<p>I recently read this suggestion on a blog that frequently has harsh things to say about the cost of going to college. In short, for the majority of students who are not particularly into academics, it would be much better to take the money that you would spend on college and use it to buy a business for your child. If the business succeeds, that’s great and you take it from there. And even if it crashes, well that’s money that you never would have seen again if you had spent it on tuition.</p>
<p>Obviously, for the valedictorian with a 2400 SAT who can’t wait to get into the neuroscience lab, this isn’t relevant. But the B- student with no academic interest might learn a lot more and have a more productive four years running his own franchise than hanging out, drinking, etc.</p>
<p>While we’re at it, if this is a good idea, then what kind of business should you buy?</p>
<p>Curious what business you could even buy with $200,000. It was my understanding that any reputable franchise would cost upwards of $500,000-$1,000,000</p>
<p>If a kid isn’t successful in college, it won’t take four years to figure it out. And given the number of small businesses that fail, I think my money is safer letting them fail at college.</p>
<p>I think you’re going to encounter complete bias in asking this question on CC–obviously we all believe in the value of a college education or we wouldn’t be so fixated on the subject.</p>
<p>The one thing I will say is that your idea is similar to investing in the stock market. If you put all your money in only one stock, it may do fantastically well, or it may fail miserably. Who’s to say that any franchise/business will be successful in this economic climate, even if you have a child who is capable (in the abstract)? Perhaps if you have, as you say, a B- student with no academic interest who DOES have an inclination toward a certain type of business, and has had some experience in that field over the past few years, then it makes perfect sense, with the right supervision, partners, etc., to set that child up in at least an expanding role in a new business. </p>
<p>Ideally, there’s a middle ground where you could encourage said B- student to take a course or two, part-time, at the local community college while working a 40+hour week on a job of their choice (NOT hanging out, drinking beer). See which of the two “lives” sparks a greater passion…go from there.</p>
<p>Let me say I’m not a big fan of kids getting in over their heads in debt to get an education. I agree with the premise that the amount of the staffords should be the maximum a kid borrows to go to school. That said, I’m not a big fan of this game college educated middle class people like to play where they act as if a college education is “highly overrated” when they would never dream of not sending their own kid to college.</p>
<p>I have one who might go to culinary school instead of college, and I’m fine with this as long as she still does a four year school with a business component.</p>
<p>I still subscribe to the old saying, “Give a man a fish and you will feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and he will feed himself for a lifetime.”</p>
<p>You don’t have to spend yourself into the ground to get an education, and it is “fine” if the kid prefers a trade, him or herself, but to actually discourage a kid from going to college and getting a degree is the height of arrogance on the part of these writers, all of whom I notice went to college themselves.</p>
<p>If the person in question has no experience in business or the business’ subject matter, then it does not seem likely that just handing him/her a business or franchise will result in success.</p>
<p>If the person is already doing something that is or could grow into a successful business, that is a different story, though it may be worth considering structuring the funding as if you were a venture capitalist or angel investor in the nascent business, doing all of the due diligence that such investors do, etc…</p>
<p>You can’t “give” somebody a business as if it were some kind of self-sustaining money machine. Everyone knows of a family business that was run into the ground by an incompetent heir. A business is tough to run successfully. I’ve heard this false equivalence before and it assumes a level of competence and maturity that most 18-year-olds, even really bright ones, don’t yet possess.</p>
<p>At least if you pay for university your kid may learn something from the experience.</p>
<p>But, don’t you feel like a huge part of the process of college is about a kid figuring out what they are good at, what they really enjoy doing, what they hate, what they can and cannot see themselves doing?</p>
<p>Over the course of the last couple of years, watching my daughter and listening to her, more than anything else, the sense of her knowing the right thing to do, her growing competency at what she wants to do, these kinds of things, things I never even really thought of as a reason for college, have been the things which have impressed me the most about the process. YMMV</p>
<p>I think there’s a case to be made for buying your kid a small franchise rather than spending $250K to send them off to college. Of course, it depends on lots of things, whether they will get FA or merit, where their interests lie. But who says they must go to college at 18? Perhaps they could run their Subway or Dunkn Donuts for five years, turn it over to a manger and then go off to college.</p>
<p>For most B- students, I’d choose college and I’d select a less expensive one than 200K for four years.</p>
<p>For most students in general I’d choose college or a tech school or some advanced learning over handing them a business if those were the only options.</p>
<p>For those who have demonstrated business savvy already, I might make an exception, but I still think some business classes at a college could be quite useful.</p>
<p>I would be more willing to support my child while he worked full-time at one of these businesses for a year or so before actually purchasing a franchise. Of course, I am not talking about playing mananger, but rahter sandwich artist, or cleaning person. Rather than turn the keys over to someone with no knowledge of the business no understanding of how failure feels, I would let this opportunity lead them to either be prepared to manage a business or to a new dream. </p>
<p>Franchises don’t necessarily start up any easier from scratch and I wouldn’t force my 18-year old to jump into 60-hour work weeks when he should be chasing girls, meeting new people and learning to juggle life beyond grades and test scores.</p>
<p>All the stories that we hear about kids who didn’t go to college (or finish HS) and entered the business world directly generally involved self-motivated “self-starter” types who worked their way up. I can’t think of one that involved the parent just “buying” a prepackaged business for their child, handing it over with no training, and saying, “Good luck with that.”</p>
<p>I mean, at least with college if you screw up in a year you can just leave. You don’t have to pay for years 2, 3, and 4 unless you actually enroll for them. If you screw up a business, especially if it’s not a corporation or a franchise, you’re out your initial investment and your personal property up to the amount needed to satisfy your claims. </p>
<p>It’s not an inherently bad idea, but it has as many pitfalls as a 4-year college (even if they’re somewhat different) and it’s really not something that I would consider ‘par for the course’ as a generic alternative to going to school.</p>
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<p>If he’s the kind of person who would squander money that his parents gave him to go to school, is it really safe to just assume that he won’t squander an even larger amount that his parents gave him to run a franchise? I’m not saying that he definitely will be unsuccessful but it’s something I would be extremely careful of since it’s much harder to just ‘bail out’ after a year and there are plenty of other pitfalls that someone utterly unfamiliar with business won’t notice.</p>
<p>For the vast majority of kids, the “buy a business” idea is folly. For the few who have already shown interest and capacity in a real way, it’s not such a bad idea. I have two nephews , fully capable of attending college both financially and intellectually, who chose the other path (with parental financial support) and have made a real go of it. But like I said, I view them as the exception.</p>
<p>I agree with curmudgeon. I don’t think that even most ADULTS realize how hard it is to run your own business. My husband and I have had a consulting engineering firm for the past 12 years, and it is very hard work - lots of long hours, sweat, and tears. I’m glad we work for ourselves, but I can’t imagine many 18-year-olds having the fortitude and endurance to run a company successfully.</p>
<p>I saw on one of the TV shows, not knowing her in real life. A young woman who graduated from USC’s Marshall business school and wanted to own a restaurant. Her dad bought her a pretty decent looking one. She ran it into the ground. If my kids didn’t want to go to college and wanted a business, I’d lock my money in one safe, put that safe in a bigger one and chain it. When they come back and have a business but don’t have money to expand it, well, let’s talk at that time :)</p>