Are you getting your name around on the Internet? You probably spend a lot of time online already, but are you making the most of that time? Are you getting known as the go-to guy or gal in your profession, laying the groundwork for getting a job–or getting a better job?

You don’t have to be an established professional to make the Internet work for you. In fact, if you’re a business student you can start building a solid business reputation right now by using the Internet effectively.

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Ink and paper is so 20th century. New MBA and undergraduate business students are accustomed to living, working, and socializing online. Because they’ve grown up on computer games it’s a logical progression for business schools to incorporate computer-based simulations into the curriculum.

Business education is catching up with simulated business models where students get to apply classroom learning to a set of real world variables. With virtual workplace scenarios and computer-based simulations, students practice choices they’ll have to make in the real world. By some estimates, more than half the business schools accredited by AACSB are using online business simulations.

What’s a Business Simulation?

The case study has long been used in business school to simulate real business situations and illicit practical responses from students. Online simulations allow students to oversee operations management of a virtual factory and network with other executives. They apply theory to a virtual workplace. The game aspect of business simulations stimulate even more competition among students. And what’s B-School without some cutthrouat competition?

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With commercial rents skyrocketing, even major chain stores are trying to cut costs on property expenses. What to do? Recruit employees who specialize in freestanding property acquisitions.

At one time, it was all the rage to have a store located in a popular mall with lots of foot traffic. But that was before rents started jumping 5, 10, even 15 percent annually.

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A business student is someone that goes to business school, takes courses, graduates and looks for a job. An entrepreneurial student is someone that starts their own business while still in business school. If you lean to the latter, here are a number of low- to medium-capital businesses that you can start while still in business school, either singly or with partners.

Some people are natural entrepreneurs, even students. Numerous successful business powerhouses - such as Dell Computers, Microsoft, FedEx and Apple - got started in college. You don’t have to be a geek, but you do need some basic accounting, advertising, market research and business skills, and a specific salable skill (how you’ll earn your income). College is actually an ideal place to start a business because students tend to be bright-eyed, passionate and unjaded. As well, classmates tend not to mind other classmates promoting their business.

Here are a few businesses you can start in college for relatively low capital, then build on them as income comes in. Because you’re in charge, you can take as much or as little work as fits your study schedule.
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Paul Edmondson knew he had a great idea, but even he didn’t expect such rapid growth. Edmondson is the CEO and Founder of online publishing site HubPages, which launched in August 2006 and now has over 100,000 registered users. It gets more than 5 million hits a month, mostly from search engines like Google and Yahoo. Authors create content-rich pages with easy to add text, photos, videos, and RSS feeds and earn money from Google Adsense, Amazon, and Ebay. To reach the masses, Edmondson and his colleagues have created the site so that no technical knowledge is required. And it’s free. Definitely a killer startup.

In this interview I ask Paul Edmonson how he knew he was on to something and what prepared him to go out on his own.

LD: What gave you confidence that HubPages would be successful.

E: We thought if we made a great product and built a community that people would use the service. We had a simple plan. To try things. To do more of the stuff that worked and to stop doing the things that didn’t. Nearly 6 million people visited HubPages.com last month. One of the things we did well was monetize Hubs, so we introduced a new ad optimization product called YieldBuild that served nearly 200 million ads last month as well.

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