40 Solid Business Ideas For College Students - Make Money
Doing a small business or making money while being a college student could be quite fascinating and prove to be a rewarding experience in one’s lifetime. I take this activity as a must for every college student as it not only fills one’s pocket but also helps in future endeavors.
This is the first time I am writing on some small businesses or some ways students can undertake to make extra money. Students who are looking for these ideas must also read one of my other posts on ‘Part Time Business Ideas’ which I think is closely related to this post.
40 Business Ideas For College Students
I. Business Ideas For College Students To Make Money That Might Require A Particular Skill Set
- Idea For Students #1: Cover Letter & Resume Service - Learn the techniques of writing professional cover letters and resumes. Imagine the number of students that pass out from college each year and look for jobs. Help them by providing powerful resumes and tailored cover letters to give all important edge during the recruitment process. You would need a bit of marketing to do by exactly showing how your service can improve their resumes.
- Idea For Students #2: Teaching Is Evergreen - Whether you are expert in a particular language or any other subject, you can always look forward to make moneywith this. Good home tutors for school kids are always in great demand. Alternatively, you can take the online route and start tutoring sitting in your own place. Check out my list of best online tutoring sites.
- Idea For Students #3: Teach An Activity – Don’t let your talent and knowledge of extra curricular activities such as playing guitar, piano, even mouth organ, painting etc. go in waste. Join a music school or art school that hold classes in weekends or otherwise start your own classes.
- Idea For Students #4: Accounting Job – You can look for part-time accounting job in small businesses and make some extra money every month. It’s not mandatory to be well versed with accountancy. It only takes a couple of days to learn small business accounting and even a science student can do this job.
- Idea For Students #5: Sell Handmade Items – If you are talented in making gift items or any useful handmade product, this is a big opportunity for you to make money. Take part in exhibitions and art and craft shows to market and sell your handmade items. You can even sell your paintings if you are good in it.
II. Business Ideas for College Students To Make Money That Are Common And Most Of The Gurus Recommend
- Idea For Students #6: Yard Work – Mowing the lawn, trimming the hedges, pulling weeds, raking leaves, etc. are all yard works. Help busy homeowners by doing these tasks for them on a part-time basis and make plenty of money.
- Idea For Students #7: House Cleaning Service - Just like yard work, you can also start house cleaning service for busy homeowners. Some people neglect this kind of jobs due to the type of work and lose the opportunity. So, take it as a business perspective and a money-making opportunity. Your status won’t be affected.
- Idea For Students #8: Ironing & Laundry Service – This is common in most campuses these days and is a proven method of making money during college. Make it mobile or offer pick and drop service to make extra cash.
- Idea For Students #9: Data Entry Job - If you can use a computer, you can easilyearn money from data entry. Perhaps this is one of the easiest jobs that can be found both online and offline. It is recommended that you improve your typing speed to make the most out of it. Sometimes data entry job also includes hand written projects.
- Idea For Students #10: Deliver Newspaper – Good for early risers. Delivering newspaper is a good idea for students to make money. If you are not comfortable to do this job everyday, you can look for this job for a weekly newspaper. This helps you to earn some extra money without any headache.
- Idea For Students #11: Grocery Shopper – Make money by doing shopping, specially groceries for and on behalf of busy homeowners. Again this is an easy job once you find clients.
- Idea For Students #12: Car Wash & Detailing - With the necessary equipments you can easily start a small car wash and detailing service in your neighborhood. Some students are even doing it mobile, washing cars by moving from one resident to another. This is a lucrative business and can help raise huge funds.
- Idea For Students #13: Sell Used Books – Another way to make some extra bucks is to sell your used text books. I have even seen students buying used text books from many other students and then selling them at a little higher price but much less than the market price.
- Idea For Students #14: Sell Used Cans, Bottles & Waste Paper - Recycling businesses always look for these materials. Collecting aluminum cans, plastic bottles and waste paper by organizing an environmental campaign and then selling them to recycling businesses can raise huge money.
- Idea For Students #15: Employment At Events & Seminars – You can look fortemporary employment at various events such as trade shows, cultural events, etc. You make money every time an event is held and you get employed.
- Idea For Students #16: Sell Class Notes – Not everyone can take clear and coherent notes during class. To make money with class notes you would need to appear in each class and take notes of each lecture carefully. You hard work can help many of your class fellows. Sell them your notes to make some extra bucks.
- Idea For Students #17: Sell Bottled Water – Don’t waste your extra time sleeping at home. Instead, use it for selling bottled water in streets, parks, festivals and events. A little investment would be needed to buy the stock before starting the business.
- Idea For Students #18: Sell Things You No Longer Use - Make some extra moneyby selling things that are lying in your go-down and are of no use to you.
- Idea For Students #19: Computer Help - If you are good in computers, you can provide software installation service, computer repair service, and other support services related to computer. This is a good way to earn money and develop one’s computer skills.
