The following is a guest post by Jemima Lopez.
If you’re in college, chances are you’re broke. Poverty is something of a rite of passage that goes along with pursuing secondary education — at the same time, just because you’re trying to get another degree doesn’t mean you have to be penniless.
But, unless you want to work part-time for the Gap or some other soul-sucking commercial store/restaurant*, you’re going to have to be creative. Making money isn’t always boring, especially if you start your own business, and as it happens, your college years are a great time to experiment with business ideas, because you have dozens of resources available to you and all the clients you need right on campus.
Maybe you’ve got the verve, but haven’t got the inspiration to kick-start a small business on the side while going to school. Fear not — the following list should help give you some ideas and maybe even spark a new idea altogether:
Tutoring
While not the most original idea in the book, tutoring is actually a very lucrative field to be in as a student, and has benefits beyond just making a buck. You won’t learn anything as well as when you teach it to someone else. So, as you’re raking in some extra cash (tutors generally charge anywhere from $20 to $50 an hour, depending on expertise), you’ll also be cementing concepts in your head that will help you succeed in the classroom.
Hawking your wares
Yes, it’s an outdated expression, but it’s not an outdated practice. Especially with the internet, selling products you’ve made to others is both easy and fruitful. At this point you might be thinking, “But I don’t have any talents I can capitalize on!” Sure you do. Can you draw? Paint? Sing? Cook? Sculpt? Make jewelry? You get the picture.
And the great thing is that if you actually can’t do any of these things, it’s still ok, because you can take classes to learn them while you’re in school. That’s the great thing about college — it’s an environment that not only supports learning new trades, but encourages it, too.
Or you could … ahem … Blog for Money
Another profitable venture to research while in school is blogging. Blogging for money doesn’t raise the kind of funds you might want right away, but if you pick a niche that interests you, get the right ads, generate a large enough following, and sell an e-book or presentation or two, you’ll be the proud owner of a successful blog and will also be generating money while you sleep. And there’s really nothing better than that.
Jemima Lopez is a freelance blogger and writer who writes for Zen College Life, the directory of higher education, distance learning, and online degrees. She welcomes your comments at her email: lopezjemima562 @ gmail.com.
Photo by TheGirlsNY.