Student entrepreneurs are faced with the same problem each day — they need to get their names out of the classroom and into the business world.
There’s an ongoing debate as to whether universities are giving business students enough entrepreneurship opportunities. However, slowly but surely, student entrepreneurs are working their way into the business world.
Jason Flick was a computer science and math student at Carleton University when he became interested in building his own companies. But at the time, there weren’t too many opportunities for him to combine his knowledge of computers with his business instincts.
“There weren’t many jobs so I made myself a job,” Flick says. “It was kind of how I got into starting up my own real business.”
That was how Flick Software, a mobile program company, was born. Nearly 10 years later, the company has created software for Canada Post and many other “big name” companies — a feat for what was once just a small start-up.
And nowadays, young entrepreneurs hoping to create their own companies have even more opportunities, Flick says.
“Ottawa is still a bit shy on funding, it’s a big issue here,” Flick says. “But in general, I think there are more tools and more capital to start a business up now.”
“Look at Facebook and Google, all these cool companies that started with nothing. I think it’s more hip now than it was 10 or 15 years ago. So I think there [are] opportunities and I think there’s an aptitude,” he says.
Flick also says he thinks universities can do more to encourage students and companies to work together. He says it’s up to professors to interact more with businesses, so students can get more of a chance.
Erin Peck, a third-year commerce student at Carleton, is in the middle of trying to start up a fashion company with the help of a business partner. She says as a student entrepreneur, she wishes she had access to more support.
“It would be really great if the government advertised grant opportunities more in the universities so people had more access to them,” Peck says.
“I have never had anyone come up to me and say ‘Hey, you’re starting a business? Here’s five thousand dollars as a grant from the university.’ That kind of thing isn’t around.”
But Jerry Tomberlin, the dean of Carleton’s Sprott School of Business, says there are other ways to give students a boost when they go into business.
He says co-op programs are one way for students to get established and make connections.
“When I talk to students around co-op, when they come back, their studies are much more relevant because they’ve had some experience and can relate to the things that go on in the classroom,” Tomberlin says.
“And also they have a much better idea of the job they want . . . That’s the really nice thing about a co-op [placement], it can be really good, and if it’s not good, the downside’s not very high. You get paid and turn this over, and you can try something else the next time you can go out.”
Peck says she does like how Carleton’s business program gives her the opportunity to take entrepreneurship classes and have her business plan reviewed by professors. Considering she’s still a student, she says anything that will help jumpstart her business will come in handy.
