Discussing the successful entrepreneurship of college students from the perspective of project management
Abstract: From the perspective of project management, this paper explains the entrepreneurial projects of college students and how college students can successfully start their own businesses. It points out that successful entrepreneurship of college students means that the establishment can be profitable. Enterprises may develop new products that can bring wealth, and suggestions are made to use college student entrepreneurship as a social practice activity, subject to time and budget constraints.
Keywords: College Student Entrepreneurship Project Management, Entrepreneurship Ability
Since Tsinghua University held the first domestic entrepreneurship plan competition in 1998, by April 2002, the National Ministry of Education had combined Tsinghua University, China After eight institutions of higher learning, including Renmin University, Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Wuhan University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Heilongjiang University and Nanjing Institute of Economics, were designated as pilot institutions to carry out college students' entrepreneurship education, various universities across the country have generally begun to carry out entrepreneurship education. The boom in college student entrepreneurship.
Entrepreneurship ability is listed by UNESCO as the third ability passport that college students should possess after academic and vocational skills. But one problem that is always troubling is: on the one hand, college students are extremely enthusiastic about entrepreneurship. According to some local statistics, 70% of college students are interested in entrepreneurship; on the other hand, there is a high entrepreneurial failure rate. College students fail to start their own businesses. The rate is as high as 70%, but the success rate is only 2% to 3%. Therefore, it is particularly important to promote and implement entrepreneurial ideas among college students, enhance entrepreneurial awareness, cultivate entrepreneurial abilities, and prepare entrepreneurial college students who are interested in starting a business.
The entrepreneurial process of transforming entrepreneurial ideas into healthy business entities requires effective management by entrepreneurs, that is, entrepreneurial management. Project management is mainly dedicated to solving the creation and management of new projects. There are similarities between the two. This article draws on the concepts and perspectives of project management to talk about how college students can successfully start a business.
1 College Student Entrepreneurship Project
A project is a unique work, that is, to introduce or produce a new product or service in accordance with certain norms and application standards. This work should be completed within limited project parameters such as time, cost, human resources, and capital. A project has three elements, namely technical objectives, completion deadline and budget. The successful realization of a project is usually governed by four factors, namely scope of work, cost, schedule and customer satisfaction.
College student entrepreneurship is a major project in college students' lives, which to a certain extent affects their career direction after leaving campus. Since college student entrepreneurship is a project, what are the technical goals of college student entrepreneurship projects? Some people say it is starting a company, some people say it is developing a new product, some people even say it is successfully raising funds. These are all wrong, at least not comprehensive. The fundamental purpose of a business is to make profits, and new products should reflect value. Therefore, the technical goal of college student entrepreneurship projects should be to create a profitable business or develop new products that can bring wealth.
Because the purpose of starting a business is unclear or the motivation is impure, some college students start a business just to satisfy their boss addiction and satisfy their vanity. When the money is burned out, starting a business can be regarded as "complete" full stop, the results were disappointing.
After clarifying the technical goals of college students’ entrepreneurship, the completion deadline is naturally the longest time for business operations (or new product sales) to reach the break-even point. Entrepreneurship is risky, including technical risks, management risks, market risks, talent risks, and even policy risks. College students should set a good stop loss point when starting a business. Someone was optimistic about the market prospects of electric bicycles. He learned that the sales of electric bicycles in Hangzhou and Ningbo were strong, and he also opened an electric bicycle store in Wenzhou. Sales were okay in the first month, but dropped significantly in the second month. Searching for the reason, I found that there were many electric bicycle sales stores nearby. The electric bicycle he operated was produced in accordance with national regulations in terms of appearance and power. The appearance was stingy and thin, and the horsepower was limited to 20 kilometers per hour. However, the electric bicycles sold in the surrounding stores were What they sell are non-standard "electric motorcycles" that look like fashionable motorcycles, which suit local tastes and take away business. Not long after, the Wenzhou City Public Security Traffic Police Brigade issued a document explicitly banning electric motorcycles from being used on the road. This encountered another policy risk and had to end operations.
The author agrees that college students’ entrepreneurship should be regarded as a social practice activity to experience the hardships and difficulties of starting a business, accumulate experience and lessons, and prepare for the opportunity to start a business after entering the society in the future.
A budget is the minimum amount of money needed to start and maintain a business (or develop a new product). The funds required to start a business generally consist of the following parts: ① equipment, including the purchase cost of production equipment, office equipment, tools, etc.; ② work site, including the cost of housing, decoration, etc.; ③ advance payment, including rent, business license and other similar prepaid expenses; ④ Operating turnover, at least three or four months of operating funds, including wages, advertising expenses, maintenance expenses, debt repayment, purchase of materials and energy expenses, etc.; ⑤ Inventory, semi-finished products, Funds occupied by finished products, raw materials, etc. In addition to mental preparation, knowledge preparation, and ability preparation, college students' entrepreneurial preparations also require certain financial preparations. How much money can you do? Make sure the funds raised are within budget. It is best if the funds can be received at once, and at the minimum, the funds can be received in time in installments.
