As a student in Nigeria especially if you’re in a tertiary institution, you will be faced with some challenges and the most pressing of them is financial challenges which if ignored or handled carelessly with affect you in every way especially academically and one way to solve this challenge is to look at taking up a side business for students, meaning a business that will be comfortable for you to engage in and make cool cash even as a student.
You might have concerns and questions like:
- Can I actually succeed in doing a business as a student?
- Will a business not make me fail in my academics?
- Are there businesses I can do with little or capital?
If you’re in that category then I have good news you, there are actually a number of side businesses for students that you can start with little or no capital at all which will still give you ample time to study and excel in your academics and I’ll be sharing them with you in this article.
But before we continue I need you to bear two things in mind:
- Money is the reward you get receive for solving a particular problem
- Whatever business you do is geared at selling a product or rendering a service to solve a problem.
Hence these side business for students are solutions to the problems faced in a school environment either by selling a product or rendering a service which you will be rewarded for in the form of money.
Some of these side business for students includes:
- Photocopy and printing jobs
- Laundry
- Part-Time Home Lesson for Waec/jamb candidates
- Errands
- Part-time jobs
- Sewing
- Hair-styling
- Freelancing
- Transcriptions
- Mini/Mobile boutique
- Sales of essentials commodities
- Blogging
- Social media management
So let us discuss the above-mentioned side business for students and how you can make money from them as a student.
1. Photocopy and printing jobs
One of the most essential services in a school environment is printing and photocopies. At every point in time there will always be a need to print or photocopy a document either at the beginning of the session in the middle or at the end. It is one service required by everybody in that environment!
Freshers will need to make copies of one form or the other, students in other levels will always make photocopies of one material or the other and final year students will always print and make photocopies of their seminars and projects.
You can negotiate with owners of commercial shops that have photocopiers and printers to get printing and photocopying jobs for them which you bid for, both from lecturers and students while you get percentages on jobs you bring for them.
You can buy an affordable printer and do printing jobs for students and lecturers from the comfort of your room. You can create awareness amongst your peers, paste posters in strategic places in the school and even print at a discounted price to generate traffic since you won’t be paying for electricity.
2. Laundry
With the stress of academic activities in the school, time is a scarce commodity. Hence the little time left is either used to cook or sleep in order to rest. Most students find it hard to do their laundry due to busyness, lack of time or even laziness.
You can create awareness around the school for laundry jobs especially during weekends and outsource it to women that actually do laundry at a discounted price.
With time, you can get a washing machine (even if its fairly used because those are usually cheaper) and do the laundry from the comfort of your room.
3. Part-Time Home Lesson for Waec/Jamb Candidates
One of the concerns of most parents is for their children to excel in their academics no matter their level but the challenge is that the time used to teach in the classrooms is rarely enough to assimilate what is been taught, so an extra effort (study) is required which the parents have little or no time to do that.
You can place posters around your school environment, inform your lecturers and even parents in your place of worship to create awareness that you can teach their children some specific subjects in your area of strength.
This is one cheap and lucrative side business for students especially in the university because you get to do it on your own terms. All you need to do is to fix your teaching appointments for some days in the week where you have fewer activities in school and at the end of the month, while other students are waiting for funds from home, you are less bothered because you’re earning cool cash.
4. Errands:
Running errands is one side business for students that has been undermined over the years because students at every level run errands for their friends, their colleagues and even their lecturers just that they’ve not learned to monetize it or they don’t think its a skill worth making money from.
Truth be told, many students don’t like going to the market hence when they hear that anybody is going to the market, they will all start sending that person to get one thing or the other for them. No wonder some of my roommates in the university then used to sneak to the market because the moment one person gets to know, the whole room will need one thing or the other from the market at that moment.
You can make it official by creating awareness among your friends and within the school that you run errands within certain days of the week and at stipulated times and charge a stipulated amount of money for your time and service.
I bet you, that is a very sure way to make money. It is like killing multiple birds with a stone!
The students will be delighted to get the market stress off themselves, you won’t need to pay transport fare on every order as you can get them all at once. You can do it at your own free time which others may be wasting on irrelevant things and you have cool cash to meet your basic needs.
With time you can even employ others for a little percentage of what you get when the demand becomes too high and you will even stop going to the market which gives you more free time (leverage) to do other things while you make cool cash.
5. Part-time jobs
You can apply to some organization to work as a part-time employee. All you need to do is submit your application in various organizations close to your school and once you’re called for an interview you can negotiate your payment and working terms and conditions to suit your academic schedules.
