Photo by Mike Petrucci on Unsplash
By Madison Brink
Small businesses are often the first to provide college students with jobs. Many small businesses cannot afford to hire full-time staff and pay full benefits and so seek out those people who need part time work. College students usually need part time work with flexible hours to supplement their income. Not everyone receives financial aid. Having a job that works around your schedule and is family oriented helps college students make school their focus. Small businesses are also prime examples of a successful entrepreneurship and can expose students to the intricacies of how a small business is ran. Business majors, in particular, can highly benefit from hands on experience with a small business. Part time work for students can help them maintain a focus on school as they do not have to expend as much energy on part time work. Small businesses can also benefit from hiring college students as the students can bring in new business ideas, the perspective of the youth and new trends that older business owners may not be exposed to or consider.
Barbie Halgren, owner of Mount Vernon Flowers claims to have always depended on college students to fill in part time needs. Specifically, on weekends and during “busy season” such as Valentine’s day and Mother’s day. Halgren says “college students are often willing to take on limited part time work and seasonal work without needing a promise of additional work or the transition to a permanent position”. Halgren says “In my experience college students are usually eager to learn more than just their assigned work or duties and will often ask questions or provide suggestions that I just hadn’t considered because things had always just been done a particular way.”
Halgren was open to sharing her challenges and successes to those interested so they could learn from her mistakes and from her positive changes within her business. Mindy Fatigate the owner of Sedro-Woolley flowers has followed the same type of methods as well and stated, “The pandemic has gotten me more business, especially this past Thanksgiving and Christmas and I found myself busier than expected due to families who couldn’t gather and instead sending flowers, gift baskets and plants in their place.” Fatigate turned to her contacts with college students that were home from school for the holidays and local students that were on break, tofill in with the extra deliveries and customer interest. She added “Not a lot of places deliver in the surrounding area and my business created revenue from being able to deliver products and goods to families who were not able to go see their families due to the pandemic.” Theodora Self, a college student who works part time at a locally owned drive thru coffee shop, The Coffee Barn has experienced a growing number of fellow students seeking out part time work with the number of people asking if Coffee Barn is hiring multiplying by at least 3-4 times since the outbreak of COVID-19. The Coffee Barn has also experienced a lower amount of business during COVID but has not had to shut down due the nature of their business not requiring people in a building. With a few small adjustments they have been able to mostly survive the pandemic, but according to Self the “turnover and ability to hire additional students who bring experience and ingenuity has really caused the business to remain stable but not grow.” Self says, “We are doing ok now, and business is picking back up but for a good 10 months, no one was going to work, they were working from home, we had a huge dip in sales.”
The food industry has long been a staple for part time jobs for college students and at the same time has been hardest hit by COVID-19 closures with many small restaurants closing for months and years and some even deciding to call it quits completely. Restaurants have adjusted by offering take out and if possible, provided outdoor dining but have struggled to keep their employees paid and have not expanded. The food industry is considered to be one of the most challenging small businesses to operate and college students with hands on experience of this industry can often determine if it is for them or not during their early college years, however fewer students get to experience this now. Former local restaurant owner Steve Mains said “I have mentored many college students in the ins and outs of running a restaurant/bar and most claimed they were very surprised by the amount of work that goes into the process. This is valuable exposure that unfortunately fewer students are experiencing.”
In larger college communities, the small businesses often cater to the students as well as employ them and this has created an additional struggle with many large classes going to online with the COVID pandemic and many students living at home and not traveling to live in the college towns. These small business owners lose both their part time workers and most of their customers and have had to become creative to survive. Skagit Valley College (SVC) does not attract a large number of students that come from other places so has not seen a dramatic dip in customers, but small businesses in the area have suffered and there are less part time jobs available. Colleges, especially community colleges would benefit from maintaining positive relationships within the local small business community in order for both sides to benefit. Part time work, exposure and experience for the students and seasonal help, ingenuity and new energy and ideas for the small businesses.
