If you’re short on cash/have a few hours’ spare time/want something rewarding to do, starting a business can be a great pastime. You can learn so much about people and finance and how the world works from founding a start-up! If you’re not comfortable taking other people’s money, you can give all profits to charity whilst still gaining these valuable skills 🙂

To help you on your way, here are 10 ideas for your very own business.

1. T-shirt – bonus points if you can make them customisable for the user and eco-friendly! Check out threadless for inspiration. Sadly they’re based in America… Or is this an opportunity?
2. Greeting Cards – hand-made greeting cards are cute, but who has time to make them? You do, and you can make a profit out of it.
3. Blogging – this one might take a long time, but if you become popular you might get some PR offers. It’s a lot of hard work and no pay for months on end, but you might make it! There are plenty of tools for blogging beginners but here is a good place to start. You can also do this alongside any of the other ideas on this list!
4. Tuckshop – buy sweets, chocolate etc. from Poundland and maybe some fruit from Lidl and sell them for a markup. Simple but effective.
5. Candle Making – it’s simple. Look it up.
6. Jewellery Making – the raw pieces are really cheap to purchase, but if it looks good you can make a huge profit on it.
7. Study Survival / Fresher’s survival kit during high-stress periods e.g. Berocca, teabags, de-stress scented candles, cans of redbull, etc.
8. Similar to the tuck shop, you can start a coffee shop. This is especially effective if it’s exam season.
9. Teaching. Whether it’s giving music lessons, teaching chess or coaching karate (all of which I have done/am doing), you can help share your talents with everyone!
10. Your own genius idea. If you come up with it yourself, you are more likely to love it and all the successful businesses have been started by a passionate entrepreneur.

If you want more ideas, check out this article by Mike Michalowicz and this Profitable Venture list. I hope this post has inspired some of you to start your own business even when you’re busy at school! After all, some extra cash wouldn’t be too bad, would it?

P.S. I’ve got a surprise gift planned for all my readers in a couple of weeks – stay tuned!

Are you going to try one of these? Do you know of someone who’s started their own business whilst still at school? What are your thoughts on entrepreneurship? Let me know in the comments!