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The idea of taking an idea or a plan and turning it into a business is an attractive concept to many, including soon-to-graduate college students. Many graduating young adults are offered a chance to go the corporate route and become a cog in a machine, specializing in one task and working that job for an entire career. The freedom of being one's own boss, choosing when to work and when to vacation, with the ability to handle all aspects of a business, can be extremely appealing. On the surface, entrepreneurship may seem easy and exciting, but it is much more complicated. While most entrepreneurs would state that their work is exciting, it can also be difficult and full of long hours working alone in high stress environments. Entrepreneurs must know everything about their businesses if they hope to survive. It is difficult for many college students to understand or have access to the complete picture of what it means to be an entrepreneur. In this document, I hope to provide potential entrepreneurs with a sample of what is included in the monstrous task of starting a business from nothing. While every startup has different challenges and problems that must be solved, there are many general principles that apply to every business. Through this report, I plan to convey those principles in a qualitative manner, applying classroom principles learned at the W.P. Carey School of Business to a real life example of a business startup. The startup I have chosen to analyze is an online life insurance broker, founded under the name "Insurmi.com" by Arizona State University student Sonny Patel. I currently work at Insurmi.com as a content writer and will receive data for this report directly from Mr. Patel. Sonny Patel is a recently graduated Arizona State student who started his business during his junior year. Thus, he is a great example of a student entrepreneur, and a look into his daily habits and responsibilities with Insurmi.com will provide a glimpse into what is necessary to build a startup out of college. The format of this thesis is broken into two sections. The first will be research into the current and future state of life insurance, while the second part will be a case study of the foundations and current actions of Insurmi.com. The defense will include a slideshow presentation made up of useful Insurmi.com photography by Sam Jagoda.
ContributorsJagoda, Samuel David (Author) / Trujillo, Rhett (Thesis director) / Kobyleski, Kammie (Committee member) / Department of Supply Chain Management (Contributor) / Department of Management and Entrepreneurship (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-12