Being a student means your number one responsibility is to study. While being a student means studying lots of hours, it doesn’t always take up all your time a student. Being a student is one of the best times of a person’s life to explore different passions, and potential careers and build a suite of skills that can help you become a success once you start your professional life.
Part of exploring as a student involves taking up various leadership roles in school such as being active in student groups. However, that isn’t always in the interest of everyone. And you may end up needing to do something with your spare time. One of the best ways to spend your free time as a student is to spend it making money.
There are dozens of reasons why students need to start making income, even if it isn’t enough for all their needs. It is an important part of career development to start building capacity in a field in which you want to work in as a professional. It doesn’t matter the role you end up playing, because your role is still to learn. And if you choose any of the ideas we share here today, you can potentially create your job and not have to join the long queue of graduates searching for jobs.
Why You Might Want to Make Money as a Student
1. To Save for the Future
Most students leave school with not just a qualification, but also student debt. How is a young person supposed to pursue their dreams with $0 in their pockets and thousands of dollars in debt? That is what most young people are going through. While that may be extreme, it would surprise you that a lot of people go through that.
If you are lucky, and your parents can support you, then start life on a clean slate, still with $0. Having a part-time job or an online business, you can save on some of the big things you want to do with your life. The benefit of having a ton of money in your savings is being able to decide the course of your life without having to think or bother about money that much.
Many graduates are forced to take certain jobs and do things they do not enjoy simply because they do not want to stay home and do nothing. Work is more than an avenue to earn a living. And saving money you get from your business or job can help you.
2. Learn How to Manage Money
Being an adult “sucks”. There are typically a lot of shocks that come with being an adult straight from college. Many find out the real need for money in their lives and that could make a person desperate. However, you do not have to be desperate when you make money on the side as a student.
Instead, you can learn money management tips, and get into investing and making money. While a job is great, not everyone would want to work a 9-5 job. If you are one of such students who do not want a regular job, it might be time to start making serious decisions about how you are going to build an income to shield you from taking jobs when you finally graduate from school. Money management is a skill that is harnessed the more you handle money. Being a student who earns money will teach you practical ways to get that done.
3. Build Confidence in Your Skills and Knowledge
The sad truth about getting a job is that most people get a job simply because they are not confident they can make money on their own. They prefer to work a secure job and depend on their employer.
This is in no way against getting a job, but you should feel confident about your independence and a job should be something that fulfills you. Being able to start some side income as a student is one of the fastest ways to become confident about your ability to make money.
4. You Don’t Have to Call Home For Everything: Independence
Most students feel trapped and not as independent as they would want to be. In most cases, it boils down to money. Having to ask for money from your parents or guardian is not always the best of feelings especially when the items you want to get are not needs but rather wants and things you simply want as a person.
Being denied such things is not a good feeling. Sometimes, it is simply “different” to consistently ask for money for small things. If this is how you feel, you can get your way by exploring some of the ideas shared here. You could easily make a couple of hundred dollars weekly with some of them.
5. Help You Do What You Love: Avoid Unemployment
If you have a solid business that brings you more than you need to keep yourself every month, you may not feel the need to rush to get a job. You are reducing the unemployment problem by going independent and building your system to generate income.
Top 10 Ways Students Can Make Money
1. Become a Sales Person
Sales are what keep a business moving. Various businesses need highly skilled young people who can bring in the numbers. That said, businesses and financial institutions are always on the look for salespersons. An example is sales in insurance, etc
2. YouTube Channel Might be Great
A YouTube channel is one of the perfect money-making opportunities for students. It doesn’t require reporting to work and gives you the freedom to explore your interests at your own time. See a youtube channel as a way of self-expression and you will create some of the best content on the platform.
While we all watch youtube for entertainment and education, there is a massive income opportunity on the platform. If you have the right taste for content creation, a youtube channel is something you should consider.
3. Sell In-Demand Items on Campus Online
The campus is a whole community on its own and students have various needs. With a short brainstorming session, you can come up with some products and services you can easily sell on campus to make some money on the side.
4. Dabble into Freelancing
Freelancing is a world of endless potential. Here is a way you can sell your skills. A place you can even sell “Prayers” – That isn’t a joke. The freelance economy is bigger than ever before and more businesses and established brands like Google are increasingly depending on freelancers to get their businesses running.
Freelancing is indeed a free way to earn a living. With knowledge and skills in a niche or field, you can make good money online by working at your convenience.
Platforms like Fiverr and Upwork have made it easy to get started for free. While they have their fees they deduct from each sale, you will find that it is worth it as the platform gives you qualified clients to work with.
5. Blogging
If you love writing or text content, blogging may be the idea for you. Various blogs capture various topics. So you may wonder why to create one. A blog is not only a way of self-expression but also a way to generate money online.
It doesn’t matter what your interests are, you can always start blog writing for those who are also interested in that thing.
All you need is a simple blog, and you can start writing away.
6. Tutoring Course Mates and Juniors
If you are good with your courses and have time to help others catch up and get up to speed with their grades, you might find it lucrative to teach others what you know.
By teaching, you further get the better meaning you will almost always get good grades. You get to make some income from it as well.
7. Become a Social Media Influencer
Social media, isn’t that where students live these days? Whatever! Social media is one of the best places to make money as a student. You already spend a couple of hours a day on the platform, you might as well create income out of it. How can you do this? By becoming an influencer.
Your job as an influencer is to develop a brand that is trusted by your audience. Trusted influencer brands are important to companies that want to reach the communities in their niche. Most of them will pay generously to get you to share tiger great products and services with your audience.
If being an influencer is not your thing, you could make money building and maintaining a good social presence for busy people. This can easily bring in a good income to you every month with the potential of a business. You could eventually manage lots of brands and personalities.
8. Virtual Assistant
The virtual assistant opportunity is for a student with skills like you can do. Being a virtual assistant is very flexible in terms of what you do and also the commitment you give to the job.
A virtual assistant is an assistant to a company or a person in a virtual space. A virtual assistant could be engaged to perform a single task such as data entry, copy and paste, or transcribing meeting recordings. On the other hand, a virtual assistant could serve as an actual assistant to an organization or an individual performing several tasks such as responding to calls and email, scheduling meetings and making appointments, performing research, and more.
If you have strong communication skills, have a good grasp of Microsoft Excel, and a couple of in-demand skills, you can become a virtual assistant even today.
Many platforms allow anyone to find paying clients to work as virtual assistants.
9. Start Your Own Company
Whether you are in business school or not, one of the things to consider while in school is whether you want to start a company or work for a company. There is no shame in going for one, but knowing what you want to do is paramount.
If you happen to have a business idea you want to explore, you could start making your minimum viable product and looking for people of similar interests. Facebook was created similarly. Maybe your idea is next, from a dorm room to a giant internet giant.
10. Become a Translator
One of the importance of studying a foreign language in school is that you get to take on part-time jobs translating for clients in their businesses. There are opportunities here considering that various people of different nationalities come to your country to explore your country.
They would need capable translators to help them navigate. If you are good enough and love to travel, you could become a travel guide taking them from one city to the next. Well, you are still a student so you will need proper time management to be able to go extreme with such a business idea.
Conclusion
Making money as a student is one of the best decisions you can make. Beyond having some cash to spend on your wants and dreams, you can learn a whole lot that will help you transition into a job or a business. Explore various opportunities as a student because you may never get the time to do so when you get into the workforce and life gets busy. Kickstart your income journey while in school.
