According to a survey of 792 university students on a part-time job search website called “Alba Heaven”, 52.9% said they were considering starting their own business. This is significant, as it means that many students are thinking about starting a business instead of getting a job. Consequently, many students are considering starting a business through start-up clubs and support programs.
● Risks of Rash Start-ups
According to the “Additional Survey of Non-Wage Workers and Economically Inactive Populations in August 2022” released by Statistics Korea, of about 35,000 households, only 17.5% of self-employed people who started their business in 2021 had a preparation period of more than one year. This shows that 82.5% went into business without a sufficient business preparation period. Moreover, impromptu projects that lack sufficient preparation have a high probability of failure. Therefore, the data suggests that students who are thinking about starting a business need to be thoroughly prepared. How can students who want to start their own business prepare to achieve what they want?
● Preparing Start-ups with JBNU Startup Support Center
Did you know that students preparing to start a business can get considerable support from JBNU Startup Support Center? It is located on the third floor of JBNU Central Library. It operates start-up club support projects and start-up courses for students to provide them with opportunities to learn about the basics of start-ups and gain practical knowledge. Around ten teams are selected for the start-up club support project each year. It provides support through prototype production costs of an average of five million won, provision of club rooms, training to strengthen start-up capabilities, and start-up contests.
To participate in these start-up programs, students can apply in April every year through the start-up club recruitment notice on JBNU Startup Support Center website. Students with excellent ideas and items are selected and work during the contract period for more than five months. In fact, 48 student start-ups took place through JBNU Startup Support Center from 2019 to 2022, and 30% of those clubs grew into start-up companies. As successful examples, there is a club recently selected for a startup commercialization support project by MSS (Ministry of SMEs and Start-ups) and the first early-morning breakfast delivery company in Jeonju, which was started from a start-up club.
● Pros and Cons of Start-ups
Kim Ji-won, the manager of Startup-Centered University Support Project and start-up club support project at JBNU Startup Support Center expressed her opinion on the advantages and disadvantages of start- ups, as follows. All of us can have various experiences in society as well as college, but the reality is that a start-up cannot be easily started due to limiting circumstances or situations. However, student start-ups have the great advantage of being able to do what they want without being tied to a given environment or situation. Although, there is the limitation that start-ups can face many difficulties if there is a lack of practical knowledge or infrastructure. Therefore, a thorough planning period and keen insight are the most important. To help with this, JBNU Startup Support Center is supporting various educational programs and experts in each field. Kim said, “there is a lot of perception that 'start-ups need big money'. A start- up club can be a door of opportunity for students who have excellent ideas or items but cannot start a business because of a lack of capital.” She added that she expects students to be interested in and benefit from various start-up education programs supported by JBNU Startup Support Center.
● Agony and Development of Running Business as University Student
Moon Sun-hwan from the Department of Business Administration at JBNU is currently running DA Company while attending university. He happened to start a business with a school project that gives support to student start- ups, which enabled him to make prototypes in a start- up club called JBNU, which is hosted by the JBNU Startup Support Center. Moon’s DA Company is running a business that creates applications; however, there were many concerns about how to promote applications to the public. Moon remarked that “Of the many applications that people install, only 2% are actually used.” This means that even if applications are released to the public, it is difficult to popularize them. Therefore, Moon thought of a good distribution channel, which is through The General Student Council. He added, “I want to make a profit by collecting and selling many kinds of big data rather than selling our applications, which we can do through The General Student Council’s partnership in the university’s commercial district.” Regarding this, he said that personal information cannot be identified and that several legal issues are under consideration. “When it comes to collecting big data, users are bound to worry about personal information being leaked. However, to prevent this kind of damage, collecting data is subject to a number of laws, and I am still designing and testing various ways to ensure that only data is obtained,” he stated. Moon also talked about the investments that student founders can receive. There are a few ways to receive investments: from outside sources or by participating in government support projects. When investors are found, the company is under pressure from them to achieve meaningful results. In addition, when investors recover their investments, they may try and take away the founder’s share or may cause great losses depending on the value of the company. Government support projects are different; these are a good way to receive an investment without losing anything. Moon completed the preliminary government start-up package project through the JBNU Startup Support Center and received investment money.
