The years you spend in college will be some of the most challenging and exciting years of your life. You’ll be growing academically and personally while learning and acquiring new skills. The one thing many students consider during college years is how to earn some extra money, or even start a successful small business. For many, this is a step out of their comfort zone and into the unknown.
If you’re interested in starting your own business while in college but aren’t sure how—we’ve got your back. Below, we’ll list the 7 best home business ideas to start as a student and break down the important details. Just keep reading!
Why start a home business?
Before we dig into the business ideas, we first wanted to point out the main benefits of starting a business from your home. Firstly, you’ll be taking charge of your life and avoid being a part of the 41% of college students who are underemployed. Second, as a student, there are certain things you most certainly lack:
- Practical experience
- An investment budget
- A lot of free time
- Skills to run a large business
This is exactly why you should start small and take baby steps. You don’t want to bite more than you can chew, and have your business plans negatively affect your academic results. A home business will be the perfect match. All you need is a good idea, basic equipment, an internet connection, and determination.
7 Home business ideas ideal for students
Now let’s take a look at the best business ideas you could pursue as a student. We’ll break them down one by one to help you find the one that suits you the most.
1. Online Tutoring
Let’s face it, online tutoring is one of the best small business ideas for a person that’s in college. Here’s why this could work out wonderfully for you:
- You’re a student and understand other students’ needs and issues
- You’re occupied with acquiring and absorbing knowledge yourself
- It will help you further polish your academic skills
Not to mention just how simple it is to start such a business. All you’d need to do is choose the subjects you’ll provide tutoring in and start advertising. You could start online, by promoting yourself on social media and networking a lot. You could also do it locally, by posting flyers near schools and colleges.
If your business starts to grow, you can even hire a college colleague to work as a second tutor.
2. Event Planning
You could be sitting in your dorm room in Arizona and planning a wedding for a couple from Canada. You just need to be great at doing research and communicating with people online, using all the tools and means available today.
So, if event planning is something you think you’d be good at and enjoy doing, why not give it a go? Your daily tasks would include:
- Advertising and finding clients
- Researching venues
- Putting together event plans
- Making reservations
- Calling florists, caterers, musicians, decorators, and other service providers
- Communicating with your clients
This job requires great communication, organization, and creativity skills. Other than that, you don’t need any investment, or equipment at all.
3. Copywriting
Copywriting is a fast-growing industry that is among the most in-demand jobs today. Everybody needs a copywriter—from small businesses to major influencers. Here are the skills a copywriter is expected to have are:
- Research skills
- Creativity
- Creative writing
- SEO
- Editing and proofreading
- Technical writing
You could be writing anything from short blog posts in niches such as beauty and sports, to long-form technical articles in design or marketing. You could choose one niche and stick to it, or explore different niches and shuffle between them.
In case you ever get stuck with a writing job, there are online resources to turn to. There are spell and grammar checkers, and readability tools, and you can also find a credible essay writer plagiarism free. This will help you keep learning on the go and grow your small home copywriting business.
4. Personal Trainer
Everybody wants to be fit and healthy nowadays, but not many people have the time or money to visit gyms and fitness centers. This creates the perfect opportunity for students who have fitness experience to start a small home business.
Offering personal trainer services online would require you to:
- Transform a small part of your home into an exercise area
- Buy a solid web camera
You could offer different-level training to people with different fitness needs. As your business grows, you could even build a website with exercise videos you could monetize. Plus, many personal trainers create personal Instagram accounts where they build a personal brand and thus advertise their business.
One option to streamline and optimize your personal trainer business is to invest in personal trainer software like Wellyx that can help you manage clients, create customized workout plans, track progress, and even offer virtual coaching sessions.
5. Virtual assistant
You’d be surprised to hear how many businesses globally are being run completely online with remote workers. And, all of these businesses need a virtual assistant to keep things in order.
You could start a VA agency, and provide services such as team management, organizing schedules, shopping, planning and organizing trips, planning team events and team building, and more. Grow the business slowly and hire more virtual assistants to work for you, with nothing more than your laptop and an internet connection.
6. Graphic design
Are you a graphic design student? Or do you simply possess graphic design skills that you could apply professionally? Then consider starting a business.
As a graphic designer, you could offer services to virtually anyone—organizations, companies, artists, and marketing agencies.
It’s great for students since you get to control how many projects you take on, and how much time you spend working. You can organize your day as you like and successfully combine it all with classes and studying.
7. Travel planner
There are people who would pay a lot of money to have someone organize their vacation, family trip, or a romantic getaway just the way they want it. So, if you’re a travel enthusiast and know how to get the best deals, this might be ideal for you.
You’d do everything for your clients:
- Make hotel reservations
- Find Airbnbs
- Book flights
- Reserve taxis
- Plan excursions
- Create itineraries
- Plan personalized travel experiences
Your job would be to understand their travel taste, explore all their options, and find the best possible offer for them. Then, you’ll be making all the calls and sending all the emails to make sure they get their planned travel experience.
This is another simple but profitable small business idea that students could take on without virtually any initial budgets or investments.
Final thoughts
Starting a small home business during college is a great challenge, but it’s possible if you set your mind to it. The business ideas we’ve shared above are perfect in terms of your limited student options. You can start them all without any savings, from the comfort of your home.
Hopefully, we’ve managed to get you motivated and start thinking about your new home business. Good luck!
Your privacy is secured and your information will not be shared
