as high fixed costs （factories， restaurants） and government regulations that must be met.

（3）Determine if you need financing

Your business plan will include a section on financing. How will you pay the costs to start and run your business？ Do you need a bank loan？ Use credit cards？ Self finance？ Also， you'll need to consider how much salary you need to support yourself while starting your business.

（4）Put together your initial marketing plan

Marketing need not cost a fortune. Some businesses require very little. For example， many service businesses such as accounting firms build their practices through word-of-mouth referrals. You can also join free or low-cost associations to build awareness of your small business. Again， your business plan （product， customer， competitor） will help you determine the marketing efforts you need to undertake.

（5）Build your infrastructure early

This doesn't mean build a big factory or a fancy office. It simply means keep accurate customer records， a clean set of updated books and a technology foundation， if necessary. One of the downfalls of many small businesses is that they don't know if they're making or losing money （i.e. the need for a clean set of books）. Another downfall is when small business owners try to sell their company years later but lack accurate customer history and customer information. Many times， the customers of a small business are its best asset， and， without the records， the small business can be sold only for salvage.

（6）Move forward and get started

Once you know you can be profitable take the leap and get started. Besides getting business supplies or advertising， plan ahead by establishing some new business clients ahead of time. If you're business is unlike a restaurant， that physically needs to wait for customers to walk into it's doors， establish accounts ahead of time. In this way， you will have pre-planned future receivables to look forward to. Think about and focus on making money first， where ever possible， instead of spending money. The more money you can bring in， without spending money， the more profitable you are going to be.

（7）Don't neglect using the web.

Use every technology available that will give your business a competitive advantage. The internet is a customers research tool. Help future customers learn more about you and the details about what you sell and why your products or services are different and better for them than other competitors.

5. The Measures

The government should further improve policies， reduce the college students' anxieties in undertaking， and provide a better external environment for students. Take measures to improve the system of capital protection as far as possible. At the same time， the government should widen the business propaganda， enhance students' pioneering consciousness.

The school invited the success to guide the college students start self-employment， and the enterprise offer excellent students the opportunity to study in enterprises. It is also important to establish a bidirectional credit platform in order to widen the financing channel.

The school can be specifically offer business counseling targeted for students who had the entrepreneurial intention， in order to help them establish poineering project， seize market opportunities， and provide all kinds of counselling and convenience untill they eventually incorporated the company.

Consequently， to improve the success rate of college students' entrepreneurship， create entrepreneurial opportunities by the government and the society is very important， but strengthen the students' intelligence and ability is the chief.

References

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