● What One Gains and Loses from Starting Businesses
Moon, who said he had a lot to gain and lose while running the business, said he was able to think deeply about himself. He explained “for example, I can’t say that an employee is a good person because he or she works well or just accepts my will. In the same manner, just because he or she argues with me, it doesn’t mean that the employee is a bad person. This value judgment is subjective, and it is hard to define the thousand different aspects of a person in a single word. In light of this, it causes me to think profoundly about people and about myself.” He mentioned that running a business is an opportunity to establish how he wants to live in the future and to establish what kind of person he is. He is confident that even if he gets a job in the future, this experience will help him succeed in that job. Moon continued, “I eventually realized that companies want people with high self-esteem. What employers see on a few sheets of paper and in a short interview is not a person’s qualitative ability. They want someone who knows how to express their needs properly and who has strong resilience; that is, a person with high self-esteem.” What he meant was not that someone has to be overly confident, but that someone who knows and can express themselves properly is capable of persuading others. Moon emphasized that someone who knows their own needs well can confidently persuade others. He gained this insight after meeting many people while running his business. In addition, after seeing people around him who are employed, he found that this insight can be communicated through a letter of self-introduction and in an interview.
On the other hand, Moon said that starting a business as a student is never pretty. Many people think it is easy to run a business because it looks luxurious and full of freedom. However, running a business can be painful because it means taking responsibility for oneself from beginning to end. Making mistakes means taking financial responsibility. He also said that he has little personal time because he has to run a business while attending university. He added that most days he has meetings on weekends when he does not go to classes or he takes care of the backlogs he could not get to during the weekday. “However, if I endure all of these things, I think I can achieve great growth that cannot be achieved just by attending university.” Additionally, he said that it is a very precious experience to become the true owner of one’s life. He concluded with, “there is nothing you can get from only a short period in life. You have to endure it with all your energy for at least a year to know if it’s the right path for you. This experience also causes me to think deeply about how I want to live even if I fail in this business.”
● JBNU’s Start-up Club Hashtag
If you want to start a business but are not sure if you are ready, joining JBNU's central club, Hashtag, might be a good idea. The goal of the club is to brainstorm how to start a business without too much difficulty. Even if you make the decision to start a business, most of you will think about the process of starting it and feel at a loss. The club gathers students interested in starting a business, regardless of age or major, and forms a network of start-ups. The club conducts activities such as writing business plans between seniors and juniors, doing market research, and discussing improvements in ideas. Through these activities, Hashtag is trying to narrow the gap between start-ups and fully formed businesses by challenging club members with related activities. Unfortunately, there have been no successful start- ups in Hashtag to date, but the members are striving forward to achieve their dreams.
According to members of Hashtag, the biggest challenge of starting a business is to find a network of people who are enthusiastic about it and have the same interests and goals. "Ideas can be achieved to some extent with just one team leader. However, considering that businesses are run based on relationships with people, no matter how good an idea is, you have to pay a lot of attention to the harmony within the group,” said one club member. It is essential to meet many people to see if they are compatible with your business model. Therefore, the club can be a great help to those who are considering starting a business.
The club holds a twenty-minute meeting every Wednesday at 7 p.m. Hashtag has three departments, those of public relations, planning, and recording, which conduct discussions about Instagram management, friendship and activity planning, and they record the activities of the club. Hashtag recruits new members at the beginning of each semester. In the first round of recruitment, applicants fill out the form, and in the second round, the committee conducts interviews to select new members. Park Gyeong-min, the president of Hashtag, said, "Hashtag prioritizes one's passion for starting a business." Therefore, the club wants members who can participate for more than three semesters and can actively interact with them at each meeting. If you are willing to start a business and are interested in the club, wait for the recruitment date in September!
"I want to take the initiative in creating results and grow in my sense of accomplishment. No matter what I do, my goal is to benefit the world by passionately applying myself and pushing myself to my limits. I hope I can make a valuable difference in the world." Like this hopeful statement from a member of Hashtag, the reason for dreaming of owning a business can be for personal achievement or a variety of other reasons. Do not forget that with exciting new challenges comes hardship in the process. The JBNU Globe wishes you all the best for your future endeavors with abundant help from JBNU!
"I wanted to take the initiative in creating results and grow with my sense of accomplishment. No matter what I do, my goal is to make the world benefit by putting my passion as much as possible where I can bring out my maximum capabilities. I hope I can make a valuable difference in the world." Like this hope from a member of Hashtag, the reason for dreaming of starting a business can be for personal achievement or maybe for other reasons. New challenges must be implemented without restriction, but don't always forget that hardship exists in the process. The JBNU Globe wishes you all the best for your future with various help from JBNU!
l Park Ji-woo Editor-in-Chief, Kim Doe-hye Reporter, Kim Young-eun Cub-Reporter