Being a student is one of the best and yet worrying feelings because most of the time, you will be in your early 20s and you need extra money to take care of your daily expenses. The money parents and student loans provide as pocket money is never really enough. As a student, I am sure that at one point, you have asked yourself or you have sat down with your friends and wondered which business you can start as a student to make extra cash. But the main question is why should students start businesses.
There are very many businesses that students can start. Some don’t cost anything, while others cost just a few dollars. The benefit of starting a business as a student is that you will be able to be independent, and you won’t have to depend on your parents for every basic thing. Being a student also comes with an advantage because students have extra time to perform other duties other than books.
The extra time that you have when you are not in school can be used to earn extra money. In this article, we will inform you about the businesses that a student can start while still in school.
Why Should you Start a Business as a Student?
Starting a business while still in school can be very beneficial to you as a student. Here are some of the advantages of starting a business while still in school.
1. Your Professors can be Mentors
Professors are usually very invested in their students. If you approach a professor for advice about a business you have started, you can be sure that the professor will guide you on the things to look out for in the industry you have entered. Your professor can be your mentor and guide you in every career step.
Access to a mentor is very beneficial since he or she will open your eyes to the challenges you are likely to face, and if you have an IT mentor, he or she will guide you on the advanced technology that you can incorporate into your business.
2. Access to a Larger Audience
One of the biggest advantages of starting a business while still in college is having access to a larger audience. Marketing your business to your peers means that your customer base will be huge. This also means your fellow students can help in spreading the word about your business to other students who can, in turn, purchase products from you.
Other than purchasing from you, the students can also enlighten you on how you can improve your business. Added efforts can consequently enable you to grow your business.
3. Flexible Schedule and Time
Being a student and a business person at the same time can be very beneficial to you. Students tend to have enough time within their studies in which they can engage in other activities. Classes in college are usually held a few days in the week and within which the classes are held for a few hours. Utilising the extra time to engage in a business activity can be easy for you.
Additionally, colleges offer students the option of studying online or studying part-time for evening classes. This means that you can use your daytime to carry out your business activity and make extra money while still pursuing the course of your choice. At the end of the day, it will be a win and-win situation.
4. Make Money
Most students take up student loans and scholarships to fund their education and cater to their extra expenses. Starting a business as a student will enable you to generate extra money, which you can use to fund your education partially and cater for your additional day-to-day expenses.
Starting to make money as young as you are in college will give you the financial independence you wish to have even before you finish college.
Other than that, it could be the beginning of your journey to richness. The likes of Mark Zuckerberg started making money as early as while still in college and are very successful today.
5. Achieve your Goals
Starting a business when still in school is one of the best ways to begin steps to achieving your goals in life. This means you do not have to wait to complete your college education and graduate to get a good job. You can begin the steps into making your dreams come true as early as while still in college.
It will also help you to align your business with your goals; this will help you attain your goals in life faster than those who do not start while still in school.
Why you Shouldn’t Start a Business as a Student
1. Lack of Start up Capital
Starting a business as a student can be disadvantageous because you might lack the capital to sustain the business in the long run. Businesses require a huge initial investment, and sometimes businesses can go wrong, and you might end up making losses that you had not initially planned to get.
Recovering from a fallen business requires huge capital, and students might not have the capital to run the business again. This can lead to depression and the feeling of failure. Students should be careful with whichever business they decide to venture into because it can be costly to sustain a business.
You can get around this by having a strong strategic plan for your small business.
2. It can Impact their Studies
This is one of the drawbacks of starting a business as a student. Businesses require that you invest time and energy, which can affect your education because you might not have enough time to study for your exams. You might be underperforming in your studies because you spend all your time and energy doing your business.
If you want to venture into business, you should balance your education with business properly to ensure that one of the activities is not affected by the other.
3. Miss out on Opportunities in the Workplace
Starting a business as a student can make you miss out on important opportunities in your career that might be availed to you while in school. Students are provided with internship and attachment opportunities that align with their careers which can help them lead a successful careers.
Other than that, you might miss out on opportunities to grow your business because you will be juggling school and business, which can, in turn, make you miss the opportunity to grow your business.
4. Struggle with Lack of Growth
The problem with starting a business as a student is that it might never expand and grow to be big enough to generate huge profits. This is because businesses require time, money, and energy for it to grow. A lack of those factors can prevent your business from failing to grow.
