Depending on the school selected, it can mean moving from the only state you’ve called home, giving up your car, seeing your spouse less than you’re used to, and a whole host of other challenges that can seem overwhelming at times. It doesn’t have to be, though, if you manage your expectations and set yourself up for success.

If you’re new to this world, however, and you’re looking for a toolkit that can help make the transition a little bit easier, I offer the following suggestions:

Skype. If joining your MBA student at school means moving, there is no better way to keep in touch with family and friends than a computer with webcam access and Skype. I realized this pretty quickly, and since my mom’s desktop PC wasn’t equipped with a camera, I bought her one and shipped it back to Michigan with a note saying I looked forward to chatting with her as often as possible. Yes, phone calls are great, but nothing replaces seeing the fam face-to-face.

Google calendar. This has been a lifesaver. When your MBA student is running between informational interviews, class, group projects and rugby happy hour, it’s easy to lose track of where they are on any given day. A shared Google calendar will give you a general idea of their class schedule and any major upcoming events. This saves you from having to send multiple texts or make phone calls asking if they’ll be home for dinner or not. It’s also a great way for you, the spouse, to plug in important dates that might get overlooked by your stretched-too-thin student.

Library card. Everybody likes books, right? And if you’re a reading purist who prefers to have that book in your hand — as opposed to, say, a Kindle Fire — the library can be the perfect place to spend some quality time while your student is busy with his MBA duties. And if you live in a trendy city like New York, for example, it’s kind of cool to say you’re a card-carrying member of the New York Public Library.

Business cards. If you move to a new city, and depending on your status, you may be pursuing a new job. In addition to utilizing social media to jump-start your search, it’s always a good idea to have business cards with you at all times. You never know who you might run into at one of your spouse’s networking events, and your fellow better halves are excellent resources as well. Just know that having to write your name and number down on a napkin for someone who’s interested in you tends to look unprofessional, so visit a site like Vistaprint.com or Moo.com, and have some quality business cards made for an affordable price.

A pet. I would never advocate adopting a pet out of boredom, but if you’ve seriously been considering adding a dog or cat to your family, the time during business school can be a perfect opportunity. If you have the patience and resources to devote to a pet, they can provide unconditional love and companionship (and excuses to exercise), which really comes in handy when your MBA student’s responsibilities keep them out of the house for extended periods of time. Puppies are great, but can add additional stress, so consider adopting an older pet, one that is already housetrained and simply looking for its forever family. Petfinder.com is a great way to find vetted, adoptable dogs, cats (and more) by zip code.

Valid driver’s license. Having a current driver’s license is important for significant others because it ensures that you can rent a car — or drive your own — whenever you have the desire to get out of dodge for a few days. I swear some days my apartment walls are closing in on me, so knowing that I have the option to rent a car if I need a quick getaway is a big deal. If you’re not living in your home state, or if you’re in a city with convenient public transportation, it can be easy to forget this minor detail, and there’s little you can do about it at the last minute.

I should add that I polled my fellow better halves while writing this post, and one item was, by far, the top must-have tool in one’s arsenal: wine. What else would you add to the list?

Erica Moss is the wife of an awesome Columbia Business School student, and mom to a lovable English bulldog named Mona. She is also the social media coordinator for the online MSN Degree program at Georgetown University. Follow her on Twitter @ericajmoss.

Photos courtesy erix!, AndyRobertsPhotos, osde8info (all Flickr).

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• Are You A Significant Other? Get involved. Here’s how.

• When the Significant Other is a Guy

• 5 Tips for Surviving Business School as a Significant Other

Songhua Hu and Richard Lim

Songhua Hu and Richard Lim will tell you that they are future serial entrepreneurs…and anyone who meets them absolutely believes this.

The two co-founders of Dezzia, a social-media couponing site, are good friends who graduated from Kellogg the same year and became passionate about starting a business together. They both took full-time jobs, but spent nights, weekends and waking moments figuring out how they could disrupt one of the many industries in which they were interested.

