Many people have heard the stories of millionaires who dropped out of college and still made it big in business. But you can take a different route – start your own business while continuing to study.
We present to you the entrepreneurs-students who, despite their study at the university, have achieved sales of their goods for 100 thousand dollars a year. To make it easier to study, students can pay for an essay online.
The heroes of this article all studied at different institutions – both public and prestigious private. And the business ideas they have pursued are very diverse, but there are several common qualities of these young businessmen – great aspirations, energy, and belief in the success of their business.
Here are those 7 students who succeeded in business while pursuing their studies at college.
1. Kevin Jelfand (San Diego State University)
Making protein shakes. One day after working out at his university gym, Jelfand realized how much he didn’t like drinking lukewarm protein shakes, and lumpy ones.
And then the guy decided to create his protein drink, which, while retaining its beneficial properties, would also be tasty – with the addition of skim milk and fresh fruit. Jelfand shared his thoughts with a friend who also worked out at the gym, and together they came up with 60 shake recipes.
After trying them out with the help of 20 friends, they settled on 15 different blends. One of the flavors was “chocolate frosty,” which included chocolate protein powder, agave nectar, milk, and ice.
The guys’ families and friends helped them raise $50,000 to open a kiosk outside the gym called Shake Smart. They needed to sell 60 shakes a day to break even. But the business they started exceeded all expectations – from day one they were selling 120 shakes a day.
And six months later, 12 people were already in business. Last spring, Jelfand, and his team opened a cocktail outlet in a San Diego mall, and very successfully since there’s a 24-hour sports club nearby. At the end of last year, the 23-year-old Jelfand had $740,000 in revenue.
2. Alexandra Ebraham (Seattle University)
In 2010, student Alexandra Ebraham was working as a waitress at a Washington State hotel. She slipped on a wet floor and landed painfully on her back.
And such accidents happened in many restaurants. To protect herself and others from such situations, Alexandra asked her boss if he could equip the kitchen with special containers so that drops from freshly washed dishes on the shelves would fall there instead of on the floor.
When her boss told her there was no such device, she spent nearly three months searching the Internet for something similar.
Not finding anything, she decided to create such a thing herself: She got a plain black tray of 50×50 cm. The tray attaches securely to shelves that fit inside dishwashers. A Chinese company wanted to manufacture such devices, which Ebraham called Drip Catch.
The trays cost only $50, and with $2 billion in lawsuits against restaurants in America for falls on wet floors, there was very good demand for them.
With the help of renowned Seattle chef Tom Douglas, who recognized Ebraham’s invention as a godsend, she was able to raise an investment of $81,000.
But the partnership with the Chinese manufacturer did not work out, and Ebraham began working with an American firm. Total sales for 2012 were $1 million.
3. Sam Barnett (California Institute of Technology)
Sam’s father was the owner of a real estate investment firm. Therefore, from a very young age, Sam was interested in the stock market and had an affinity for this activity.
As a 10-year-old boy, Sam persuaded his father to buy Emerson Electric stock, which was up 25 percent within a few months. When it was time for Sam to go to college, his portfolio was already $250,000.
In 2010, Barnett began investing using a computerized quantitative model that produces high returns when the S&P index goes up and almost no losses when the index goes down.
During the first trading period, the index was up 7 percent, and Barnett added 31 percent to his portfolio.
4. Oliver Bogner (Chapman University)
Organizing a reality show. Thirteen-year-old Oliver’s first investor was his grandmother, who gave him $1,000 to buy audio equipment. Oliver dreamed of becoming a DJ.
Within two years, Oliver held dance parties, collaborating with 15 more of his friends. So, at the age of 15, Oliver already had more than $100,000.
On the advice of his father-producer, Oliver was inspired by the idea of creating his TV reality show. But the first pancake proved to be a bust – the concept of “Party King 90210,” created by Bogner, did not go beyond the pilot stage.
But the guy’s ambition didn’t let him give up. At the age of 19, Oliver Bogner became the youngest reality TV producer in Los Angeles. Bogner developed 50 reality show concepts.
More than 10 of them were sold to various cable channels, including Oxygen, Animal Planet, and Lifetime. When selling an idea, Oliver received 3-10% of the production budget.
Bogner’s earnings have already totaled $100,000 and several more of his projects are getting ready to launch.
5. Riley Goodman (University of Washington)
Lacrosse Socks. Riley Goodman, along with his friend Jake Director, has always dreamed of going into business together. But they were spurred to action by an accident involving a fellow lacrosse player.
After the car accident, fortunately, the friend survived and is healthy. But the thought that death could be very close led the classmates to develop their idea for a business – high-quality team socks for lacrosse players.
Using money their parents gave them for graduation, the guys used Tradekey.com and Alibaba.com to estimate the demand for the socks, and they designed them in Microsoft Paint. The socks had an image of the Space Needle
Tower, which is one of Seattle’s main symbols. In just three months, 1,000 pairs of socks were sold for $6. At the same time, students remembered to study well, use the best essay writing service Reddit, and attend lectures. Now the Strideline brand has 25 stores, and the socks are already selling for $12, and have new designs – views of New York, St. Louis, and San Francisco. The firm has an annual turnover of $200,000.
6. Ansar Khan (University at Buffalo)
Working as a waiter at a Kabab & Curry restaurant, Ansar Khan and his partner developed a way to process orders that is much more convenient than usual. Computerized systems are very expensive, and the students decided that the iPod Touch and iPad mobile app would be the way out.
The students borrowed $32,000 from their parents and began to develop the app. They worked on writing the code for 10 months and testing the product for another six months.
The app they created was called Ambur, and it was launched for $999. The app has now been installed by 265 restaurants in 14 countries, and Ansar Khan earned $850,000 in 2012.
He has additional income from the sale of related equipment – check printers and credit card terminals.
7. Dallas Robinson (University of Utah Valley)
As an 18-year-old boy, Robinson was only into sports and girls. But his lips often became chapped from snowboarding, and Dallas feared that when he kissed a girl, the only thing she would remember was his chapped lips.
Dallas had used various brands of lip balm but hadn’t found one that suited him.
So Robinson decided to make a high-quality balm that both he and his girlfriend could use. Robinson chose his classmate Mike Buonomo to be his partner and shared his business idea in a lecture on entrepreneurship at the university.
With help from the Small Business Development Center, the guys got a $50,000 loan. The cost per package, which contains two Kisstixx balms, is 86 cents to $1, depending on volume.
And you can buy it for $3 wholesale and $6 retail. The first 6,000 packs were sold out at educational institutions.
Robinson and Buonomo participated in a television show about Shark Tank startups, after which billionaire Mark Cuban offered Robinson a deal – $200,000 for a 40% stake.
For the year, the firm made $188,000 in revenue. Negotiations are now underway to supply balm to Japan, Israel, the U.K., and Australia