Tweet

Being a full time college student is already a challenge in itself, the workload similar to owning a business.  For some, college is a time to prepare yourself for your future career, but for others, getting a jump start on their career is also a part of their daily schedule.

Morgan Wallace, Maggie Goldhammer, and Tobias Tyler are three Grand View University students who embody the term ambitious.  We took a look inside their businesses and discussed the challenges of being a business owner and a full time student.

Morgan Wallace- Capturing her life through a lens

Wallace is the owner of her own photography business, “I mostly do portraits for newborns, families, senior pictures, and children.” Wallace says.  The balance between school work and owning a business is what Wallace describes as, “kind of a struggle.”  Wallace spends her weekdays focused on school work, and tries to catch up on her photography over the weekends but the photography often spills over into the week while she tries to provide for her customers.

Luckily for Wallace, the work she is doing now is only preparing her for a more successful future.  “I’m a graphic design and photography major and a business minor.  So, after college I kind of hope to keep doing what I’m doing,” Wallace says.  Wallace hopes to one day run the business from her home and go into something else involving her degree.

Maggie Goldhammer- The body artist

Goldhammer is the owner of a Henna tattoo business.  “Henna is like a form of temporary body art” Goldhammer says.  Goldhammer hand draws different designs and lays them on the customer, after a few hours of letting the material sit, it can be peeled off and reveal the final piece, which “stains the skin for about two weeks.”

Goldhammer says, “This is the first semester I’ve had where my business is kind of well-known around Des Moines,” so it has been a busy semester so far for her.  Goldhammer’s passion for henna makes it all possible, “I enjoy doing it so much that I feel lucky that I can have this as my job instead of working in some office for a part time job.”

Goldhammer, a graphic design and Spanish major, hopes to one day move to a beach in Mexico and do henna somewhere where both of her majors work together.  “But if that doesn’t work I could always keep doing what I’m doing.  I will always do henna because I love it and I’ll never stop trying to make that a big part in my life.”

Tobias Tyler- The designer, and athlete

Tyler is the owner of a clothing line called “Nice Kids Collective.”  Tyler describes his clothing line by saying, “It’s just me, in a tangible format.”  It’s something he started on his own, with a little help from some others that he says is “not about anyone else, it’s something that I want to do.”

When discussing the challenges of balancing school and running a business Tyler kept it simple, “it’s hard.”  Between being a student athlete and a business owner, Tyler has struggled to produce recently, “I’m not really making anything right now, where in the summer I was making a bunch of stuff.”  Tyler plans on releasing some new apparel  in the near future.

Tyler, a digital media production major plans to use his education to continue his business, “I can shoot pictures for products, and produce video to showcase products.”  Even with a packed schedule, Tyler plans to keep the wheels rolling, “It’s a start, it’s hard right now, but I’ll figure it out.”