Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Picture the scenario: You've been mulling over a superbbusiness plan for the past several months, when you read an articleprofiling someone who's already left the gate with the verysame concept. "%&$*!" is right. So you retreat,defeated, back to your gloomy day job, or you go throughwith it anyway--the latter of which only truly zealousentrepreneurs, like Ray Sozzi, 31, choose to tackle.
Nearing graduation from the University of Massachusetts at NorthDartmouth, Sozzi had almost fleshed out his idea for amembership-based college student discount program dubbed StudentAdvantage, but he took a cushy job at a management consulting firmanyway. He then discovered that The Princeton Review, one of thenation's largest test-prep companies, had launched an exactreplica of his student discount idea, eerily named Student Access."The only difference was the second word!" Sozziremembers.
Realizing it was now or never, Sozzi quit his job in 1992,depleted his bank account, ran up $25,000 in credit card debt, andsold his car and condo to get Student Advantage Inc. established intime for the upcoming "back to school" season. With$100,000 and a staff that didn't receive regular salaries formore than two years, Sozzi refined his business model whileresearching the college population's spending power.
By arranging partnerships with universities and leveraging everybusiness contact imaginable, Student Advantage has grown into notjust the nation's largest collegiate discount network, but alsoa full-fledged student lifestyle resource. For a $20 membershipfee, its more than 1 million members get discounts of 10 to 50percent at some 20,000 sponsor locations, including Foot Locker andTower Records. Students also receive a quarterly student lifestylemagazine and access to www.studentadvantage.com, which offersonline shopping discounts, student-focused content, and servicessuch as e-mail and file storage. Sales for the first three quartersof 1999 were nearly $20 million.
The smartest part of success? Student Advantage has acquired allfour of its competitors--including former nemesis StudentAccess.