They landed on couponing.

Songhua and Richard spent some time with MBAsocial to talk about Dezzia, their new business, why social media is the future of couponing, and their best advice for doing what they did: launch a company in their spare time.

What does your company do?

Dezzia collects and shares coupons from premium brands by leveraging social media. We got the idea by observing the intersection of the coupon business and technology.

Coupons have probably existed as long as any kind of commerce. Traditionally, coupons were delivered to people’s doorstep in print, and the way to target was based on geography and mining of consumer behavior. The Internet has really transformed the coupon business. Coupons started arriving in digital format, and the way to target was based on search intention (SEO, pay-per-click, etc.)  With the emergence of social media, we believe that coupon business is up for another disruption. In the future, coupon will still be delivered in digital format, but the way to target is through networked individuals and groups. The power of social media is yet to be fully explored, and we are here to push the envelope towards a future we believe in.

Dezzia’s core technology is a “Like Gate” that locks the curated coupon code until customers “Like” the coupon.  When a customer unlocks a coupon, they broadcast the coupon to his/her friends.

What’s the future for Dezzia?

We see the company evolving in three stages:

1. Establish a large fan base by curating attractive coupons via social media
2. Negotiate with major brands for exclusive deals with the power of a large fan base
3. Help small businesses to make more sales via coupons and establish a foothold in social media by extending Dezzia’s fan base

Did you know you two know you wanted to be entrepreneurs before you started business school?

Songhua: I always knew that I wanted to be an entrepreneur of some sort.  However, I did not have any actionable plan to get to that point before business school.  Kellogg provided me with three key ingredients: 1) a variety of start-up classes and competitions that turn my startup dream into an actionable plan, 2) a large pool of student entrepreneurs that serve as my role models, 3) a group of close friends and partners that I can always turn to in formulating the business.

Richard: It’s cliché, but too important not to mention. The most important advice I got was to follow your passion.  Life is too short to do something you don’t want to do, and this is even more important when it comes to starting your own business.  There are so many roadblocks, disappointments, and risks involved that if you’re not truly passionate about what you’re doing, you’ll most likely quit.

Songhua: Be world-class in anything you do.  It is an anti-“follow your passion” advice.  Once you commit, never just go half-way.

What is your best advice for aspiring entrepreneurs or MBA applicants interested in entrepreneurship?

Richard: Be bold.  It’s easy to come up with ideas, very difficult to execute them.  One of the realizations we had was that we had never failed…and yet we never had a business to call our own.  I feel like MBAs sometimes over-analyze…I have that same problem. But if you never fail, then you can’t iterate and make it work. So my advice – make sure you’re passionate about the idea then just do it.

Songhua: Do not do it alone.  The path of entrepreneurship is lonely and full of self-doubt.  You need someone to sanity-check your vision, provide moral support and help you execute.  If you get to a point that you believe nobody else deserves to (wants to) be your business partner, it is time to doubt yourself.

Anything else you’d like to add?

Richard and Songhua are business classmates from Kellogg. Both have tons of ideas but this is their first execution.  Dezzia is the first, but will not be last.  Stay tuned for more.  We are always looking for advisers and business partners.  Please feel from to contact us at dezziacoupon@gmail.com.

Featured photo courtesy of Kyz (Flickr).

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• This MBA Quit Investment Banking to Start an Online Fashion Business

• 10 Things I Learned About Startups

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In some ways, Vivek Agarwal is your typical startup founder: business smarts, a passion for starting things, and a family history of entrepreneurship.

In other ways, he’s really not.

Vivek Agarwal

“Most people seem to be surprised when I tell them I did oil and gas M&A at a bulge bracket investment bank, and now I run an online fashion business,” he laughed.

Vivek is an IESE MBA and the founder of Strand of Silk, an online retail store for high-end designer fashions from India. After spending a few post-MBA years working in investment banking, “…like any honorable Indian MBA graduate,” he revisited an old business plan he wrote at school, and decided in 2011 that the opportunity was ripe to leave his job and try his hand at selling high-end Indian garb.

