Вы находитесь на странице: 1из 9

Effective Time Management for Selected Senior High School Student Entrepreneurs

Chapter 1

Introduction

According to Adetiloye (2013), a student entrepreneur is someone who combines


academic activities with business. He is the owner or manager of a business enterprise, who by
risks and initiative, attempts to make a profit and combine this with academics.

Csorba (2014) states that entrepreneurship, which applies to those who build for-profit
start-ups and charities alike, can be a stressful pursuit, but the rewards can enrich a traditional
university experience. Student entrepreneurs gain hands-on experience with their education,
grow their personal networks and have no choice but to become more diligent with their study
time.

Being a student entrepreneur can be a huge risk though, as one's grades and daily lives
may be affected because of their business. A student entrepreneur combines their academic
activities with their business, which means having double the amount of work to do. This means
that they may be affected by the amount of tasks to do in their school, which may also cause
problems regarding their business.

These problems may also cause unnecessary stress to student entrepreneurs. Whether
they are selling online or in person, the stress and responsibilities that they carry with them need
to be managed accordingly. If the students are actively engaging in their business, they are often
so focused about their products and forget about their studies. Their main problem would be
finding the proper time for their studies and business.

If one is a student entrepreneur, they need to properly distribute their time between
studies and entrepreneurial functions. For example, if one sells products online, they need to
always be connected to the Internet for any potential customers. If they are also doing their
studies online, they may be overwhelmed by the amount of things to do. In their case, time
management is crucial for student entrepreneurs.
Statement of the Problem

Difficulties of being a student entrepreneur basically lie on the lack of ability to manage
time and balance activities. This study attempts to make significant investigation about the
effective time management for student entrepreneurs especially to those in senior high school.
The researchers conduct surveys to students who are entrepreneurs at an early age.

Specifically, this study aims to answer the following questions:

1. What are the major difficulties encountered by a student entrepreneur?


2. How does the responsibility of a student entrepreneur affect his/her studies?
3. What are the main reasons why these problems are encountered by a student
entrepreneur?
4. What are the strategies that can be a solution to the difficulties experienced by the student
entrepreneurs?

Significance of the Study

This study aims to provide a detailed description about the difficulties encountered by
student entrepreneurs and how time management can serve as the solution to the said problem.

Specifically, the following people will benefit from the study:

1. Teachers, as they will be able to understand the struggles and hard work of student
entrepreneurs. They may also use this research as a reference for the future.
2. Students, as they will be able to understand their classmates more. They may even start
setting up a business of their own.
3. Student entrepreneurs, as they will be able to identify several strategies to help their
business. They may also identify weaknesses in their current actions and start to fix them.

Scope and Limitation

The investigation will cover the responses of 60 student entrepreneurs of senior high
school students within Cotabato City in Mindanao. There will be respondents from different
schools such as Notre Dame University, Notre Dame of Cotabato, and Cotabato City State
Polytechnic College - Laboratory High School.

The study will not cover any students that are not senior high students; this includes
junior high students and college students.

Review of Related Literature

In this section, different articles are presented to help support the researchers' point of
view regarding the research topic. The articles include proper time management, entrepreneurial
activities, and business tips.

Time Management:

Chances are good that, at some time in your life, you've taken a time-management class,
read about it in books, and tried to use an electronic or paper-based day planner to organize,
prioritize and schedule your day. "Why, with this knowledge and these gadgets," you may ask,
"do I still feel like I can't get everything done I need to?"  The answer is simple. Everything you
ever learned about managing time is a complete waste of time because it doesn't work.  Before
you can even begin to manage time, you must learn what time is. A dictionary defines time as
"the point or period at which things occur." Put simply, time is when stuff happens. [ CITATION
Mat11 \l 1033 ]

Time management is the thinking skill that helps children to prioritize tasks and
accurately judge the amount of time needed to complete them. It helps them complete activities
in a timely fashion, and learn to manage and stick to a schedule. Time management often
involves children monitoring their own efforts and actions, having an appropriate sense of
urgency to complete assignments, and having the ability to efficiently follow step-by-step
procedures. (Eliot, 2013).

