Education & Careers » Small Business

4 Small Businesses You Can Start While in College

Stacy Dymalski — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 16:02:54 +0000

Now that the spring semester is in full swing and you’re staring down the end of the school year you probably have just enough funds to get you through May (if you don’t do anything too crazy over spring break and if you were smart enough to evaluate your college plan last spring). The irony of college is in order for you to go to college you need money. But if you work you may not have time to take the classes you need in order to get through college. So what’s a poor undergrad (or grad) student to do?

How about create your own job?

Starting your own business while still in school is nothing new. Bill Gates (Microsoft), Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook), and Fred Smith (Fed-Ex) all started business ventures as college students. Of course, their businesses went on to bigger and better things, however, the key to a successful college business is to ask your peers what they want and would be willing to pay for. Starting with a simple concept also helps, letting your business grow organically, if in fact, you find a niche. Here are four examples of proven small businesses that thrive on college campuses.

Tutor

Being a college tutor is an obvious choice and can be done fall through spring semester. Just about every college subject uses tutors and even online colleges employ tutors to lead chat room discussions, help with instructor office hours, and offer one-on-one help. College tutors make anywhere from $15 to $50 per hour, depending on the subject and school. Plus, most college departments have their own official tutor list. And if you’re smart enough to get your name on that list you don’t even have to do your own marketing. Your clients will call you!

Personal Trainer

If you’re athletic, active, and you know your way around a weight room, one way you can justify taking the time to work out is to offer your services as a personal trainer. Usually private gyms and clubs won’t allow outside trainers to bring their clients into the gym’s facilities, unless the trainer has an agreement with the gym (which isn’t impossible to arrange – just ask). But lack of access to a gym shouldn’t stop you from offering other athletic services, like taking your clients to a local college or high school track to stretch, run, and lift some free weights; lead a bike ride; organize a group hike; teach water aerobics at a pool; or hold an aerobics class outside in a parking lot. With spring upon us much of your exercising can be done outside, which completely broadens your training possibilities.

eBay Listing Manager

Navigating eBay doesn’t take a college degree, yet many people are intimidated by the idea e-commerce. As an eBay listing manager, you sell other people’s stuff for them via your own eBay account and then take a fee for doing so. The amount of money you make depends upon the number of clients you take. Best perk? You can do this job in the middle of the night in your pajamas.

Messenger Services

If you have a car or a bicycle consider starting a delivery service. You’d be surprised how many people don’t have time to deliver completed projects, legal documents, or even go to the bank. One enterprising student made his living simply by going to the post office twice a day. And if anyone needed him to stand in line, pick up packages, or just mail stuff for them, he did all that– for a fee.

Whether you attend college on campus or you’re working on a degree online, the best way to solve your college budget crisis is to find flexible employment that pays well and lets YOU control the number of hours you work, as well as when you work. How else are you going to find that perfect college job if you don’t make it happen for yourself?

Play The Cards You Were Dealt

adam — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 04:04:51 +0000

When you own a business, it is easy to get caught up in expanding and trying new ideas. Sometimes it is easiest to stick to what your companies or organization does best. I am the director of a group that puts on concerts at a local university, and we started getting a little carried away planning events other than concerts like speakers and forums. They were fun, but we had no experience planning them, and the attendance severely dropped. Students knew our events for the great concerts we put on, not speakers or anything like that. It isn’t bad to try new things, just don’t lose focus on what keeps your organization afloat.

Kind of an example against the previous idea is what happened to GM. They were great at making SUV’s and other huge, gas guzzeling cars. That practice was the cars they were dealt. They rode that train a little too long though, and have now filed for bankruptcy. This shows that there is a fine line between sticking to what you are good at, and still trying to be innovative.

VA Locksmith - VA Locksmiths Serving VA and surrounding areas from our Storefront Locations. Call 703-373-1553 in Virginia.

Home Internet Business Ideas - We are committed to helping others earn a legitimate income online by offering the best, proven online work at home ideas, internet home based business opportunities and online home income resources.

Home Internet Business Development - Develop a home internet business, find resources, tips, articles, and lots of free downloads to help if you are just starting out, plus lots of resources for the webmaster.

business help
Helping entrepreneurs launch and grow their businesses through free professional counseling by experienced professionals and low-fee workshops on subjects vital to business success.

Free Retirement Advice Welcome to RetirementAdvice.com, your source for retirement advice, information and planning related to retirement, IRA, 401K and Roth IRA Accounts. Feel free to read our articles on retirement advice and leave new ideas and suggestions.

Home Based Business Web - Home Business Ideas, Home Based Business Advice, Internet Based Business, Business Opportunities and Working at Home.

Working Moms have it all; family, home, and career. All moms are busy, but working moms have even more challenges to deal with. You could say they actually have two jobs or "double duty." You will find tips on childcare, cooking, organizing, budgeting, time management, and more.

Meeting Maker, Meet Doodle.com

adam — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 22:40:59 +0000

Scheduling meetings for multiple people is hard. Especially when you all do not work together and so you have extremely different schedules. However, there is an online service that has proved to be very useful. The website is doodle.com. It is essentially an online secretary that can help arrange everyone’s schedule. It makes it extremely simple to create an online poll with certain times, and then you send out a link to everyone you would like invited. Everyone simply clicks yes or no for each time, and then everyone can see when most people are available and schedule the meeting for then. It is a simple and effective tool.

This is a great program for people like myself, but I can’t actually see it working once you get into the celebrity realm. For instance, Dwayne Wade and Pat Reilly of the Miami Heat are trying to set up a meeting to talk about a contract extension. They are having a hard time getting together because they have very different ideas in terms of where the Heat should go. Maybe Pat should just send Dwayne a Doodle.com invite. Who knows, maybe it will work its doodle magic and the Heat can resign Dwayne Wade.

Jewish Gifts Enya Keshet Judaica is a Judaica store featuring judaica art, Jewish works of art, such as Woman of Valor artwork, Jewish wedding gifts and more.