When I got admission into the university as a year one student, I knew life was not going to be easy. I had the mindset of taking responsibility for my personal needs in school, I didn’t want to always call home for every little need. So the idea of running a small business came into my mind. I had the skills in computer operation and the idea of opening a cyber cafe business came to my mind.
I didn’t have a laptop or a printer of my own, so I spoke to a friend and she rented her laptop for me. Then I went to an ICT café in the school where I met a lady who had been working there already. After talking with her, we came to an agreement. I would work under her and use her printer, scanner and other equipment. We also agreed that any day I worked, we would divide the money into three parts, one part for me, one for her and one for the maintenance of equipment and buying of materials. With this arrangement, I started my cyber cafe business while still in school.
The rented laptop now mine
Most of the jobs I handled included typing and printing assignments, doing students’ and lecturers’ project work, printing students documents and payment of all fees. The work started coming in steadily and before long, I became quite busy. The only challenge was that this business life was starting to affect my academic life. There were days I would be so occupied with work that I couldn’t attend lectures. Sometimes, I would skip lectures just to meet up with customers' demands.
After a while, I realized that my academics were beginning to suffer. I noticed that I was giving more time to the business and less time to my studies. I would miss classes and rely on friends to give me notes, which I would copy at night. I also used the night to study, since the daytime was mostly spent in the café. That routine became stressful. I was always tired and hardly had time to rest or sleep well. But I kept pushing.
As time went by, the workload increased. More students and lecturers brought their work to me. My little corner in the café became popular and that meant more money. But again, more money came with more pressure. I found myself spending more time at the café than in class. And sometimes, I would have much people in queue, waiting for me to attend to them especially when the school gives deadline for project submission. That became a worried to me. I didn’t want to fail or lose focus on the main reason I came to the university and I didn't want to disappoint anyone who brought work for me.
So, I had to sit myself down and have a think. I decided that I needed to create balance in my academics and business. I started by choosing some weekdays when I would not go to the café at all. I used those days to attend lectures fully, catch up with notes and read. One of the joy I had was that my lectures was in clusters, so there are days I don't go to school. On the days, I would return to work and do my best to deliver on time. I also decided to say no and to channel other customers to other persons working in the cafe, when the work became too much for me or when I had something more important to do for school.
Finding time to rest was another struggle. There were days my body would feel weak and my mind tired. On such days, I allowed myself to take a break. I would stay indoors, sleep or just relax especially weekends. That helped me recharge and come back stronger.
Running my own small business as a student wasn't easy though it was worth it. I learned how to manage my time, how to be responsible, how to plan my day activities and how to make sacrifices. Instead of giving my body much pleasure, I make it useful and strain it sometimes to work.
Thank you for reading @joshel
Images used in this post are mine..