Side Hustles For The Busy College Student
I've always questioned why college students who aren't working part- or full-time jobs on the side of their academics don't start small businesses. I feel that even loaded up with full-time units, students have far more time on their hands than they think. And starting up a side hustle could be the next break that every college student is looking for, or even just supplemental income to start paying debt, saving, or what I like to call "fun money."
For the uninitiated, side hustles are small businesses or services that people can use to leverage their skills and sell them to other people. It could literally be anything from selling t-shirts to washing cars. But here's the advantage: you get what you put out. You can choose to work for 1 hour or 40 hours depending on your current schedule.
Of course, some college students are already doing this. During my first year of college, haircutting, eyelash, and eyebrow care were highly utilized and advertised by many first-year students. They started their own businesses out of their dorm rooms leveraging their skills.
But there are students who are not doing this. I'll say though, that students who are already working part-time, full-time, or in internships may not have time to do so. But other than these people, the other demographics of students are likely to have the time to do so. But they don't.
To my college students reading this: this is the time. You likely don't have many responsibilities, have far too much time, and likely have a random leveraged skill that could serve a niche. Don't wait until later. Do it now, while you have the time and the responsibility freedom to do so.
Here are some of the side hustles ideas I've seen:
Design Work
This is an extremely broad example. I've seen students who did graphic design work: creating logos, websites, or making advertisements. Other students worked to do physical paintings and drawings. Some students created designs for t-shirts and other products. I've even seen students who paint water bottles for a living (and honestly, it was quite lucrative).
Tutoring
Tutoring is an obvious one for many students. My roommate Jon, who I mention in my Morning Routine article, was an amazing tutor for me as I struggled to grasp certain topics in my chemistry courses. And like me, many other college students are struggling with their classes from STEM to economic classes. And with the bootstrapped budgets of college students, cheap peer-to-peer tutoring is extremely desired and lucrative. You can even target virtual tutoring with websites hiring college students as tutors for high school students simply requiring proficiency from college classes. These positions often pay more than minimum wage as well. Bonus points if you tutor a topic you are extremely interested in!
Reselling
This is an obvious one. High school students can do this as well quite cheaply. A bit of an anecdote: UC Davis specifically, being the biking community that it is, has a semi-annual bike auction where the UCD Police and Transportation Services sell off abandoned or illegally parked bikes that have not been claimed. (Note: I highly recommend attending the bike auction if you are a Davis local. The atmosphere is extremely fun and energetic)! They have bikes ranging from high-end to some that don't even work. And there's a market for both. Last year, I went to the October auction and purchased 7 bikes for a little over a hundred dollars. Imagine that...I got 7 bikes for about $100. And what did I do; cleaned them with a bucket and a sponge and resold them all for about $500. I didn't even have the skills to fix them up. I just made them more presentable by cleaning them (something that doesn't require skill). Some other ideas that I've tried out are textbooks, shoes, collector items, and clothing.
But I recommend that you work within what you are comfortable with. Like technology? Buy technology. Like shoes? Buy shoes. Like hair products? Buy hair products. It's best to buy what you are interested in because you will develop a better sales pitch, and you roughly understand the market for the things you are interested in already. You know what brands are popular, what will sell, and how much things cost.
Start your side-hustle
In the end, this is not an exhaustive list, and there are many lists out there for other ideas. Just look up "college student side hustles" on Google, and you'll find thousands of results.
The important thing is to just start. It doesn't take significant time, nor research. Start with friends and work from there. Maybe you'll just spark your entrepreneurial itch as well!
Live intentionally.