Top five business ideas for students

If you’re a student, it’s safe to guess that you’ve been broke more times than you care to remember. In this article, we’ve put together five business ideas for students that you can use to start your own company.

The great thing about these ideas is that you don’t need millions of Rands to get going. All you need is your imagination and a determination to succeed. The other advantage of starting your business while you are still in university is that you may never in your life have to work under someone else. So, you’re never going to have the problem of deciding to leave a cushy position in someone else’s company.

Another advantage of starting while you’re still in university is that you can afford to make as many mistakes as it takes. After all, you don’t have the obligation to pay many bills, you probably don’t have children yet, and your parents are probably still paying your rent and making sure you have food.

“All you need is your imagination and a determination to succeed”

Let’s say you will still want to look for a job after leaving university; wouldn’t it be great to have a CV which indicates that you’ve some experience running a business?

Not only that, when you’ve finished your qualification and want to grow your business even bigger, banks and other venture capitalists will look at you more favourably when they learn that you’ve been running your business since you were in college.

1. Start in your college with an essay writing service

To start your own business, you don’t have to look very far: there is lots of cash right around you. Students meet all sorts of challenges when it comes to writing essays. Some of them come from countries where the language used in the colleges where they learn is not their first language yet others are still new to the whole idea of writing essays in an academic way.

If you are not too assure what this could involve, look for any paid essay writing service and start off there as a writer. Once you have an idea of what it takes and the stuff that’s involved, start your own service.

Once you have an idea of how the whole process works, it’s time to identify partners. You will need people to work with. Your venture may start off small enough that you will probably be able to manage on your own. However, if you are doing a real good job, orders will start to come in fast and furious. This is the time when you will need a group of excellent writers and editors. The word excellent in the last sentence is a major word.

It’s important to think about the issue of a website where students will be placing orders. The site will also help you to have an online presence where new customers can see you. Remember that your site should be user-friendly; no one wants to navigate through a complicated site. Also, ensure that it can be supported on different devices. Remember, the quality of your services, will either make or break your start-up.

2. Tutor other students while improving your own skill

Another service related to an essay writing company is a tutoring service. The great thing about tutoring is that as you teach others, you are also learning and consolidating the ideas that you’re teaching.

But many colleges are already offering a tutoring service, will you be able to compete with their service? Of course you can. As a savvy entrepreneur you probably already know that your service will need to have a unique selling point.

If the college tutoring service is available at certain times, look for a time that would be most convenient to the students. This could be in the evening when the college service is not running or over the weekend when students have more time.

Just like the writing service, if you are really good, you will soon have more students than you can handle on your own. This is the time when you should look for a good team to support you. Many students will be happy to earn some extra cash.

It’s important to advertise your business to a wider market so that you can grow it. Flyers and business cards are a great way of marketing. However, the most important marketing tool you have is the word-of-mouth of the students you are already tutoring: ask them to recommend you to their friends within the same institution or in other colleges.

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3. Transport people and goods

If you already have a vehicle that qualifies to go on the Uber network, you can always register it and start earning money.

Well, maybe you don’t have your own vehicle but you can drive; there are hundreds of people who have cars on the Uber network looking for drivers. The great thing about driving an Uber vehicle is that you only drive when you have the time.

If you don’t like interacting with people, you can start a delivery business for goods and other small stuff. For instance, many restaurants are always looking for people who have their own small cars or motorbikes to deliver food ordered online. You can start off small and grow over time to the extent that you can create a team that works with you.

If you have a pick-up truck and don’t mind lifting some heavy stuff, you can start a business that helps students to move or when they buy new stuff they want to bring to their dorms.

To run a business like this, do your research as you may discover that you need a license from your local authority before you start and maybe some insurance.

4. Become a personal trainer

Most students will do with a bit of exercise but many of them just don’t have the motivation or any idea where to start. If you have the knowledge of what needs to be done you can start your fitness enterprise based in your campus.

In order to run a personal trainer business successfully, you will need to convince your potential customers of results of the training. So, you’ll need to be fit yourself and promise the people you train that they can have a great body like yours.

This type of business includes a number of things. You can do yoga sessions in the morning, help students who want to run a marathon to do their daily exercises or manage their diets. This type of business does not have a lot of overheads, so most of the money you make is your profit.

5. Provide marketing services

The internet has made the task of marketing one of the most lucrative. This is even made more appealing by the proliferation of social networks. If you happen to be a creative writer you can also start a business that provides marketing copy.

The good thing about this kind of business is that you can use the skills of different people across the world – you can find them through collaborative working spaces on the internet. This makes it possible to offer even those marketing services you may not have the skill to offer personally.

The most important consideration you need to make is to ensure that you start a business where you do something you really like.

by Ben Lobel

This article was originally published by smallbusiness.co.uk