The growth of entrepreneurship around the world has exploded over the past decade as e-commerce and global trading becomes more accessible to anyone with an active internet connection. This “gig economy” in the form of small businesses and freelancers makes it possible for anyone with a trade, product, or skill to work for themselves, but it also requires business smarts to be successful.

The combination makes those who are business savvy and creative able to reap the benefits of being their own boss, including flexibility and the ability to work from anywhere. But the truly business-minded understand that the field of research is necessary in order to stay on top of and ahead of the global competition to grow their small businesses.

The Field of Academic Entrepreneurs

The freelancing industry was worth over one trillion dollars as of 2020, and that number continues to be projected to rise. Along with the creative writers, artists, photographers, and other business owners has come to the field of the academic entrepreneur.

The stereotypical academic knows that they are embarking on a life of balancing professorship in the classroom, research expectations outside of instructional time, and personal life, and all of these must be juggled successfully in order to obtain a high scholarship rating. But with academic entrepreneurs, it’s not always necessary to do all of this. Instead, capable scholars can publish their work and commercialize their findings to be successful and make a lucrative career out of their research.

However, being an academic entrepreneur isn’t for everyone. To do this well requires the knowledge and skillset of the scientist, but also the creativity and drive of an entrepreneur, along with the social skills and business savvy. They have to be able to create a product or service that is of value to a customer base, know how to market it, and be willing to take risks to get their work off the ground. As with any entrepreneurship endeavor, it’s not an easy road, but neither is the traditional academic career.

Some academic entrepreneurs opt to collaborate with other small businesses, instead, who, in turn, also benefit from collaboration with universities.

Small Business Collaboration With Universities

When small businesses work together with the universities around them, everyone benefits. Collaboration is frequently performed through activities like research groups and community building fundraisers, but small business owners can go beyond these occasional events and work with department heads and university faculty to find advantages such as:

●      Finding suitable, highly qualified graduates to fill vacancies in their businesses

●      Developing courses that offer professional development and job training opportunities to soon-to-be graduates that could benefit from learning the needs of small businesses

●      Exchanging the use of equipment between the business and the university for collaborative projects

●      Borrowing the knowledge of academic faculty members who are experts in the field of the business owner to help them build and grow their company successfully

●      Creating opportunities for local entrepreneurs to network and spread their business’s reach through the university level

●      Fundraising and donation opportunities for the university that also give the business’s name and brand exposure

With so many benefits to working together, small businesses and universities can frequently be found collaborating.

Expanding the Knowledge of Success for the Collective Good

A common obstacle for many academics is the struggle of trying to do everything equally well. The entrepreneur has this same problem in different ways. By working together, academics and entrepreneurs, and academic entrepreneurs, can focus on their strengths and let their collaborating partner handle the weak areas.

Academics and small business owners are easily merged together into a successful relationship that benefits the collective good. When it’s possible to work together, academia can be leveraged for small business growth in ways that are advantageous to everyone involved and the surrounding community.

Collaborate With Researchers on Impactio

When you want to collaborate with other academic experts to leverage small businesses or your own research growth, Impactio can help. The all-in-one platform offers everything the academic scholar needs to take their research from the beginning data compilation to publishing and beyond, and gives them access to a network of other expert Impactio users.

With benefits like PDF publication of your work, web page export, and citation indicator tracking for impact, it’s no wonder that scholars around the world turn to Impactio for their research publication needs.