(At StartupNation's request, the following words of advice were provided by Donald Liimatainen, a winner in the 2008 StartupNation Dorm-Based 20.)
Probably the biggest piece of advice that I could tell someone is to put yourself out there. Take the risk and go for it! I'm not saying sell your car on Ebay and take out a $50,000 loan. Baby steps everyday in the direction that you want to go. It's not the monster steps that you take, it's the everyday steps that put you and your business one step ahead of where you were before. Maybe something as small as reading more about the field you're entering or in. Or finding a mentor to help you through some of the fog.
Before I went off on my own I worked at Home Depot for about 2 years and I didn't get one job offer while working there. When I finally started my own company in the first year I received 5 job offers to work for 5 different companies in 5 different fields. So just by putting myself out there, I went from 0 job offers in 2 years. To 5 job offers in one year and I wasn't even looking for a job.
One other piece of advice if you're young and don't have much of a network or networking experience. Join a local BNI "Business Network International" group, you can find them at www.bni.com and see if there is one located in your town. It not only handed me some very nice referrals, but it taught me how to network. Why I should do some stuff, and not do other stuff. It's been a valuable tool that I have been blessed to come across.
Probably the hardest thing about being a student business owner is time management. There is often times where I have to be in 3 or 4 places at the same time. I just have to weigh it out and see the opportunity costs of each of my options, make a choice and not look back.