He spent some time with MBAsocial to talk about how he made the decision to leave his lucrative banking career, and his best advice for aspiring MBA entrepreneurs.

What is Strand of Silk?

Strand of Silk is an online retail store for high-end designers from India. The collections are contemporary in nature and are selected to appeal to a wide range of audiences, both Indians and non-Indians.

Who is the target market?

The affluent women we are targeting have a refined taste and want to be different, but in an elegant manner. She appreciates good quality when she sees it. We bring to the Western market high-quality designer wear from some of the best Indian designers that can be styled for Indian events, or for other evening events.

The site was started with “Western” collections from Indian designers, and we tried to target people of Indian origin, primarily affluent women in their late 20s-40s. These women have a more mature sense of style. Based on consumer purchases and behavior, we also launched a new collection that reflects more ethnic and traditional Indian clothes.

Does having an MBA make a difference as a startup entrepreneur?

I chatted with many classmates to discuss idea (Indians, non-Indians), literally showing them pictures of products, and collecting feedback. There were my Initial focus groups.

In later stages, I have also used classmates as a sounding board for new ideas and they’ve been great for a reality check, they will sometimes tell me, “What are you smoking? That’s not going to work.”

What are some words of wisdom you have for other MBAs considering a change in their careers toward entrepreneurship?

When I was exploring the idea of leaving my company, my friend said to me, very bluntly,

“You are a chartered accountant. You have an MBA, you can always find a job. You won’t starve to death. If you don’t try now, when will you try? When you get older, you’ll have more responsibilities, and more to take care of. Don’t’ worry about a steady stream of income. If you do things with a passion, money will follow.”

I took this to heart. I thought, ‘If I could get a job in an industry like banking, I’ll always be able to get a job.’ I’ve also noticed that 2-3 years out of business school is an inflection point for me and my MBA graduate peers. I see people realizing that they took a job that might not have been right for them. You want to be able to look at the past two years and think that you’ve added value to your life, and to your company.

Follow your heart and do things with a passion, the professional satisfaction and money will come.

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• MBA Style: Puja, Kellogg School of Management

• Entrepreneur Spotlight with the Founder of Luxemi, Swapna Chandamuri (Kellogg ’10)

• Why You Should Start a Company at B-School

Now imagine that you are arrested for those beliefs. Pepper-sprayed.  Beaten.

How do NYU MBAs view Occupy Wall Street? As a new student at Stern I’ve been surprised at the categorical acknowledgement by my peers of how bankrupt our country is both economically and politically.

That said, acknowledgement hasn’t translated into action.  We are apathetic, disinterested, and tired.  We focus on what we can control & influence: our careers.  But, we are also victims of cognitive dissonance — the corporations we hope to one day lead are the very ones extending the money-lined handshakes eroding our country.

These companies are motivated. They are winning. The names change, but for each issue (e.g. fracking, copyright, bailouts) they have an asymmetric stake in the outcome, says Charles Hugh Smith of oftwominds. For each special interest, it means massive rewards – rewards worth fighting and paying for.  Meanwhile, the disenfranchised individual voter endures a thousand paper cuts. The private market for government influence is thriving.

Occupy Wall Street threatens this paradigm by showing that the people can still fight.  They are not fighting for one small reform, they are fighting to change everything. In this battle, the stakes are balanced. This is not a one-sided battle, and the other side doesn’t like a fair fight.

We are at an important crossroads. The injustices perpetrated against peaceful Occupy Wall Street demonstrators (whether you support the movement or not) exemplify the systematic rape of our personal freedoms — freedoms that have been assaulted for a decade under the banner of security and order.  At the same time that our constitutional rights and power as a citizenry are being stripped from us, corporations with their “free speech” money are exacting more influence than ever.  The hypocrisy that corporate rights are now more revered and protected in this country than human rights, should not be lost on any of us.

