Posted by DebtKid :: September 18, 2008 @ 10:34 am
Michael Dell... Mark Zuckerberg... You?
Michael Dell started his computer empire from his dorm room at the University of Texas with just $1000. He dropped out his freshman year to run his growing company full time.
Zuckerberg created the now ubiquitous Facebook while at Harvard.
Even if you don't plan on being a lifetime entrepreneur, starting a business while going to school looks great on a resume. Plus, who knows? Maybe you'll invent the next Facebook, or at least the next pet rock or something.
Here are 5 low-cost businesses that you can run from your dorm:
1. Travel Coordination Service
Offer free trip planning to students at your college. Arrange and find the best prices for tickets home for students. Earn commissions when they purchase their ticket. It's a win-win situation. You find them a good deal, and you earn a small commission for finding them.
2. Dog-Running Agency
Colleges are full of students who run for fun. Around many universities are younger families with dogs who need exercise. Why not connect the two? Recruit some of the runners at your school and contract out dog running jobs to them. Woof!
3. Proofreading Service
While writing papers for students is a no-no, charging per page to edit and proofread is acceptable. Print up a few dozen fliers with your rate and contact info and you're in business.
4. Babysitting Empire
Do you have 5 friends who would be great babysitters? Instead of freelance babysitting, why not be the coordinator, the marketer, who brings in the jobs for your crew? Take advantage of scheduling technology and send out real time job alerts to your team of babysitters using a service like HeyCosmo.
5. Laundry Service
I hate doing laundry. Even being out of college a few years, it’s still one of my least favorite things to do. I'm not alone. Offer a per load price, slap up some posters, and start a laundry service for your school.
The key to any business success is taking advantage of your skills and leveraging them. Take a few minutes to think about what you are good at... now how could you turn that into a business?
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What type of business have you started or did you start while in college?
2 Comments
T-shirt printing its easy; well worth a go.
Those are some dumb ideas, man. I doubt any of them would make any real money, and you would probably make less than minimum wage, and all of the ideas except the proofreading service idea, could get you into some legal problems since you are handling peoples animals and kids, or clothes, and making deals with the airlines which will probably get changed. Dealing in textbooks would be a better idea because you could make some real money.
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