Many students are ready to start their own business even before they graduate. Every fourth student who wants to embark on the path of entrepreneurship is ready to create their own business shortly.
Of course, this is quite challenging, especially, when it comes to time management and keeping up with the studying process. However, students can always google “pay someone to write my paper” and receive the best quality writing services when necessary.
In general, for students, business is an opportunity to fulfill themselves, gain practical skills, and an extra source of income in addition to the scholarship and financial aid from parents. We only support this initiative. And we have specially prepared a selection of business ideas for students, which can be implemented even by those who are currently studying at the university.
The seven reasons to start a business as a student
Reason 1. Gaining real business experience
Many books were written and dozens of video courses were taken about the first steps in entrepreneurship. But theoretical knowledge, not supported by practice, can be considered useless.
IMPORTANT: In social networks, aspiring entrepreneurs are haunted by courses from moneymakers. They promise to teach how to attract investment, write sales texts, and bake brands like hotcakes. As a rule, the information in such courses – is a compilation of articles, which are easily googled by relevant queries. So don’t waste your money on various marathons, hubs, and similar offers.
Reason 2. Soft skills development
Business can be a great school for developing soft skills. You will have to pump up empathy, intuition, stress management skills, delegation, customer service, negotiation, and more. Unfortunately, soft skills are not taught in universities and colleges, and they are very important for building a successful career after school.
Reason 3. Networking
Already by graduation from university or college, entrepreneurial students will have many contacts of competent people to whom they can turn for advice, support, or assistance. The entrepreneurial community is characterized by its friendliness and the opportunity to make new acquaintances quickly, which over time can turn into strong partnerships.
Reason 4. Improving your resume
A point about owning your own business and already having experience in the industry will set a recent graduate apart from other young professionals. Employers or investors for his new project will surely take him more seriously. In any case, your price in the market will be higher if there is a “CEO” line on your resume (even if it was a small or even medium-sized student company).
Reason 5. Extra Income
Even a small business can provide a steady stream of money. Profits from your business project can be spent on furthering your business, paying for school or additional education – or on shopping and entertainment.
Reason 6. Time management and planning skills
The ability to distribute time wisely between lectures, credits, exams, and building business processes will seriously help in the future. Also, you will learn how to delegate. Even if you run your business alone you will face a need to find a reddit essay writing service that can help you when you are overloaded with all the tasks. Practice shows that people willingly continue to cooperate with those who do not disrupt deadlines, are willing to work overtime for the sake of project success, and can keep to a tight schedule. Therefore, the skill of time management and meeting deadlines will ensure good career progression.
Reason 7. Knowledge of market mechanisms
Knowing how prices of goods are formed and what marketing tricks are used by entrepreneurs will come in handy in everyday life. They will help to form personal budgets correctly, as well as to look for the most profitable offers of goods and services, knowing their true cost.
Business ideas for students
Students who talk about the need to find a business idea are right. Without it, creating your own business and succeeding will not work. To be competitive, a business proposal must be unique and consistent with the entrepreneur’s inner values. Here are some business ideas for those who are ready to try their hand at entrepreneurship as students.
Teacher, tutor
This type of business is suitable for senior students. Schoolchildren, first-year university students, and adults who are discovering a new area of knowledge are interested in tutoring services. Foreign and English languages, literature, mathematics, physics, chemistry, and history are especially in demand: there are many requests for tutors for these subjects, and the niche is still not filled.
It should be understood that because of the high competition in the market, it is necessary to keep a high quality of the services provided. To make your educational course stand out among many similar ones, you should come up with game strategies for lessons, interactive presentations, and so on. It is necessary to be scrupulous about checking students’ homework and explaining topics they do not understand and to be sure to give them feedback.
Dog walking services
In large cities, dog owners don’t always have time to give their pets the attention they need. Delays at work, business trips, and illnesses are reasons why pet owners have to seek help from dog sitters. Walking dogs requires stamina (large dogs need to be walked for at least an hour and a half) and a love for animals.
You can turn to a specialized service for dog sitters, but for first-time businesses, owners’ dog walking is a workable idea for an individual business. To start you will need comfortable clothes that are not new, which will not be sorry if the animal will leave pawprints on it. It is also worth thinking about a treat that can be used during walks to encourage (here you need to consult with the owner, perhaps the dog is on a strict diet for medical reasons). Purchase leashes, collars, muzzles, and harnesses are not necessary, as the owners already have them. But buying sturdy toys will not be out of place.
The first customers can be found through free ads. You can also make an account with the offer of services on social networks. A well-appointed page will be the best advertising, especially if it contains feedback from owners and photos of happy dogs.
Application and website development
Universal digitalization and automation require the development and implementation of more and more digital solutions. Today, most retail outlets must have an online presence to keep customers informed about arrivals, promotions, and discount offers. Any serious professional today should have a portfolio site. Public and private businesses require application and software development services. Some solutions are used for commercial gain, others to optimize internal processes, and still others as auxiliary tools for employees.