This is not matter of party, both Democrats and Republicans are addicted to the money teat.  This is a matter of democracy at its most fundamental level.

We as MBAs consider ourselves leaders, now is the time to lead. Here’s how to get started:

• Sign: Put your signature on this petition for an amendment to end corporate money in politics (then get everyone you know to do the same).

• Vote: Refuse to vote for or give money to any candidate (of any party) that does not put campaign finance and corruption as their first priority.

• Move: Transfer your money to a local bank or credit union (Apple Bank is a good option in NYC).

• Read: Educate yourself by seeking out information from credible sources (e.g.  Business Insider, Naked Capitalism, oftwominds, and Republic Lost by Lawrence Lessig).

• Lead: If you have any way to influence your own company’s lobbying, drive them to support getting money out of politics, not short sighted giveaways/tax breaks.

• Suggest: Add your ideas in the comments section below.

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• 2 Perks, 2 Challenges and 1 Good Reason to Become an MBA Social Entrepreneur by Naomi Korb Weiss

My wife and I read our fair share of parenting materials to learn about caring for the baby, but the is no primer for the emotions and changes in your life that you will experience once a life is dependent on you for everything. The love you feel for your child will forever change you as a human – and it will no doubt alter your perspective as a student.

It can be challenging to excel in the classroom and fulfill your heart’s needs with your new baby, but you can strive to achieve both and here’s how:

• Communicate with your partner: You will need a support system. I rely on my wife to care for the baby when I need to devote time to my studies. We discuss a schedule, and try to keep to it as best we can. My wife is my rock through this journey, and I wouldn’t be able to do it without her.

• Work ahead: Procrastination is the worst enemy of the MBA parent. At every opportunity, I tried to work ahead with my required readings and assignments. You simply never know when you little one is rearing up for a crabby evening or weekend afternoon. Working ahead will help you to keep on track when you lose unexpected time.

• Rally from disappointment: During this first term as a new dad, I did not do as well as I hoped on all my coursework. However, I continued to look for opportunities to excel and used my organizational and time management skills to earn an “A” for my final grade. It wasn’t easy, but the challenge was as rewarding as it was draining.

• Ask for help: When my daughter arrived, I realized early that I would need help with some of my responsibilities outside the classroom. For me, yard work had become a unrelenting burden. For five long months my father shouldered this responsibility for me. I am eternally grateful for the unconditional love and support he gave me, and a large portion of my success this term was due to his willingness to help me when I needed it most.

• Intermingle your responsibilities: A baby is so grateful for your love and affection, even the smallest amount of tenderness will strengthen your connection. For me, I would read my text and case studies on the floor while my daughter played next to me on her blanket. Time like this is so very precious, and it is very reasonable to think that everyone can find moments where being a student and a parent cross paths.

• There will be tough moments: When I would arrive home from class exhausted from a long day I knew that had I missed irreplaceable time with my little one. During these difficult times, I reminded myself that to earn my MBA and give my daughter the best life possible, I must sacrifice time with her now. Although this paradox is hard to accept it is a necessary facet of life for an MBA parent.

We live our life according to the syllabus created by children, not our professors – because while business school is temporary, we will forever be parents. New parents like myself need to understand that although this syllabus can be demanding, it is filled with love, hope and positive energy for a bright future ahead.

(Featured photo courtesy of Ed Yourdon [Flickr]; blanket photo courtesy of the author)

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Gift-shopping for adults is difficult. Kids are easy – they want the latest toys or video games. But adults are harder, for many reasons, the following among them:

• He already has everything
• The only things he doesn’t have are the things he can’t afford, and I can’t afford them either
• He won’t tell me what he wants
• He doesn’t know what he wants
• I don’t have time to shop
• etc.

Here’s the rub: finding gifts for your special someone means discovering things that they haven’t already found. And in order to do that, you have to spend more time searching for gifts than they spend shopping for themselves. It’s an arms race!

