“Entrepreneurship is actually a way of living ,” said Sharon Hsu（許鈺?）, the co-founder of the “Let’s rollout!（滾出趣）” project, in an interview last week with SHU Newsweek on start-ups. Today, many young people are trying to start their own companies as if this is a proof of success. However, it requires management skills as well as leadership, and doing it slowly and cautiously is always the best policy.
Set up your own business after graduation
Sharon Hsu had never thought about starting her own business before she did “Let’s rollout!” To her, starting a business from nothing was too complicated and difficult. In fact, she did not come up with the project; it was the idea of a fellow senior of hers who planned to use it as a project for graduation presentation. “Even though it was just a school assignment, we still took it seriously,” she said. She even took an internship at an advertising company. This internship experience made her realize that an advertising agency, despite all the resources it has, could be a suffering for creative dreamers if you are to promote products you cannot relate to. Therefore, she chose to set up her own business.
Implementation and achievement of the idea
Sharon tested the market value of Traveling Task Book, which was a graduation assignment. She said, “We raised about three hundred and thirty thousand NTD on the fund-raising platform, Flying V.” Although this number was not even close to establishing the business, it was enough for publishing the Book. The most important thing is evaluating the market value of it from the public.
Source of funds
“There are two sources: one is raising from the public, and the other is a subsidy of NTD 500,000 from the government,” she said. Youth Start, a set-up competition held by the government, has helped them set up their own business.
Overcoming the hardest part of start-up
“We have new challenges every day. The obstacles did not bring us down, and we enjoy the whole problem-solving process as if we were solving math problems one at a time. You have to confront challenges rather than giving up on them,” said Sharon. “Once you overcame the challenges, you got a sense of achievement.” Starting any company isn’t just the leader’s job—it's all about teamwork and cooperation.
Advice for college students
“Don’t start up immediately after graduation,” Sharon said. She had more time than other people to explore, to learn, and to undergo a trial and error process when she was a student. “Let’s rollout!” was initially her graduation project and she had plenty of time and opportunities to try ideas out. If you want to have creativity and the ability to solve problems, first you need to be open-minded and ready for new ideas,” Sharon said.
