Class Acts

You may already know what kind of business you want, but if you're not brimming with ideas, look at the needs of your community. Perhaps a laundry service or term-paper typing service are in high demand at your school, says Gumpert. Or, if you're thinking of expanding beyond the college community, you might check out Web design or other computer-based services. "The [businesses] that are most likely to be successful don't require much money, but do require a lot of hard work and creativity," says St. John.

Looking at what you're passionate about can also provide clues as to what business to start. For Gabe Ermine, 26, founder of OHEV Records Inc., his love for underground music inspired him to start his company. The Tamarac, Florida, entrepreneur started his record label in 1997, with his experience as a record store employee and a member of various bands under his belt. His job at a record store led to contacts with distributors. "My boss wanted me to order mainstream music," he says. "There was a huge market for underground stuff, but she didn't want me to order that because [it doesn't sell as much]."

Still convinced this type of music had a large college audience, Ermine started with $2,000 in savings and signed one band. Because he knew the distributors, he was able to get the record out to retailers across the country, including Best Buy and Tower Records. He maintained the label part time while getting his undergraduate degree.

Now in law school, Ermine devotes part of his time to his studies--he wants to bone up on contracts and transactional law to help him grow the record label. Still, grossing about $30,000 a year from his part-time business, he's avoided the loans that plague most law students. In fact, he's on his way to success when he graduates--like one of his bands, which received a multimillion-dollar contract with the Warner Bros. label.

This article was originally published in the June 2003 print edition of Entrepreneur's StartUps with the headline: Class Acts.