Lately there are a few interesting sources of unique products cropping up – first and foremost Etsy, a marketplace for handmade goods. Etsy is a phenomenal resource because since most of their artists sell only small quantities of products, everything on the site is unique.

The downside, however, is that there’s a lot of kitsch and crap to sift through. Anyone can sell on Etsy, and they do, so the gems are buried in mountains of crochet owls and more crochet owls. Disclaimer: I do think these crochet owls are kind of cute.

This is exactly why I created my site, Hex Goods; I wanted to create a retail experience where amazingly talented independent designers can really shine. And while I do think we’ve found a few gems, we’re still very early and our selection is limited. So while we get our merchandising engine up and running, let me offer a few pieces of advice for those who are searching for unique gifts.

Pinterest has been getting quite a bit of attention lately for making discovery quick and easy. People post pictures that they like on ‘pinboards’, and you can look at an endless supply of pictures of things that people like. Pinterest is great for getting ideas for gifts, because you can quickly absorb hundreds of pictures at once. The only downside is that most of the things you’ll find on Pinterest aren’t available for purchase (or at least aren’t linked to), so it’s better for generating ideas than it is for shopping. Once you’ve found something you like on Pinterest, you can see if it’s available on other sites like Amazon or Etsy.

2. Let someone else search for you

There are a number of folks out there who do their own curation of sites like Etsy, including Etsy Stalker and Etsy Dudes. They help find the diamonds in the rough, so you don’t have to spend all your time digging through Etsy. Design blogs like Design Milk and Design*Sponge are great as well, although many of the products they feature are not available for purchase.

3. Find almost-available products on Kickstarter and Quirky

Kickstarter, a crowd-funding site for new creative ideas, and Quirky, a “social product development” site, both feature many products that are not-quite-available, in slightly different forms. Kickstarter’s products are made by individuals who are looking to fund their projects (and for many of them if you fund, you get the product when it becomes available). Quirky lets groups of people come together to design new products, and you can put down your credit card to purchase them when they are manufactured (some products that they’ve already started manufacturing are available now). Both of these sites will help you be on the cutting-edge of gift-giving, but you may be leaving an IOU for a future gift under the tree.

Finally, be sure to check out what we’ve got to offer at Hex Goods! If you like our concept but don’t find a product you’re in love with, be sure to sign up for our newsletter or follow us on Facebook to stay informed when we receive new products!

Happy shopping,
Zach

Petite, blonde and friendly, it’s easy to imagine why Scott was so popular.  But the real reason she was so popular was that she was recruiting for Goldman Sachs – and the people swamping her were ambitious MBAs who were trying to get jobs at the firm.

Their admiration quickly changed to something else, though, when Scott began to ask questions to some of the students at their on-campus interviews.

“Why do you want to work in investment banking?”

“Why do you want to work for Goldman?”

Instead of treating her like a celebrity, these bright and accomplished candidates stared at her as if she had turned into a five-headed monster. Many looked stunned, some hesitated, but almost everyone eventually responded to these seemingly impossible questions with answers such as:

“I’m good with numbers.”

“I want more client experience.”

“Goldman is the most respected firm in the industry.”

Corporate recruiters have to combat these superficial and generic reasons from career changers all of the time.  It’s not that prestigious firms lack well-qualified job candidates. Instead, their main challenge is sifting through hundreds of thousands of candidates and finding future colleagues whose personal values match with those of their firms.

“Companies are taking a bigger risk on career changers because of their lack of prior experience, so they have to make sure that these are the people we can spend eighty to a hundred hours a week working alongside with,” said Steve Song, a Kellogg 2009 graduate, who switched from technology consulting at Accenture to investment banking with Barclays after business school.