Taking up app and website development is a great choice for IT students. With programming skills, you can plunge into the world of “combat” tasks, the results of which will be used in practice. Until now, the developer market is in short supply of workers and clever heads. However, programmer talent alone is not enough: it is important to ensure that deadlines are met and that the code is of high quality. Over time, you can attract fellow students to the business, increasing the number of customers and the range of tasks to be solved. The growing amount of money in your account will illustrate that you are doing everything right.
Dropshipping
Despite the development of the retail market, some products are difficult to find at affordable prices. This problem can be solved with the help of dropshipping when the entrepreneur acts as an intermediary between the producer and the buyer of products. Earnings come from the markup, which is set by the dropshipping businessman.
To get started, it is necessary to find products that are not easy to buy on the market, despite their popularity and demand. To identify such a product, it is worth asking groupmates, friends, and family what products they are looking to buy right now. Then it is necessary to find the manufacturer of the necessary goods or their quality counterparts and agree on cooperation. The advantage of this type of business is that there is no need to buy back batches of goods and think about their storage, the manufacturers themselves will send the products to the addresses collected by the entrepreneur-dropshipper.
IMPORTANT: In dropshipping, it is important to be able to find the right product. You have to study and analyze a lot of information. Special search services such as Trends from Google help you track market inquiries. You can also read the research of analytical agencies, which are regularly published in open and private sources. You have to buy private studies, but they are usually of higher quality.
Once a product or group of products has been selected, it is necessary to create a one-page website for their presentation, and place information in free ad services and on social networks. It is important to constantly expand the range of products offered and monitor changes in trends to ensure a constant flow of revenue.
Creating designed t-shirts, mugs, and so on
The trend for individuality continues to gain the hearts of people, so designed things are very popular. And it’s not just about clothes and accessories, but also, for example, interior items. For students of creative professions, helping consumers to express their individuality can be a good income.
IMPORTANT: when creating design drawings and patterns, it is important to remember about copyright: you cannot use the results of someone else’s intellectual work, both in full and in part.
To work, you need to buy a printer for printing on T-shirts, mugs, key chains, phone covers, and so on. If there is no money to buy, then it is worth talking to the owners of photo labs, which provide services for the transfer of images on items. For a modest fee, they would probably agree to provide equipment. Then you can create the first batch of items with unique patterns, inscriptions, logos, or drawings.
You can sell designer t-shirts, mugs, and other items through social networks. To do this, it is worth creating a business account where samples of the designs will be posted. If possible, you should create an online store: to save on the first time you can make it on a free CMS, which will provide minimal functionality for the work of an electronic sales outlet.
Making handmade soap
Handmade cosmetic products are popular. They come in an abundance of shapes and scents and can be made from natural ingredients or according to a custom recipe.
This type of entrepreneurship is well suited for students of chemical specialties. Creating cosmetics at home is not that difficult, there are enough recipes for soaps, creams, shampoos, and other cosmetics care products on the Internet. For the entrepreneur, you only need to buy raw materials and equipment for production. Additionally, you can think about the packaging for the products: products with a recognized brand are more likely to buy.
The first customers can be acquaintances, classmates, and relatives. From them, it is worth getting feedback to learn how to improve the recipe, expand the range, and so on.
Production of cakes, cookies, pastries
Homemade pastries have created competition for industrial food products. Cakes are increasingly being ordered from homemade pastry chefs, and homemade cookies are becoming a popular gift for various holidays.
Production of cakes, cookies, and cakes at home can interest students of culinary specialties. To get started, it is enough to buy the missing kitchen utensils and raw materials. It is important to choose fresh, natural ingredients, as the competition in this area is very high and products of insufficient quality can cause business failure.
You can test your culinary skills on friends and family. They will also tell you how you can change the composition of the desserts to make them even tastier. You can offer products through social networks, posting photos of finished products and customer feedback on your pages.
Photo studio
Photos remain something magical for people. The frozen moment is shared on social networks, shown to friends and acquaintances, stored in photo albums, and device storage. There are many options for photo sessions – adult and children’s, business and love story, wedding and nude, and so on.
If there are a lot of proposals from photographers, then finding a good photo studio is a real problem. For students, its organization can be a good option for the first business. You need to find suitable premises and create there 2-4 photo zones with different decorations. Profits will be generated by renting a photo studio by professional photographers. It is important to regularly update the interiors to offer photographers and their clients a new environment to shoot in. Additionally, you can earn money by taking photos of your clients yourself.
You can spread the word about the new photography studio in professional photographers’ communities on forums and social networks. Do not forget about a separate account for the photo studio to demonstrate the beauty of the interiors and the attractiveness of the locations.
How to look for business ideas for students
Because of limited budgets, business ideas for students are usually not large-scale. But they allow you to learn the basic skills of entrepreneurs: the ability to build long-term strategies, analyze and work with numbers, solve marketing and staffing issues, and delegate and allocate time to tasks.
Often student business is associated with innovative ideas. If successful, it is possible to occupy a market where there is no competition yet. This means high profits.
To find student business ideas, just look around – there are still many unresolved problems and uncovered needs. Your classmates can give you an idea, and they can also become your first business partners.