- Idea For Students #20: Run A Vending Machine - Running a vending machine business is like sitting and earning. Of course, a good location would be required to run the business. The main trick is to find a vending machine in good working condition at a cheap price. Buying a new vending machine would increase your investment.
- Idea For Students #21: On-Campus Employment – Look for a part-time job within your campus. Put your job application in every department and you would be most likely to fill a vacancy sooner or later.
- Idea For Students #22: Snacks & Coffee Business - Just like a vending machine business, you can start a coffee and snacks business in or off-campus.
III. Business Ideas for College Students To Make Money Online For Free
- Idea For Students #23: Blogging – Make blogging a habit and you would be building a money-making machine from college. Blogging can be started for free. Choose your topic and start writing today.
- Idea For Students #24: Sell On eBay - This should not be a new term for you. Almost anything can be sold on eBay. Sell your unused items or buy unused items from your neighbors or friends or even businesses to sell them at a higher price on eBay.
- Idea For Students #25: Make T-shirt Slogans - Yes, companies pay for t-shirt slogans. If you think you have a good sense of humour, generate cool t-shirt slogans and sell them online. Get a list of sites where you can sell t-shirt slogans.
- Idea For Students #26: Sell eBooks – Use your writing and research skills to create meaningful and informative eBooks and sell them online. eBooks need not be hundred pages long. Even a few pages of good information can be presented for sale. These days you can also publish and sell your own book in hard copy in Amazon without any investment. You should check this list of sites you can sell your eBooks.
- Idea For Students #27: Help Writing Ads - Search poorly written ads in eBay, Craigslist and other well-known classified sites and offer advertisers a better Ad writing service. You should also check sites like oDesk.com that offer these kind of freelance jobs.
- Idea For Students #28: Write Reviews Online - Do you know that you can get paid to write reviews. Reviews are generally done for products and services of companies willing to pay for the same. You should check get paid to review sites like ReviewStream.com, SharedReviews.com, etc.
- Idea For Students #29: Sell Photos Online - If taking photographs is your hobby, wait no more to make money online. There are many sites that pay for digital photographs. Some of the best sites are iStockPhoto, Dreamstime, ShutterStock, etc. Read this article: 20+ Photography Business Ideas For Newbies.
- Idea For Students #30: Do Online Surveys - Spending twenty minutes for online surveys everyday to make some extra money is not a bad deal. There are many legitimate sites that pay for taking online surveys. You need to apply for the ones that operate in your country. Some good survey sites are Toluna, PanelPlace, GlobalTestMarket, etc.
- Idea For Students #31: Play Games Online - If you love playing digital, don’t just play for time-pass, play for making money. Visit sites like Moola.com, Clubbing.com, etc.
- Idea For Students #32: Make Money By Answering - There are sites that also pay cash for answering. Examples – Mahalo.com, Quomon.com.
- Idea For Students #33: Write Articles And Earn - Even if you don’t want to set up your own blog, you can write for other revenue sharing sites. Two of the best revenue sharing blog sites that you should join are Squidoo and Hubpages.
IV. Business Ideas for College Students To Make Money That I am Delighted To Share (Both Online & Offline)
- Idea For Students #34: Collect Autographs & Sell - Taking autographs might be a hobby, but these are rare treasures. The idea is to collect signatures of celebrities and popular personalities. As I have already said that almost anything can be sold on eBay, you can also find lots of autograph buyers on eBay willing to pay huge bucks.
- Idea For Students #35: Capture Quality Live Videos - You will need a good cam recorder. Whether during campus events or any other concerts, record everything live, edit and upload them in your Youtube Channel. You can easily earn money from Google Ads.
- Idea For Students #36: Organize Events - Not only parties but organizing small events like dance competition, singing competition, etc. can bring a lot of money for you. Moreover, it won’t be a big deal if you team up with your friends. Your source of earning could be the participants and also sponsors and advertisers.
- Idea For Students #37: Join A Charity - Another way to earn money during college is to join a street charity team and help in raising funds. Do not work for free. Take you share of money for the hard work done.
- Idea For Students #38: Printing & Delivering Leaflets - Find local businesses that want to promote their business. You can help them by providing a service of printing and delivering leaflets. Printing can be outsourced and delivering activity can be done with your friends.
- Idea For Students #39: Find Apartments - You can work under a broker and help new students, that come to the city, in finding apartments. Charge a percentage of commission from the broker for giving the leads.
- Idea For Students #40: Help Businesses With Social Media - There are still a lot of small businesses that are yet to go social online. Convince small local businesses about the benefits of socializing and promoting their business online. Start from maintaining Facebook Pages and Twitter Accounts and promoting in Google Places, etc. Doing these simple tasks can give you loads of money.
So, these are 40 business ideas for college students. Do not go for all of them. Choose the ones that you think are best for you. Moreover, you do not need to search for ideas anymore in the internet, but if you do, that would be a waste of time, really. Better turn off this electronic thing, and try to invent a new product or service or concentrate on your studies!
Image Courtesy of Thaikrit / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