Corporate recruiters like Song and Scott have to process mountains of, “people information.”  Song, for example, recruits for his bank and frequently travels to Kellogg to do coffee chats and interview candidates.  Each time he speaks with 15-25 interested students within a four-hour period.  At the end of his daylong recruiting trip, he returns to his New York office at around 9 p.m. to continue his regular day of work.  Scott typically meets 100-200 people at corporate-sponsored social functions at each school, interviews 12 candidates per day, and eventually only invites 25% of the candidates for in-house interviews.

When inundated with data, human beings rely on stories to help them remember and make sense of the information.

Cognitive psychologist, Jerome Bruno, discovered that information is 20 times more likely to be remembered if it is shared in the context of narratives, or, stories.  Career switchers, job hunters and MBA applicants would stand a much better chance connecting with decision makers if they understand their personal values and the stories best illustrate these values.

For example, Song recalls when he was going through I-banking recruiting, he had to answer questions related to all the WHYs behind each major moves in his life.  Why did he attend Cornell?  Why did he go into consulting?  Why Accenture?  Why banking now?  These are the same type of questions that he and his colleagues at Barclays now continue to pound at candidates.

So how do you tell a compelling story?

• Go at least five layers deeper than your initial answer.  If one of your reasons for wanting a career change is getting more client experience, ask yourself why you want more client experience.  And if one of your reasons is that you enjoy the client interaction, then ask yourself why were those interactions enjoyable to you.  Dig deeper and go further, beyond what you think you are capable of.

• Have a thoughtful and insightful friend grill you. This friend should be warm and supportive but absolutely relentless on drilling down to the values that motivate you.

• Remember: A story has a captivating beginning, an engaging middle, and a compelling end.

• Make sure that in your story you also have a relatable hero, a clear conflict, a logical transformation, and satisfying conclusion. 

• Listen and analyze your audience.  Pay hyper-attention to their needs. Craft your stories accordingly.

Photo courtesy of the University of Exeter (Flickr).

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Presentense Director of Training, Naomi Korb Weiss

Committing to becoming a volunteer in the last year of business school for many would not seem like valuable time spent. While my classmates were anxiously recruiting – scoring banking and consulting offers – I volunteered at a non-profit organization called PresenTense because I was passionate about its mission. I was roaming daily between two different schools, as I was pursuing a dual MBA/MPA degree but found an outside volunteer outlet to be incredibly fulfilling.

When I volunteered to coach a social entrepreneur through PresenTense in December 2010, it didn’t occur to me this experience would land me my post-graduate job. Yet I was quickly impressed with the organization, and after several conversations and negotiations I was offered the opportunity to join the team as Director of Training for this inspiring social enterprise.

PresenTense engages and inspires the most creative minds of our generation, investing in their ideas and energy to revitalize the Jewish community. PresenTense sparks global conversations around innovation and envisioning a better future for the Jewish community.

Over the past five years, PresenTense has trained 160 leading social entrepreneurs through its Community Entrepreneur Partnerships (CEPs) around the globe, enabling them to launch low-cost, high-impact social ventures.

PresenTense is always looking to engage new people, particularly MBAs – as Fellows looking to build new ventures, as volunteers to coach our fellows or network in the community, or as Trainers to teach our Fellows the venture development curriculum.

MBAs are a unique breed. We are energetic, innovative, and passionate about making a sizable impact. We gain analytical, technical, and strategic skills ,spend endless hours collaborating in group projects, and take on leadership roles in clubs and campus initiatives And we are more entrepreneurial and attuned to social issues than ever before.

Yet few of us dedicate ourselves to a professional career in social entrepreneurship, though its rewards are tremendous. Consider the perks and the challenges:

A life driven by purpose. What are the two ingredients in entrepreneurship? Driving social impact and implementing innovative solutions. Let’s face it, your job becomes your life. So choose an area of impact that is meaningful to you and seek or create an innovative environment in which you can make that impact.

An opportunity to apply an MBA skillset. Everyday at PresenTense, I call upon the material I learned in b-school. I prepare marketing materials, create financial models, review budgets, ensure logistical and operational effectiveness of our training programs, and teach budding entrepreneurs critical skills.