Most students find that their greatest challenge in adjusting to college life and to
succeeding in the classroom is in managing their time effectively. This is especially true for
community college students who often work long hours. Adult students deal with the additional
issues of child care and family and home responsibilities. [ CITATION Meg11 \l 1033 ]

Definition of Entrepreneur:

My go-to online dictionary describes an entrepreneur as “a person who starts


a business and is willing to risk loss in order to make money” or “one who organizes, manages,
and assumes the risks  of a business or enterprise.” Note the common
keywords business and risk. If there’s no real business or risk, you’re not an entrepreneur.
[ CITATION Ste15 \l 1033 ]

Entrepreneurs are frequently thought to be individuals who discover market needs and
launch new firms to meet those needs. They are risk takers who provide an impetus for change,
innovation, and progress in economic life. So for us, an entrepreneur is a person who relentlessly
focuses on an opportunity, either in a new or existing enterprise, to create value, while assuming
both the risk and reward for his or her effort. [ CITATION Moo11 \l 1033 ]

Entrepreneurs are also portrayed as risk takers. Certainly, they do assume risk. By
investing their own money, they assume financial risk. If they leave secure jobs, they risk their
careers. Starting and running a business can place stress on the family. After all, when someone
with a family starts and runs a business, the whole family is affected, which must be considered.
Even though entrepreneurs assume risk, they are usually what we might term moderate risk
takers - accepting risks over which they have some control. Also, it is interesting to see
entrepreneurs so focused on the opportunity that they do not even think they are taking a risk.
[ CITATION Moo11 \l 1033 ]

Student Entrepreneurs:

Starting a business at university is one of the hardest things you’ll do, but it’s also the
best time in history for young people to set up a business. At university, you also have the gift of
time, and research facilities on your side. A recent Santander Universities UK report revealed
how 24 percent of current university students are running a business venture of some sort.
(O'Neill, 2015)
First things first, if you’re thinking of starting a business, it means you have an idea and, more
likely than not, this product or service is already out there and is already trading. But, this doesn't
mean it’s not a future billion-dollar company. Most successful companies generally enter the
market second and learn from their competitors’ mistakes, and market validation is a great way
for you to save your two most valuable resources: time and money. (O'Neill, 2015)

If you’ve assessed your competitors and feel like you still have a significantly different
and better product or service, then it’s about time you map out the business in a viable way
where it’s easy to assess each area of the market. You’ll soon realize there are a number of
problems you are going to face in the early stages of your set up. Whether it be lack of capital,
knowledge, or support - if you are able - quickly prioritize what’s required. That way, you’ll be
able to cater for your weaknesses and have a much stronger company start. (O'Neill, 2015)

Surely by now you’ve heard the one about the Stanford wunderkind who starts a too-
good-to-be-true biotech company and ten years later comes under federal investigation. Or
maybe the one about the Pacific Palisades l'enfant terrible who hacks together a disappearing
picture app for homework and then pivots into a multi-billion-dollar media company. Student
entrepreneurs are popular in the public imagination, but they come with a fraught reputation.
They’re PR tire fires. But that’s not the whole story. Student entrepreneurs have a risk profile
that makes them look like a feast-or-famine deal. But an occasional campus success story isn’t a
fluke. It might just be something to bet on. [ CITATION Par16 \l 1033 ]

Using Money:

Money plays an important role in our lives. On one side it is a tool for wealth creation for
future needs and on the other it serves as a transaction instrument for satisfying present
needs. (Mudholkar, 2012)

Reflect on your costs each month. Our financial statements often reveal a disconnect
between what we say we value and what we actually do. Look at your statement and ask
yourself: Does this expense line up with my defined priorities? (O'Connell, 2016)
Make a list of what you value. The best way to spend more wisely is to align your
spending with your values. Are you aware of your personal values? Take a moment to write
down the things that are most important to you in life. Is it security for your family? Is it success
in business? Is it helping others? You likely have a combination of values. Write these values
down and then ask yourself this question: “am I spending my money on things I value?” Then
ask, “am I spending my money on things that aren’t in my value system?” (Taylor, 2017)

Create a budget. On a basic level, a budget is simply a plan for your money. If you know
your expected income next month, write that number down. Then start applying that money to
different things. Start with taxes (if it isn’t already taken out), giving, and savings. Then move to
basic necessities: housing, food, insurance, utilities, transportation. Finally, apply the rest of your
income to other things you need or want. (Taylor, 2017)

Entrepreneurial Traits:

1. Innovation

In her book Collective Geniuses, Dr. Linda Hill, the Wallace Brett Donham Professor of
Business Administration at the Harvard Business School, and her co-authors describe innovation
as "the creation of something both novel and useful." And that specific 'something' can be a
product, service, process, business model, or even a novel way of organizing. Innovations can
big or small and occur via a breakthrough or incrementally. [ CITATION Bil15 \l 1033 ]

