Troy Vosseller, a UW-Madison graduate student and co-founder of the ""Sconnie"" brand of merchandise, discussed the advantages of starting a small business while attending college to a group of business students Wednesday.
Vosseller's advice drew on experiences from his own business, which he said began as a small venture in which he and his friend sold ""Sconnie"" T-shirts out of their dorm room and eventually developed into a retail brand which has seen revenue increases of over 100 percent each year of business.
He said students are at a perfect point in their lives to start their own businesses.
""As a student, you're at a great time to start a business,"" he said. ""You have access to all sorts of low-interest loans, and if you fail, you will still graduate with a degree and be at the same point as the rest of your classmates with no ground lost. But if you succeed, you could start the next Facebook.""
From the start, Vosseller said he wanted to create his own business, but didn't know what to do. Some of his first ideas included filling up mopeds on campus with gas and an online dating service for students.
He said eventually the business ideas centered on a brand that Wisconsin students could culturally identify with.
Vosseller said he wanted to give Wisconsinites a good way to express themselves.
""Kind of like a Cheesehead,"" he said.
Although Vosseller said he did not create the term ""Sconnie"" himself, he said his business first emerged from a $600 down payment to print 100 ""Sconnie"" T-shirts, which were sold out within one week of selling in his dorm room.
From there, he said, it blossomed into a viable business model that currently sells merchandise out of a legitimate retail store called Underground Printing located on State Street.
Vosseller said he wouldn't mind continuing his business for the years to come, but said he is also open to new ideas and pursuits.
