Entrepreneurs on Campus
Students see the founder's best moments and none of the Tuesdays
Profiles show launches and funding. They do not show the hour spent chasing a payment, the afternoon fixing something nobody else will fix, or the evening doing accounts. In this session a visiting founder walks through an ordinary working day and an ordinary week, the dull parts included, and students ask about the hours, the pressure and the pay.
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A founder's day looks like the product on the outside and like administration on the inside.
A student who wants to build a business is often thinking about the part they would enjoy: designing, selling, solving. Most owners will say that the larger part of the week goes on other things: following up, paying, sorting out, fixing, and answering people.
That is not a reason to avoid it. It is a reason to know it, so that the choice is made with open eyes and so that a student who dislikes administration can plan for a partner or a helper who does not.
The visiting founder is asked to describe their own working life, not the life of founders in general. Every business is different, and the session says so.
What the speaker is briefed to cover
27 topics across 7 areas. Seven views of the working life, from an ordinary day to the year around it.
An Ordinary Day, Hour by HourWhat actually fills the time.4
- When the day starts and what the first hour is for
- How much of the day is the work the business is known for
- How much is following up, paying, writing, answering and fixing
- What gets pushed to the evening, and why
Speakers are asked for a normal day, not the best or worst day.
A Week and Its RhythmWhat repeats.4
- Which tasks come round every week and which are unplanned
- How they decide what to do first when everything is urgent
- How often their plan for the week survives until Friday
- How they use the quiet days
People They Deal WithA business is mostly conversations.4
- Customers, suppliers, helpers, family and advisers, and how much time each takes
- The conversation they find hardest
- How they handle a complaint or a late payment
- Who they turn to when they need advice
Money Matters in the WeekGeneral, with no figures asked for.4
The speaker is not asked to share their earnings. If a student asks, the speaker may decline politely.
- How often they look at the money, and what they look at
- What bills and payments fall on the same day
- How they keep personal and business money separate
- What the first years were like for their own income, described in general terms
Hours, Rest and PressureThe honest part.4
- Hours worked in the early years compared with now
- What they gave up in terms of holidays, evenings and sleep
- How they handle a bad week
- How their family reacted and what changed at home
What They Like and Do NotBoth lists, said plainly.4
- The parts of the day they would do for nothing
- The parts they would pay someone else to do
- What they would miss if they went back to a job
- What they envy about people with jobs
What Has Changed Over the YearsEarly days compared with later ones.3
- What they used to do themselves that they now hand to someone else
- What they still cannot hand over
- What they would tell a student who thinks it will become easy
What the founder prepares
- A rough hour-by-hour account of a normal working day
- One example of a day that did not go to plan
- A plain statement of what they like and what they find tiring
- Willingness to say what the work is not, as well as what it is
What students can ask
- What did you do yesterday?
- How many hours do you work, and has that changed?
- What do you do when you are ill?
- How much of your day is spent on the thing you started the business for?
- Do you ever want to give up?
How the session runs
The founder takes the first twenty minutes to describe an ordinary day, then a week, using a few notes rather than a presentation. Students may write down in advance how they imagine a founder's day, and the founder comments on a few of these. The rest is questions. The speaker is briefed on what to cover and on the no-pitch rule (they may describe their work, but may not sell, recruit or ask students to sign up for anything). A member of the college's staff stays in the room, and length and group are agreed with the college beforehand.
What your students leave with
- A realistic picture of an ordinary week of running a business
- An understanding that much of the work is not the thing the business is known for
- Awareness of how hours, income and stress behave in the early years
- A fairer comparison between running a business and having a job
- A clearer sense of which parts of the work might suit them
- Questions to ask any business owner about their working week
Scheduled sessions
Nothing scheduled yet
Sessions are arranged with a college once a date is agreed. Ask us and we will find the right person for it.
A student rather than a college? See what is coming up, or ask your placement team to host this.
Let students see the ordinary working week behind the founder's profile.
Tell us who your students are and what stage they are at. Sessions are free for participants.