How do I evaluate the ventures? Calling on the insights from my Entrepreneurship and Managing Growing Companies classes. How do I contribute to internal conversations on sustainable strategy for the organization? I turn to concepts and frameworks I learned in my strategy concentration. How do I evaluate social impact programs? By applying a logic model (a non-profit adaptation of a value chain analysis), a key tool I learned in my MPA program.

The examples are endless.

Burnout. Entrepreneurs easily burn out and nonprofit managers frequently feel squeezed at both ends. Further, working day to day for a cause you feel passionately about can emotionally drain you. As with any field, find the culture that is the healthiest and most appropriate for your style.

Join early…. the social movement is cruising the country. Flexible-Purpose corporations, a new term coined by lawmakers, are becoming more and more popular nationally. These companies are part social benefit, and part low profit entity. This new type of company whose intention is to put social goals ahead of making profits is taking deep roots around the country, as more states adopt laws to “bridge the divide between nonprofits and businesses.”

Indeed, as a NYTimes article quotes, “More and more companies are incorporating social beneficial activities into their core business strategies without abandoning their primary goal of making profits.” Consider it.

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• 10 Things I Learned about Startups from The Daily Muse

• Entrepreneur Spotlight: Ashok Jayaram, Kenan-Flagler ’11, Belaku Eye Hospitals

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I had the chance to intern and fall in love with a small start-up whose mission I really believed in. I went to conferences and studied many different entrepreneurs who dared to break free from the corporate mold and create their own direction. And here are the 10 best pieces of start-up advice I learned:

1. Start simple

Your business concept should be easy to understand. Focus on doing one or two things and doing them really well. Too many features can actually confuse users and make them less inclined to use your product or service. Plus, as you mix and mingle with investors and other founders, you’ll put yourself at a disadvantage if you can’t pitch your basic idea in 30 seconds or less.

2. Consider partnership

Starting a business on your own can be terrifying, so grab a buddy. Make sure you work out the contractual terms and how you will divide responsibility ahead of time—and get it in writing. If you give someone 50% of your business, make sure they are actually and contractually responsible for 50% of the work.

3. You don’t need to live in a start-up hub to have a start-up

Silicon Valley is not the only place to be. Outside the San Francisco Bay Area, computer science graduates and aspiring businesswomen don’t yet seem to realize that working for a start-up is an alternative to financial services and consulting. But according to the start-up superstars, there’s a huge untapped market of companies looking for people, especially developers.

4. You don’t need to be the first one to be the best one

It’s okay to enter a market where competitors have entered before you. If you can refine your product and make it sharp, there’s no reason why you can’t become the best in your field. Think: Netflix and Blockbuster. Facebook and MySpace. Gchat and AIM.

5. You don’t need to be the best one to be a great one

Just because you’re not Facebook doesn’t mean you can’t be a viable social networking site. Just because you’re not Ticketmaster doesn’t mean you can’t be a viable events ticket site. The world is large. Figure out what makes your company unique, and focus on your target user community

6. VC backers will demand a large user community

If you’re expecting venture capital to help build your business, focus on developing a large user community first. VC firms want to invest in companies that show strong promise of developing and maintaining a large user base. It may sound like a Catch-22, but users are the key to your capital.

7. If your start-up isn’t growing, change

Growth is the first and most vital part of creating a successful start-up. If growth isn’t happening, reconsider your concept and alter your plan of action.

8. Talk to people

Over and over again, successful entrepreneurs give the same advice: “Get out there and talk to everyone you can in your industry who has been in your shoes.” You won’t get anywhere fast without the insights—and help—of people who’ve gone before you and know your space.

9. Bootstrapping is hard

The saying goes that if your business plan predicts something will take three months, double that and then double that again to know how long it will actually take. And those months are going to seem even longer when you and your co-founders are living on your savings and Spaghetti-O’s. Don’t rule out looking for a separate source of income while you’re bootstrapping. Or, consider goingSilicon Valley for financing, where capital for start-ups is more plentiful.

