Business Ideas for College Students

Unlock the entrepreneur inside of you! To find your "Big Idea" for a great business that you can run on campus, think of what needs college students at your school have that you can supply. Not only will the experience teach you a lot of the basic concepts of running a business, it could also help you get those loans paid off after graduation.

Here's a list of ideas to get you thinking. Try these, expand on them, combine them, find something that works for you!

1. Tutoring
   
   Tutoring younger students or your peers is always a great way to volunteer your time and give back but it can also be a healthy source of income for college students. You can charge an hourly rate and hold your tutorial sessions at your school library, an empty classroom, or even in your dorm or apartment. If you can handle teaching several students an hour, you can multiply your income. If you offer home service, you can charge a bit more for your travel. Beyond that, you can create your own study materials for your sessions and charge for hard copies of them.
   


2. Academic Assistance / Proof Reading
   
   If you have enough time on your hands and good research and writing skills, you could offer to help students with their essays, term papers, and theses. Most students have no problem writing their papers but you can make a business out of proofreading and editing them. Even the best writers can benefit from having a second pair of eyes take a glance at their work. Spell check and Grammar check can't catch everything.
   


3. Food on the Go
   Most college students diets suffer the moment they step foot on campus due to them either not knowing how to cook or not having the time or place to cook. If you live in a dorm or at least close enough to make quick deliveries, and you know how to cook then you already have two of the most important ingredients needed to cook up a successful business.
   
   Provide your peers with great tasting, affordable alternatives to pizza and microwavable meals. You could even expand this into a delivery service. Create a menu, have customers phone-in orders in the morning, and deliver them around lunch time. Package meals with drinks and snack items that you can buy in bulk to make even more money.
   


4. Alterations
   
   If you're good with your hands, you could take orders for simple repair jobs from your fellow students such as sewing torn buttons on shirts and blouses, or altering pants and gowns. You can set base prices for common jobs and charge extra for rush orders and material costs.
   


5. Web Design on Demand
   
   Every campus organization loves to have and can greatly benefit from a strong web presence. Most of the time their websites, if any, are tacky, boring and out-of-date. However, they don't have the money to hire professional developers. If you have the technical know-how to put a website together, mix in some images, throw in some fancy JavaScript, and maybe even a bit of PHP, you have the ability to fill a need that can easily make a hundred dollars or more per job. Depending on your expertise you can create a pricing structure so that simple jobs are cheap and more complex jobs are more expensive. There is an endless amount of resources online to help you with coding, scripting, and design.
   


6. Self-Fundraisers
   
   Have you ever seen a student or charity organization selling something to raise funds and thought "Hmm, I could do that myself." Well, why not?
   
   With most fundraisers, organizations either buy items in bulk and resell them or pre-sell items and earn a commission. You can do the exact same thing. Take a trip to Sam's Club, BJ's, or Costco and be sure to bring a calculator with you. Find items that you can sell to students or professors. Calculate the unit cost (Price of bulk pack / # of items in pack), and mark it up a little so that your selling for a decent price but making a decent profit.
   
   You could also consider making a business out of affiliate marketing. You then advertise your links on flyers and posters around campus and get paid when people use them.


7. Use your Creativity
   
   Perhaps you've been blessed with a bit of creativity. You can use those skills to make t-shirts, flyers , banners, business cards, or other types of promotional items for student organizations. You can also uses sites like Zazzle and Cafepress to set-up online stores to sell and promote your designs.
   


8. Freelance Photography
   
   If you have a good camera and some artistic ability, you can make money buy selling your photography online. With websites like Fotolia and iStockPhoto you can upload your images and sell them to millions of people all around the world. You can also use sites like Zazzle and Cafepress to make posters of your work for students looking to add original, quality artwork to spice up their rooms.
   


9. Moving Service
   
   One of the most stressful things about living on campus is moving in and out of dorms every year. You can help ease the process for your fellow students by offering to help them pack and move their stuff to storage facilities. You can even sell boxes, tape, and other supplies that come in handy. On top of that, you may even be able to negotiate with a local storage company to pay you a commission for the students you refer to them.
   


10. Event Promotion
    
    It seems there's never a shortage of people willing to pass out flyers for a little extra cash. Make this into a business by organizing a small group to take it a step further. In addition to your ground forces who can hang and pass out flyers, you can call local newspapers and magazines, write and distribute press releases, send out mail, create and send out email messages, and even create Facebook groups and events for student organizations. This alleviates stress for them so they can concentrate on preparing for the event. Create your pricing based on the amount of manpower and time each job will take. You have to balance between keeping prices low but having enough to pay your employees and still make a profit.
    


11. Transportation Services
    
    Provided you have reliable transportation yourself, you can help others get from place to place for a fee. Many students need rides to and from airports and train stations for spring and holiday breaks.
    
    Drunk driving kills lots of people every year. Maybe you've been the designated driver for your friends once, twice, or maybe your the sober one in the group who always drives. Whatever the case may be, you could be doing that for money. Many students don't quite have money for a cab but don't want to risk their lives either. You and a few friends could take orders and serve as low-cost drivers for off-campus events. Estimate how much it will cost you (fuel expenses) to make the trip and set your rates based on that.
    


12. Freelance Writing
    
    Websites like Associated Content and Helium will pay you for your written work. Your first thought may be, "What would I write about?" Fortunately, you already have a lot more experience than you may think. Most of the essays and written assignments you do in college would make great freelance articles with a little editing. Both of the sites I mentioned are marketplaces for writers and publishers. You can choose to write on suggested topics that publishers are actively looking for content on, enter writing contests, or write on any topic of your choosing and get paid when publishers buy your work.
    


13. Note Taking
    
    Everyone has that one long, boring class that's just a pain to even think about. A class like this can be a business opportunity. Offer your services as a note-taker. Contact your classmates and offer to distribute your notes to them for a fee. When they miss the class, fall asleep in it or need the material to study from, they'll come calling. Just make sure you're attentive and have good handwriting. If possible you may want to take notes electronically to make them easier to reproduce. You can charge per class session, per chapter, or simply have one flat rate for the whole semester.
    


14. Dorm Cleaning
    
    What college student hasn't gone a month, two months, or maybe a whole semester without vacuuming or moping their floors. Things can get down right nasty in college dorms and apartments. If you don't mind the filth, you and a few friends could offer cleaning services doing the things your peers are too lazy to do. You could charge a fee for each part of the job, a flat rate for your total visit, or a monthly or semester rate for which you would come by every other week or so.
    


15. Sell and Deliver Flowers
    
    A great idea for the Valentine's Day season. Everyone wants to get something for their significant other but many not have the money for an elaborate gift.You can strike a deal with a local florist to buy roses in bulk for resale on campus or take orders weeks in advance and deliver the flowers on Valentine's Day.
    


16. Piano/Guitar Lessons
    
    This idea goes out to the musically inclined. If you play a musical instrument like the piano or guitar, you could offer to give lessons on-campus and charge an hourly rate. This type of business may not work too well out of a dorm room. The noise could become a problem for your roommates and neighbors.
    


17. Hair Cuts & Hair Styling
    
    Sometimes the closest barbershop is not close at all. Sometimes they charge too much. Whatever the case may be, your barbering, hair styling, or hair braiding skills can be very profitable in a college setting. You can easily undercut prices of the local beauty salon or barbershop because you don't have to pay for your location. You can operate right out of your own room or charge a bit extra to make house calls.
    

No matter which type of business you decide to start, be creative, professional, and sincere. The personal skills you'll develop from undertaking an initiative like this will be tools you can use to make yourself more marketable when you look to begin you career after graduation.