Some very good organizations that can be a very good side business for students that students can work in as part-time employees are restaurants, cyber cafes, studios, pharmacies, supermarkets, etc.
6. Sewing
If you can sew, you can advertise your skill to your friends and fellow students for stipulated fees. As a lot of students need to amend their clothes often and even sew new clothes once in a while to keep up with the fashion trend in school.
Even if you don’t have a sewing machine, you can negotiate with tailors outside the school that has a sewing machine and bring them sewing contract for a specific percentage.
7. Hair-styling
Some ladies have the skills of making hair but they only make hair for their friends while they go back to cry to their parents that they need money for one thing or the other.
One very lucrative side business for students that a female student can take up in the school environment is hairstyling business because the need for ladies to have their hair made is always there. In fact, I have friends way back in school that practically saw themselves through school making hair!
All you need to do is to place your advertisement at strategic points in the school and within the female hostels that you make hair and sit and watch how the orders come practically every day! I bet the only challenge you will have is how to schedule each customer’s appointment to your academic activities.
You can either stick with plaiting or fixing depending on your strength, but the fixing of hair is faster as it takes less of your time compared to plaiting and it will make you more money as you can spend less time making more hair than plaiting one hair.
You can take a one-month training class just for fixing of weavons during your holidays and turn your skills into an ATM machine.
Even if you cannot make hair, you can buy shampoo, conditioner, hand dryer and hair stretcher to wash, dry and stretch hair for female students in the hostel which is also a win-win situation.
8. Freelancing
A freelancer is a person who is self-employed and is not necessarily committed to a particular employer on the long-term. Freelance workers sometimes work for a company or a temporary agency that resells freelance labor to clients; others work independently or use professional associations or websites to get work. (Source – Wikipedia)
Freelancing is a very comfortable side business for students as your physical presence is not required. It only requires your laptop, phone and your time.
Industries that need your freelancing skills include music, writing, acting, computer programming, web design, graphic design, translating and illustrating, film and video production, etc.
9. Transcriptions
Transcription is the act of translating audio to text i.e the process of converting spoken words into text. Transcripts are used to record court proceedings, business meetings, and even as records of radio, film and television programs.
To be successful and efficient in transcription jobs, you must be extremely attentive and be able to write and type quickly, as transcripts are an exact record of the spoken word.
It is one of the most comfortable side business for students that I have done, as all it requires is my free time, my laptop and sometimes my phone where I use applications like Evernote, WPS Office and Microsoft Office for typing.
You can get transcription jobs from book publishers, online platforms like Fiverr, Upwork, etc
10. Sales of essentials commodities
No matter how much students shop before resumption, there are some essential commodities which they cannot do without almost on a daily basis.
Some of such commodities include bread, eggs, kerosene (especially if you find yourself in my kind of school where gas cookers were prohibited), sachet water, etc.
You can buy any of these items and sell them from the comfort of your room and guess what? While you’re making your cool cash, the students will be so happy that you are bringing the market to their doorstep!
11. Mini boutique
It is no longer news that a lot of ladies are crazy about fashion, hence they can use their feeding money to buy fashion accessories such as new clothes, shoes, bags, etc.
This side business idea is a very easy one especially if you a female student that stays in the hostel. You can observe the kind of fashion accessories the ladies in your school love to wear, go and source for them from places where you can get them in bulk and at a cheaper rate so that you can sell at a comfortable and affordable price and still make profit from it.
12. Blogging
You can create a blog where you constantly write and post articles concerning pieces of information that people look for on the internet.
You can watch simple you-tube videos on how to create your own blog, learn how to create content, SEO, etc
You might ask how can I make money from blogging?
You can make money from blogging via a number of ways such as:
-
Advertisement from other individuals or organizations
-
Affiliate marketing
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Payment for sponsored posts on your blog etc.
All you need for this side business is a laptop, light (which is not much of a problem in universities because there are standby generators), data for browsing (or you can always use your school wifi) and consistency on creating and posting quality content that people are searching for on your blog.
13. Social Media Management
This is the process of creating, scheduling, analyzing and engaging with contents posted on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.
This is quite similar to blogging because it requires you to have a laptop, light, and data to access the internet but the difference is that you do it for other individuals or organizations and you get paid for it.
In this article, we have discussed some comfortable but lucrative side businesses for students which have made some students live independent lives on campus and have peace of mind to focus on their academics and you can also do the same.
If this article has added value to you, give me feedback in the comment section which of the side business for students I have shared in this article that looks feasible to you which you’re likely to start soon.
You can also read my other article where I shared 9 Profitable Smartphone Businesses You Can Start Immediately.
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