Do I pursue Entrepreneurship or IB?
Hi all,
I'm currently in the first year of uni and deciding between pursuing entrepreneurship (my business currently profits similar amounts to an average analyst's full comp) or IB.
I was just wondering whether, in the case of me pursuing entrepreneurship after uni for a couple of years and it going horribly wrong, would I be seriously hindered by my failure in business in applying for analyst positions, even if I had spring and summer internship experience from my first 2 years of uni (target UK uni studying economics)?
I really want to give entrepreneurship a chance as I enjoy doing it thoroughly but I'd feel more comfortable doing so if I knew I'd still have a shot at getting in analyst position if everything went tits up.
Many thanks for any advice or opinions.
damn good for you man. what about just taking a semester off? and then if that goes well taking another semester off etc?
Thanks!
I actually took a year out last year to travel and work on the business. I've told myself that a want to get a solid degree under my belt so I'm not stuck stacking shelves in the event of going out of business. I've found balancing my studies and business to be manageable so far.
Of course, at a certain profit mark, I'd pack the whole uni thing in and just work on my business, but I don't feel like I'm at that point yet.
Really just depends on what your doing is scalable or not. I was in a similar spot when I left hs. Was pulling low-50s in profit from a reselling business. But it had almost no scalability and my entire business relied on other people not recognizing the market opportunity. If you're actually selling a product/have a brand and can scale it, I'd be more keen to continuing to run your company.
Thanks for your insight. When you say reselling, are we talking bulk-buying things and selling them on or buying one-off used items low and marking them up online?
Awesome to hear about your business! do you mind telling us what line of business youre in?
No worries, it's a physical products brand
Is there a way you can do both?
The formal training of being a banker will help you greatly, but obviously you don't want to give up your business that's actually making you money.
How much more automation can you work in? Can you hire someone to take care of 80% of what you do? Maybe you'll make less, but you'll have both options.
What part of the business requires you and only you. Maybe you can only focus on that and outsource the rest one way or another, and work as a banker as your day job.
Even now, I've created SOPs and hired a virtual assistant to complete all recurring tasks, just so I can balance it with focusing on studies. I'd honestly always disregarded the idea of continuing it while working FT because people already complain about IB hours, let alone if I was having to run the strategy side of by business alongside it, I personally think it'd be a bit too much.
It depends on several things: 1) Is it scalable and can you sustainably make North of $100-150k from it ? 2) Can it survive with minimal management or can you hire someone to run it from you during your IB stint?
All in all, I’d rather be a digital nomad working from Bali than work 90-hour weeks, but you also need to make sure your business is scalable so you don’t sacrifice a potentially good career (you’ll have uni time to see how scalable your venture is).
On the other hand, if there is limited expansion potential and it can survive with only a few hours of your time, you probably should go the IB route while maintaining your business, so you have other hard skills and a career to get back to if your other business fails. It will also provide you with massive legitimacy if you need to raise capital or create another startup at some point.
Hope it helps
1) It's already around that range, but it's susceptible to algo changes/account bans (not that I'm doing anything against ToS), it's a good model in terms of scalability too. 2) Yes but it'll likely die a slow death if I did that, I'd rather just sell it to someone who can continue growing it and be done with it.
The legitimacy aspect is a huge point and it's one of the main reasons for me going to uni in the first place. The skills and network I'd gain in as much as 3 years of IB would be invaluable. My worry is that starting a job in IB would be a 'slippery slope' and I'd never end up leaving as I wouldn't want to give up something definite for little more than the dream of starting a business again.
To be totally honest, if you’re already making $150k and can scale this further (maybe $300k?), I wouldn’t work in IB. this is a lot of money already, enjoy life man. Moreover, you’ve created a $150k net income business in 1 year After high school, you’ll be good no matter what.
I don’t know what your business is, but if you really want a CV brand name, go to IB for 1 year, scale down your business, and scale it up again once you leave. This would really be optimal.
Another option would be to perform summer internships and off cycle internships at the likes of Goldman or McKinsey during/after your studies to get this box checked, and move on to working on your business full time after graduation. This way, if your business fail, you’ll easily manage to find another job
My professor is advising me to join a start-up as opposed to going into IB. But then again she was an executive at Lehman Brothers so I don’t know...
However, entrepreneurial roles are much more interesting, no doubt.
More interesting - almost definitely. More reliable - almost definitely not. It's fun don't get me wrong but it's incredibly unnerving knowing that at any moment, your income source could be wiped out with the likes of an account ban. A startup role is great as I suppose it could be seen as the best of both worlds
One thing I’m interested in if anyone can answer - how do you handle the loneliness in entrepreneurship (or does it exist)? Seems like the biggest downside to me.
In corporate jobs (IB/consulting/law etc) you work with a lot of people who are the same age as you and go out/party together, building some really good friendships. It seems quite social. Does the same happen as an entrepreneur or is it much more isolating?
In all honesty, it's incredibly isolating, I'm naturally quite introverted and still struggle with it, I think the trick is to get yourself involved in entrepreneur social circles by going to events, co-working hubs etc. If you can. Another solution is to bring on a business partner to work alongside you.
Thanks for the reply and honesty man - really useful insight!
Congrats on your business, that sounds great!
It seems like you're comparing the two based solely on comp. For anyone who works in IB, they'll tell you that comp doesn't get you through the extremely long hours. If you actually have a passion for working in IB, such as writing CIMs, teasers , and pitch decks, communicating with clients, drafting buyer lists, creating financial models (only a small part of the job), and preparing due diligence requests, then great!
But if not, it will be extremely hard for you to succeed in IB. A paycheck will not get you through the late nights and the weekend work. You truly have to have a passion for it. Not saying people don't have one and still get in anyway, but it's highly recommended.
Cheers Toni.
You're right, I should have included WLB considerations in my post. I do find the markets interesting and the idea of working on a big deal is exciting to me - is it as exciting as building something tangible from the ground up that I can call my own and see its impact on its customers? Not for me, personally but that path is notoriously unsafe and riddled with traps. As ridiculous as this sounds (and I don't want to take anything away from jobs in finance, I'm just talking about my personal situation here), I suppose that subconsciously, if I took finance, I'd kinda feel like I'd 'settled' and taken the safe option. Maybe the 'what if' would eat away at me during my times in IB.
Thanks for your insights
entrepreneurship unless you want to be an associate’s bitch
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