College is not just a time to take classes related to your major, you can fill your life and your resume with valuable experiences. Those who start their own businesses in college will graduate with more life experience. The American job market has also become extremely competitive, leaving many new graduates with the option of working for themselves.
Even if your business venture fails, or does not grow into a million dollar idea, working for yourself has several advantages that make it worth the adventure. You’ll learn more about how business works, how to save money properly, how to advertise yourself and develop valuable experience along the way.
Painting Business
College Works Painting is designed to teach college students how to manage a painting business. It’s more complex than you might think. Students are taught how to prime a room for painting, how to order supplies and manage work flows like an apprenticeship. Jobs take them all over their cities to commercial buildings and individual homes.
Students are taught to work independently, using their basic skills to open their own painting business. This business usually doesn’t need a permit, so there are fewer administrative costs and a lower bar for entry. Acquiring business will be the key to your success, and that requires some clever advertising.
Visit the contractor’s area of your local hardware store and talk with some of the workers there to get some work. Build a website for yourself and show you know about painting by blogging interior design and painting tips. Find a business address and phone number that you can operate from, and put that data on your website.
Also, start a Google Places page, which is like a signal to the search engine that you operate in your town. The advantage is that may secure more local business from contractors doing searches within your town.
Mobile Car Detailing
Mobile car detailing is popular amongst office complexes, where a team of workers can rake in a decent day’s wage by washing and detailing cars for executives. Build a following on Twitter and use it to let your audience know where you will be each day.
You should also contact business owners in your area and ask permission to post flyers advertising your services. Post these flyers on the restrooms of these buildings, and in public spaces like the lobby. Just be careful that you follow any building restrictions for ads so that your advertisements don’t get thrown out.
Cut costs by renting equipment like the portable washer. You should keep receipts for the materials you order as well, they are deductions for the cost of doing business and you can save money by factoring those into your taxes.
Courier Service
Couriers have interesting professions because the only cost is fuel and a phone line for the business. You’ll need a general knowledge of your area, and a few drivers that have relatively open availability. With a few friends, you can work out your school schedules so some of you cover pickups when others are in class or at another job.
Google Voice works well for this kind of work, as you can set up call forwarding to any phone. Buy a good GPS unit, or use a state of the art smartphone. You’ll need to know how to get to your destination as quickly as possible if you want to stay competitive.
Blogging
Blog about your interests, with your friends stepping in to relieve some of the writing burden. If you or your friends feel you can’t write well, try video blogging or content aggregation. Gathering news for your audience and keeping your eyes on topics that others don’t have time to can have financial rewards. A bit of amateur journalism is easier to do with the Web, and you can create original content by spending only a bit of research time.
Article contributed by Jenna Smith
