STUDENT ENTREPRENEURS
Club
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Welcome to The Student Entrepreneurs Club.
Our goal is to promote the efforts made by student entrepreneurs within the St Andrews community. By developing a network of Student Entrepreneurs, it is our hope that students will receive support and encouragement in every stage of their entrepreneurial journey, through both advice given by peers and professionals, as well as promotional events aiding brand development.
meet our entrepreneurs
Ondrej Farkas, Zyraworks
ZyraWorks is an IT consulting company providing outsourced IT support for the CEE region for clients such as Deutsche Bank, Hewlett-Packard Austria, Oracle Slovakia or Coca Cola Austria.
What is the most important lesson you have learnt while running your business?
"The most important lesson I have learnt while doing business is to relentlessly keep questioning all your ideas and to be super critical to yourself. The worst thing an entrepreneur could do is to persuade himself/ herself that the business idea is perfect and that it does not need any improvements."
And the biggest challenge you have faced as an entrepreneur?
"The biggest challenge in business for me was to accept failure (and sadly, I had couple big ones). Unfortunately, failure in business is inevitable at some point. It´s a cliche, but sooner you accept it, the better you can learn from it."
Do you have any advice to fellow students interested in entrepreneurship?
"My advice to students interested in entrepreneurship would definitely be: Always surround yourselves with people that are smarter than you. (Somebody has already said that, right? Never mind, it should be said multiple times)."
Juno Lee, partner of Mocha Joe's
Mocha Joe's is a specialty coffee company that focuses on working with farmers to grow, harvest, sort and export organic and other specialty coffee. Juno's focus is on expanding the brand and its development, and the distribution business to new markets.
What is the most important lesson you have learnt while running your business?
"Communicate properly and prioritise duties well."
And the biggest challenge you have faced as an entrepreneur?
"Letting go of exciting opportunities."
Do you have any advice to fellow students interested in entrepreneurship?
"Not everything has to be done under the textbook guidelines."
Juraj Puzder, Gazdovia
Gazdovia (you can translate it as Farmers) sells farm products to the households and also wholesale customers, such high quality hotels and restaurants in Slovakia. The company also runs an e-shop and has 15 employees. In 2014 the company started to produce their own products, such as homemade jams and syrups or noodles.
What is the most important lesson you have learnt while running your business?
"A person should have a clear vision, how the business model should look like. You should trust your ideas, be focused and hard working. especially after the time when the company was established, you should be prepared to work more than 12 hours and solve a lot of problems or difficulties every day."
And the biggest challenge you have faced as an entrepreneur?
"AFter one year, since the company was established,with the partner we decided to sell the company. However, I finally bought his shares and from that point I started running the company on my own. I did so, because I was sure that the company had good potential."
Do you have any advice to fellow students interested in entrepreneurship?
"Trust your ideas. Try to find a gap in the market, or provide better services than your competitors. Be prepared to spend a lot of time, in order to establish and run a company successfully."
Mary Chan, founder of Re:Fashion
Re:fashion is a social enterprise operating in St Andrews to promote sustainable fashion. It's a selling platform whereby quality second-hand clothing is collected and curated by us, and then sold at experiential shopping events every semester, with 70% of the profits going back to the seller.
What is the most important lesson you have learnt while running your business?
"Never taking your customers for granted. We put a lot of effort into ensuring that both our buyers and sellers get a streamlined, convenient and enjoyable experience as far as possible, and this is how we've continued to grow our community every semester."
And the biggest challenge you have faced as an entrepreneur?
"For us in particular, a significant challenge has been juggling our student lives with running this enterprise - especially during the lead-up and after our events, when we are extermely buys and can have over 500 items of clothing to keep track of at once!"
Do you have any advice to fellow students interested in entrepreneurship?
"Make sure everyone on the team is on the same page and has the same goals for the enterprise. For us, we are not interested in making money but rather purusing our interest in fashion and giving students a chance to completely revitalise their wardrobe in a wholly sustainable way!"