Other than that, for a business to grow, you will need to hire more employees to increase productivity. Failure to do this can make your business remain stagnant for a long time.
5. Lack of Knowledge and Experience
Starting a business as a student can be difficult due to a lack of enough knowledge and experience of starting the business. Different businesses require different expertise to survive in particular industries; students might lack the knowledge to conduct the business.
This can lead to the failure of the business due to a lack of knowledge and experience in running the business.
What Businesses can Students Start?
1. Office Cleaner
They say that no job is bigger than the other; as long as you can be able to put food on the table, you are good to go. Starting a business as an office cleaner can be very good since this can be upscaled in features into a service company. Many people look for part-time office cleaners who can come in to clean up their office spaces.
Starting a business as an office cleaner can be very beneficial since it will give you extra money that can be good to sustain your extra university expenses, which can sometimes be difficult to sustain with no money.
If you want to learn how to start a business and get up and running with costings, prices, advertising and structure… Give us a call!
Office cleaning prices in the UK can start at £18 per hour.
2. Dog Walker
Being a dog walker can be a very lucrative business since you are assured of a few hours of work and at the same time, you will make good extra money. Asking people in your neighbourhood whether they would want a dog walker can be very easy since most adults like the time to take their dogs out for a walk due to work and other things.
If you start a dog walker business and grow your popularity in your area, you will get more customers. In the long run, you can even upscale your business, start a dog-walking small business after graduating, and hire more people to do work, thus generating more income.
Dog walkers can earn up to £30 per hour for individual walks, and £15 per hour per dog for group walks.
3. Dropshipping
Dropshipping is a very lucrative business in which your job is to market a vendor’s products on your platform, and the vendor is responsible for storing and shipping the products. Once a customer orders and pays for it, you act as a middleman and connect the buyer with the vendor. You then make money in terms of commission.
This is a very lucrative job that is easy to do as it is low risk. Also, you can do it from the comfort of your home. You just have to set up a drop shipping site and get a host. The cost is as low as £150 to start up the business.
The profit to be made is endless with winning products as long as your advertising is spot on.
4. Software Design
Software design is defining problems related to software and offering solutions to them. Designing software such as apps, websites or systems is very lucrative. Especially for software engineering students as well as for IT students. Many small businesses look for software designers to help them solve software-related problems. Solutions to customer problems can be very beneficial since you will gain skills and still earn money.
Day rates for software developers can be as high as £500 for freelance workers.
5. Website Development
Today more than ever, businesses are establishing websites to help provide their customers with an online presence where they can see the business products clearly and make purchases. Small businesses are looking for website developers to build their websites to increase their online presence.
As a college computer student with the website development and design knowledge, you can offer your skills for cash and still get to upscale your skills after college. Starting early can give you a presence among people in business who might be looking for young and skilled minds. In the long run, you can land a good job where you have shared your skills.
Similar to software development, web development can be very high grossing for freelancers.
Choose a Business that is Related to your Course
You can also consider starting a business that is related to the tour course. If you are studying accounting, you can offer accounting-related services like filing taxes for clients or offer bookkeeping services. You can offer IT-related services such as web design and software development if you are an IT student.
These jobs are easy to do and can be easily performed at home with just a computer. Many students who think beyond the class are very successful.
One of the modules you may cover in your course could spark a reason why students should start businesses with regards to those topics.
Importance of School
Creates opportunities; schools provide students with opportunities to pursue the career of their dream. Through school, you learn important skills that you can convert into money and use to start your own lucrative business.
Through school, you get to interact with other students from different backgrounds. These can help you secure jobs through their various connections.
High-income school is a get way to earn a high income once you complete school and secure a high-paying job. Schools teach a variety of courses which you can choose from based on your interest. With good grades, you can land a high-paying job in big offices. In return, you can earn quite well in the long term can be equipped with knowledge and skills. These can later be used to empower themselves to earn income and remove themselves and their families from poverty.
Conclusion
Students can start various businesses and scale them up in the future after graduating to create huge businesses. Starting a business while still in school can help students create money and prepare them for a good future. Other than that, students who start businesses while in school face the challenge of finances. But students can start a dog walking, drop shipping, and software design businesses while in school and generate good income.
The other way to get business experience as a student is to buy a business.