2 Team - the key to successful entrepreneurial success for college students
Usually the most important task for a successful project is to establish a project team. Selecting the right project team members and letting them serve on the project team is the key to the success of the project.
For college student entrepreneurial projects to be successful, they are also inseparable from a good entrepreneurial team. Successful entrepreneurship requires comprehensive knowledge and experience in many aspects, such as management knowledge, marketing knowledge, financial knowledge, legal knowledge, and even product technology knowledge. However, most young college students have no practice in this area and lack of experience, making it difficult for them to be all-rounders. Therefore, those who understand technology must find a partner who understands management, and those who understand management must find someone who understands technology as a partner. When establishing a team, entrepreneurs must select like-minded and capable individuals to join the team and clarify the responsibilities of team members. As a team leader, entrepreneurs must also master communication skills and learn to listen, influence and negotiate to maintain and consolidate the combat effectiveness and work efficiency of the entire team.
3 Plan - Business Plan
Plan is a basic component of project management. For any project, if there is no detailed and effective plan, the probability of failure will be greatly increased. In fact, a plan is a road map that guides project implementers on how to get from where they are now to where they want to go. Without it, project implementers may not get there. The same is true for college students' entrepreneurship. They also need a detailed and feasible business plan as a prerequisite for success.
Business plans generally include: ①Plan summary: including company introduction, main products and business scope, market overview, marketing strategy, sales plan, production management plan, managers and their organizations, financial plans, funds Demand conditions, etc.; ② Product (service) introduction: including product conceptual performance and characteristics, main product introduction, product market competitiveness, product research and development process, new product development plan and cost analysis, product market prospect forecast , product brands and patents; ③ Personnel and organizational structure: including the company’s organizational chart, the functions and responsibilities of each department, the heads and main members of each department, the company’s remuneration system, the company’s shareholder list (including stock options, Proportions and privileges), the company’s board members, and background information of each director; ④ Market forecast: including a summary of the market status, an overview of competitive manufacturers, target customers and target markets, the market position, market segmentation and characteristics of the company’s products, etc.; ⑤ Marketing strategy: including the selection of marketing agencies and marketing channels, marketing team and management, promotion plans and advertising strategies, and price decisions; ⑥ Manufacturing plan: including the current status of product manufacturing and technical equipment, new product production plans, technology upgrades, and equipment updates requirements, quality control and quality improvement plans; ⑦ Financial planning: including cash flow statement, balance sheet and profit and loss statement.
The business plan must answer two basic questions, one is the funds required to start your business or expand your business; the other is how to get returns most quickly.
The essence of a business plan is that before you actually start a business, you should stop and think about how to do it better. It is like a pre-war sandbox drill. Through the sandbox drill, you can discover existing problems and deficiencies, come up with ways to overcome them, and think things through. It must be realized that writing a business plan is to get things done, not to look good.
4 Project Control
Project control, in the final analysis, is the management of the project, that is, formulating a plan and then executing it according to the plan. If everything goes according to plan, management will be an easy job.
But the actual situation is not that simple. Due to changes in the environment, deviations in understanding, lack of ability, etc., the actual situation deviates from the plan. To ensure that the project is carried out according to the plan, project control must be used. Project control is based on certain standards, monitors the project regularly or irregularly, discovers deviations between project activities and standards, and takes necessary measures to resolve them. It is necessary to control the progress, costs, quality, risks, etc. of entrepreneurial projects.
In the process of starting a business, college students should always check the implementation of their plans to see whether they are advancing as planned and whether the progress is faster or slower than expected. For example, 1/3 of the time has passed, and the market expansion has only reached 1/5; or the cost is more than half, but the business volume is only 1/3, etc. Problems must be discovered in time, reviewed in time, and solutions quickly proposed for correction.
5 Conclusion
Entrepreneurship education gives college students facing employment pressure an additional choice, but college students who are interested in entrepreneurship must clearly understand that entrepreneurship is risky. Successful entrepreneurship must be guaranteed by certain financial resources and entrepreneurial abilities.
Entrepreneurship among college students is to establish a profitable enterprise or develop a new product that can bring wealth, not to become a "boss addict". You must plan well before starting a business, control the entire process during the execution of the plan, and correct deviations in a timely manner.
College students should regard entrepreneurship during school as a social practice activity to experience the hardships and difficulties of starting a business, accumulate experience and lessons, and prepare for the opportunity to start a business when they enter the society in the future.
References
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