Houston entrepreneur offers guidance to those looking to strike out on their own
HOUSTON - You may have heard about the Great Resignation, as millions of people have decided to leave their jobs and start over with something new, For many, that path means starting their own business. 4.3 million people quit their jobs, just in August, and about a third of them are following a passion to work for themselves.
Finding that 'passion' is exactly what motivated Neha Gupta more than 10 years ago. Years after attending grade school in Houston, and graduating from Rice University, she now helps students around the world realize their own dreams.
After working a side-hustle in school and after graduation, tutoring kids, Gupta found it was more profitable and founded College Shortcuts. In addition to teaching kids around the world, she also includes coaching students how to market their contributions to colleges and universities, beyond their grades in the classroom.
"What we've seen, over and over, it's that it's all about the values; the soft skills and who they actually are," says Gupta.
Rajpal Bal is one of those students. He started working with Gupta in high school. Now a junior at Rice, Bal says he had great test scores, was valedictorian of his class but needed help explaining what kind of person he was and wanted to be in order to get into his dream school.
"The earlier you understand what you don't know, the quicker you're going to get help, and the quicker you're actually going to get what you want," says Bal about his experience.
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Neha Gupta warns starting a business is hard and expensive.
"It's been one of the hardest journeys of my life that I've ever been on," she says.
While each experience is unique, she says her success came from starting small and building from her side-hustle, rather than leaping without a safety net.
"Take it, one client, at a time," she says, "It's one customer at a time, listening to what they want, what are their confusion-points, and really creating solutions based on actual data."
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She also suggests, unless there are deep pockets bankrolling an entrepreneurial venture, be prepared to do everything to make the business work, from janitor to CEO. The odds are stacked against the experience, one in five startups fail in the first year and 50% do not survive five years. For the optimists looking to give it a go, that also means half of those businesses will also succeed.