Advising Entrepreneurial Students

Graduate Entrepreneurial Careers - Case Studies

The case studies are based on a rough classification of graduate entrepreneurial careers using two simple dimensions:

• Reason (motivation) for taking such a career route
  • natural entrepreneur
  • default entrepreneur
  • altrepreneur
• Point of entry (timing of business start-up). 
  • on graduation
  • after taking stock
  • after a period of employment

1.0 Reasons for embarking on an entrepreneurial career
2.0 Point of entry to an entrepreneurial career
3.0 Case Studies

1.0 Reasons for embarking on an entrepreneurial career*
(* Narrowly defined as self-employment or business start-up)

a) ‘Natural’ entrepreneurs

There is no straightforward entrepreneurial type, but there are individuals for whom a business start-up seems (to them) to be the most natural course of action. Many are seeking autonomy and self-direction, and feel they could not thrive in an organisation. A much smaller number are driven by the desire to see their bright ideas brought to fruition (cf. Dyson, Sinclair).

This group seem, from limited evidence, to be both the most obvious candidates for entrepreneurial career support and the least likely to seek it.

 b) Entrepreneurs by default

There is a second group of graduate who might pursue entrepreneurial careers, but who do so to some extent because of limited opportunities to develop a career based on employment. Examples include graduates who:

• Are not geographically mobile, and find themselves restricted to a region which offers them fewer opportunities
• Are specialists in a field where self-employment/freelancing is the normal mode of work e.g. translators and interpreters, musicians
• Experience discrimination (or expect to) and turn to entrepreneurship as an alternative (‘if no-one will employ me, I’ll employ myself’)
• Entered university as mature students – they may experience ageism, the preference of some graduate recruiters for a ‘blank canvas’, and a reluctance amongst graduate employers to pay a premium for their considerable skills and experience accumulated prior to their degree.

c) Lifestyle choice - the altrepreneur

The idea of the altrepreneur, someone who chooses an entrepreneurial career for the (assumed) flexibility it gives e.g. to juggle childcare commitments. (Note however Tom Peters famous quip, that people go self-employed because they hate their boss and want more time, and find themselves working 24 hours a day for a lunatic!)

Another ‘lifestyle’ group would be graduates who want to turn a hobby into a career, and find that self-employment or business start-ups are the only feasible ways to make this happen.

 2.0 Point of entry to an entrepreneurial career

 a) Upon graduation:

• Try starting a small scale business right away, perhaps by moon-lighting, to get some hands-on experience.
• Buy a franchise to get a ready-made business.
• Get together with one or two others to form a partnership business.
• Embark on a low-risk self-employment or contract work to build up experience
• Go it alone straight away with a full-time business.

 b) After taking stock:

• Do further study, e.g. a post-graduate qualification, in order to build a higher level of skills and knowledge in the business sector that excites them.
• Take a year out to travel the world in order to broaden horizons and look for opportunities.

c) After some time in employment:

• Get started on a conventional career in the chosen field in order to build up experience and skills, both from the work experience and the training that should be available
• Join a small business and learn what its like to be in one.

3.0 Case Studies

Click here to see the case studies.