10. Keep going

Start-ups don’t get off the ground over night, and many start-ups face huge set-backs during their early days. Don’t get discouraged. Keep going, and keep learning!

Photo courtesy of Bruno Cordioli.

This article has been republished with permission. It was originally written by Liz Elfman for The Daily Muse, a career- and lifestyle-focused magazine and community for young professional women.

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You might also like from MBAsocial:

• [Why You Should] Start a Company At B-School by Sanay Patel

• Entrepreneur Spotlight: Gil Eyal (Kellogg ’11), Mobli (a company that just raised $4MM from Leonardo DiCaprio!)

Recently MBA Social talked to the founder of StreetofWalls.com, a startup content website devoted to giving a fair shot to those looking for a job on Wall Street.

He told us about why he’s doing this (because he was there once, too), what’s in it for him and his anonymous co-founders (helping more people like them), and what he’s learned about being an entrepreneur in the process.

What is your website about?

The mission of StreetofWalls.com is two-fold: to level the playing field for all Wall Street applicants (whether or not they are connected to professionals who are already on the Street); and to help those already on Wall Street advance their careers by providing education and information in three focus areas: Investment Banking, Hedge Funds, and Private Equity.

Articles: Offers 120+ submissions detailing basics vocabulary and concepts, tips for interviewing/recruiting and other “how they did it” stories.

News: Keeps people up-to-date with a variety of topics from hiring trends to what the top hedge funds are buying.

Guides: Premium content akin to a hand-holding experience of recruiting, including: recruiting season calendars; how to submit your resumes; the exact questions you will be asked in interviews (and how best to answer them).

Forums: Provides our readers a chance to ask questions of our community of experts and colleagues going through the same process.

How did you get the idea?

The process of getting a job on Wall Street is always the same story – a really smart, qualified person who deserves a job in the industry needs help but just doesn’t understand how to play the system. It’s like showing up to take the SAT’s knowing nothing about the test, and getting scored against everyone else who has been studying for years and has had an expensive Princeton Review tutor.

I had been helping a few people per year get a job on Wall Street for investment banking, sell-side research, and hedge fund analyst positions. I’ve tried to level the playing field to give anyone who wants a fighting chance at a job. I decided to put up a beta site of Streetofwalls.com (then called Ibankingprep.com) to see if I could help a greater number of people via the web than doing so face-to-face. The site was an immediate success.

Anonymous co-founder, Street of Walls

Did you know you wanted to be an entrepreneur before you started business school?

I have always known I wanted to be an entrepreneur. I used to collect baseball cards as a kid but not because I liked baseball or the players (actually I didn’t like baseball at all), but because I loved the idea of being able to resell my collection for a greater value than I had purchased it for.

I used to study the Beckett to watch for price trends. So it’s no surprise that I ended up trading stocks, but it did surprise me to find out I enjoyed helping others accomplish their dreams as well. Streetofwalls.com isn’t about selling someone a “How To” guide. It is more about providing people the information I didn’t have when I went through the scary and seemingly secretive process of Wall Street recruiting.

Any great advice you got as a startup entrepreneur (or that you have for startup entrepreneurs)?

The best advice I got is to understand there is a learning curve to entrepreneurship. It is extremely rare that things will go like gangbusters in the first couple of months, and that’s okay. You need to survive the early hurdles in order to understand what it takes to make it.

Don’t get down on your company when things don’t go right at first. You have to work at it before things start to gel. There were so many instances where people told me Streetofwalls.com would never work. I disagree with people who say, “If you love what you do, it isn’t work.” It’s still work; it’s just work that’s more enjoyable and fulfilling.

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You might also like from MBAsocial:

• [Why You Should] Start a Company At B-School by Sanay Patel

• Entrepreneur Spotlight: Austin Asamoa-Tutu (Kellogg ’11), SweetPerk