Review Article Review

The article, A Student's Guide to Start Ups, discusses in detail the dilemma graduating students face. The dilemma stems from the choice these graduates have; they can either start their own business, or go work for some company. The article states that startups rose in popularity during the 90's, but the popularity levels decreased during the early 2000's. However, during the 90's, most people wanted to work for startups, a situation that is quite different now. Today, people want to begin their own startups. The article further states that graduating students do not have something to fall back on once they are done with their studies. Whereas undergraduates who start up some business often have something to fall back on as people label their business as a part time one, graduates become what they do. Therefore, for graduates, there is little room for failure. Going forward, there is a general consensus that startups are best left for people who are in their mid 20's, as this is the age where people have the appropriate characteristics needed to begin a start up. There are several advantages and disadvantages that going ahead with a startup during the mid 20's age has. The advantages are stamina, poverty, rootlessness, colleagues and ignorance. Stamina is necessary as it gives individuals the urge to keep going and work long hours. Poverty is necessary as people who do not have a large amount of assets and are not used to high living standards can make do with less of a little bit of everything, in turn reducing the costs that are associated with a startup. The third advantaged, rootlessness, is also quite important as it allows young entrepreneurs to concentrate on their startup fully as they do not have any other issues to deal with. The presence of colleagues helps entrepreneurs choose co-founders that are an integral part of a startup. In short, the article discusses all there is to startups for students. The article focuses on all the issues in great detail, and provides readers with examples of real life startups and how they act as lessons for anybody looking to create a startup of their own. There is no hasty conclusion; instead, readers are provided with all the facts that they can use to make a decision of their own.
The second article, Why the Lean Startup changes Everything, discusses in detail how a new type of start up, the lean startup, has come into play. The author compares traditional startup practices with the newer model, and explains how the latter dramatically reduces the chances of failure which traditional startups so often faced (75% of all startups fail). A lean startup has a business plan that is quite distinct to what traditional startups had. The strategy for lean startups for instance, is hypothesis driven. On the other hand, the strategy for traditional startups was implementation driven. Similarly, lean startups develop products on the go, while traditional startups often specified a product completely before producing it. The author also discusses the factors that entrepreneurs should keep in mind before starting their own business. Concluding it all, the article, in short, states that lean startups have become very important in the rapidly changing business environment that is present today. As such, even large companies such as GE have adopted this approach; a sign that lean startups are for everybody.
The third article, Six Figure Businesses built for less than $100 : 17 Lessons Learned, focuses on micro or small businesses that are usually started by no more than a single individual. The article provides readers with 17 different lessons that can be learned by looking at some successful small businesses. The lessons provided are, in fact, ideas that budding entrepreneurs can look at before going ahead with a business plan of their own. In addition, the issues that are tackled often act as barriers and prevent budding entrepreneurs from executing a plan of their own, so each of the 17 lessons are quite important to say the least. The first lesson, for instance, tells readers that small businesses do not always have to start with a huge amount of funds in hand. Instead, the article states that small businesses should try and keep their initial costs as low as possible, and then deal with problems (another lesson) and work their way up.