Innovation is the process of making something new or doing something in a new way. In
business, innovation also has to include the concept of improvement; to innovate in business is
not just to do something differently, but to do or make something better.[ CITATION Sus16 \l
1033 ]

To the lay mind, innovation is generally the most distinctive entrepreneurial trait. As
exemplified by Henry Ford, entrepreneurs tend to tackle the unknown; they do things in new and
different ways; they weave old ideas into new patterns; they offer more solutions than excuses.
[ CITATION Moo11 \l 1033 ]

2. Risk-taking
Some of the most successful entrepreneurs took major risks, and they paid off in a big
way. Shark Tank's Barbara Corcoran turned a $1,000 loan into a $5 billion-dollar real estate
business that she sold for $66 million back in 2001. When most people hear the word "risk" they
relate it to a financial risk, but in the case of Corcoran, the initial financial investment wasn't
very risky. The risk came into play when she went all in, devoting 100 percent to making her
business work with such a small amount of seed capital. Many would assume it isn't possible to
start a business with very little money, but those who aren't afraid to take risks don't see things
such as limited funding as a handicap.[ CITATION Tho15 \l 1033 ]

Any new venture or growth involves risk. The successful entrepreneur has an instinctive
knowledge of how to mitigate and manage high-risk situations. According to this research,
entrepreneurs perform best when they are able to utilize their dominant natural talents. While
education and training may help, having the innate ability will make the job easier. Therefore,
entrepreneurs need to recognize their talents and create a consistent effort to nurture them to full
fruition. [ CITATION Jac16 \l 1033 ]

3. Resilience

 Entrepreneurship is going to dole out constant challenges, some of which you've already
considered but many of which you'll never see coming. And it's about more than just business
opportunities and obstacles--your personal life will be challenged as well. You'll face complex
financial problems, decision-based dilemmas, long hours, sudden changes, and predictions that
egregiously fail. You must remember that all these challenges, while difficult to face, are a
natural part of being an entrepreneur. Success in business ownership is rarely a matter of how
many challenges you face so much as it is a matter of how you face those challenges.
Triumphant entrepreneurs have a level of resilience, which allows them to face an almost
constant slew of challenges without ever weakening their resolve. (DeMers, 2015)

Sir Winston Churchill once said, “Success is the ability to go from one failure to another
with no loss of enthusiasm.” As an entrepreneur, you’re going to fail. That’s just an unfortunate
fact. While something that drastic would be too much for most people to handle, an entrepreneur
has the uncanny ability to get up and dust themselves off. Instead of giving up, an entrepreneur
will learn from their failures. What went wrong? How can I long from my mistakes? How can I
succeed next time? These are the type of questions an entrepreneur will ask themselves. An
entrepreneur doesn’t stay down when times get rough. They’re resilient and thrive off of the
negativity. (Rampton, 2014)

Entrepreneurial Strategies:

1. Advertising

Advertising is informative. It tells the public what goods are available, in what varieties
and at what prices. It is a very competitive industry, with creative minds vying with each other to
find new and attractive ways of appealing to what the public is looking for, and of emphasizing
the merits that people seek in the goods they buy. (Pirie, 2012)

Advertising is often used to promote new or improved products by announcing the edge
they have over their rivals. It is self-regulated, not permitting ads that try to sell goods by making
people feel inadequate or inferior without them. Instead they have to stress the positive aspects of
their products. (Pirie, 2012)

Small business owners need to be realistic about their advertising campaigns. Typically,
of course, they'll be looking for effective, low-cost solutions, but typically, too, you can have just
one or the other; you are unlikely to find a simultaneously effective and inexpensive channel for
your ads. That is why you absolutely must budget for advertising, not just play with the money
you have left over. By assigning the right amount of money to the right channels, you can get the
results you want, or at the least, improve the results you have, based on the data you gather along
the way. Since your monthly spend will be consistent, you'll be better able to measure overall
efficacy too. (Smale, 2016)

More people are spending more time online than ever before. Cover all your small
business advertising bases by ensuring that your business is listed on websites providing business
information for your local area. Many municipalities, for instance, offer business listings on their
websites. (Ward, 2016)
Every professional or business organization offers exclusive advertising opportunities for
their members, ranging from free promotion on the organization’s website through special
section newspaper advertising. And being a member can be good small business advertising in
itself. (Ward, 2016)

Вам также может понравиться