Correction (March 31 1:35 a.m.): Due to a reporting error, this story stated incorrectly named the store that Evan Smith co-owns in a photo caption and several times in the article. It is called The Bead Store. The story has been changed to reflect the correction. The Daily Tar Heel apologizes for the error.

She’s also a senior history major.

It’s all about balance for her and other UNC students who run their own businesses while in college.

Student entrepreneurship is far from unheard of at UNC, much of it associated with the Kenan-Flagler Business School.

“The University really celebrates entrepreneurship and innovation,” said Ted Zoller, a business professor and director of entrepreneurial studies.

Two companies that got their beginnings in Zoller’s class — Raleigh outsourcing company SpectraForce, founded by Amit Singh, and Charlotte jet service company Jetpool, founded by Ryan Stone, are some of the fastest-growing in their respective cities.

But it’s much harder to run a business when you still have classes to attend.

“You just don’t sleep,” said senior Allen Mask, who started the record labels Vinyl Records and Thinkopation.

When Smith became manager of The Bead Store, she took a year off from classes. She’s back in school this year, but part-time.

And for full-time students, like Morris Gelblum of Sweeps LLC, which matches students to clients for cleaning, technology and other odd jobs, the daily workings of the business can overshadow classes, grades and most of the college experience.

“I’m almost not a student anymore,” he said.

But none of them said they regret their decisions. Running a business, it turns out, provides them with opportunities they wouldn’t be able to get otherwise.

“You have a simple choice,” Zoller said.

“Join the ranks of the employed, or be the employer.”

Morris Gelblum

Gelblum, a senior business major, started Sweeps LLC with his mother, Mary Lou, when he was a senior in high school.

In high school, his family often had students come over to clean the house. So when he got to college, he got the idea to create a company in Raleigh that helped students find small jobs from cleaning to fixing computers.

“I was always interested in starting a business, and I thought it’d be fun,” he said.

Once Gelblum got to UNC, he started networking with other students, professors and Chapel Hill business owners to expand. Recently, he moved into office space above Julian’s on Franklin Street.

Gelblum said he’s had no problem finding students to work by recruiting through the Greek system, clubs and Facebook.

Right now, Sweeps primarily targets Raleigh clients, but the company is planning to launch a program to help UNC students in the large South Campus residence halls with move-out.

“I’m still enjoying it,” he said. “It’s more fun than going out and interviewing for jobs.”

Evan Smith

Smith had worked for three years at The Bead Store, then called The Original Ornament, and managed the Carr Mill Mall store for a year.

When the store closed last summer, she was offered the chance to purchase it the day before fall classes started.

“I told him, ‘I don’t know if I can afford to buy my lunch today. I really don’t know if I could afford to buy a store,’” she said.

Artist David Fernandez offered to help with the money if Smith would run the store. The next few weeks were consumed by preparations for Nov. 7, opening day; most days, she’d race from class to the store to help with renovations and to get the old vendors back on board.

“I was like a zombie for the majority of October and November,” Smith said.

Even after opening day, Smith has remained busy. She does her homework in her office, and one of her professors had his class present their final projects at the shop.

“It’s sort of like my second home,” she said.

Allen Mask

Senior journalism major Mask and his band, as student musicians, were forced to book their own shows, buy their own equipment and move their own gear in and out of venues without much help or support.

After a while, Mask began to wish there was a better management system, and inspired by a summer at Berklee College of Music, he and senior Tripp Gobble started in 2007 what would become Vinyl Records. The company, which took about a year to get off the ground, now has a staff of about 20 people.

“We always envisioned it as being a business first and a student organization second,” Mask said.

In 2008, he started another label and publishing company, Thinkopation, and is promoting his solo debut there. His manager, Jack Gallagher, is also a UNC student.

Their days are busy: making calls, getting merchandise, tweaking Web sites and going on the road almost every weekend. But Mask said he doesn’t mind the workload.

“I don’t think my schedule is any different than a Division 1 athlete,” he said.

“This is what we came to college to do: to make the most of our experience.”

Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.