21 year old college student

[911WhoDis]

What is a good beginner business a college student could get started in? I am not a business major, but its not like you need to major in business to be interested in business. Someone suggested import/export, but would a college student be able to realistically manage that type of business?

 

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[rexxkai]

ur mind is your only obstacle

 

[911WhoDis]

ur mind is your only obstacle

what does that even mean, my friend.

 

[rexxkai]

what does that even mean, my friend.

It means u can accomplish any business if you want.

If you want to start an import business and it seems to big for you, maybe you can start buying, reselling items on craigslist. That seems like a good start for most ppl. I think grumpycat made like 700k in a few years doing that. You can do it whenever you want, and when the exams come up, you can slow it down. You are not bound to it, and you can make great money.
There are multiple threads on this, search craigslist hustle

 

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[Wal-Mart Vendor]

Try something centered around collegiate products. Just a thought...

 

[DawnW]

A business with low start up costs that provides a service to folks who have money and are willing to pay.

 

[PhotoKid95]

Dropshipping! low cost to start, TONS of learning opportunity, and maybe even some extra cash if done right!

 

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[911WhoDis]

Dropshipping! low cost to start, TONS of learning opportunity, and maybe even some extra cash if done right!

My only fear of selling products online, is the concept of getting sued. I obviously dont have any liability insurance. Wouldnt i be screwed if i sold a product and a customer got screwed over?

 

[rexxkai]

My only fear of selling products online, is the concept of getting sued. I obviously dont have any liability insurance. Wouldnt i be screwed if i sold a product and a customer got screwed over?

It's the risk of doing business.

Maybe 1 in 100,000 will screw you over if you are selling normal, safe to use products.

By the time you first get screwed, liability insurance can easily be paid for.

And if you are that scared of selling online, i recommend craigslist offline hustle, as i mentioned before.

 

[SirTristram]

A college student is able to realistically manage any kind of business. Don't start off by limiting yourself, instead of asking WHAT business you SHOULD do, find the one you WANT to do while adding value in some way. A huge thing i've learnt recently is don't do a business because you want the money, make a business to provide value (solve a problem, facilitate, streamline, etc...) and when you're providing value people will provide the money.

 

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[Hassen]

Hi there dude, could you specify what limitations you perceive there are, being a 21-year-old college student? That way I reckon guys (and gals) around here might be able to better help you other than repeating "just believe in yourself man."

Is it your age? Do you find yourself too inexperienced/too young, not knowledgable enough, or is it your busy college schedule, because sometimes students need to attend lectures, do homework, study outside of class and work part-time that they end up having more time tied up than a professional who works 9-5? You mentioned you're not a business student, and do you think that's also potentially limiting?

I am a 20 years old recent college grad (class of 2014) and I was a business student, but my concentration were finance and real estate; I know some accounting but not nearly enough to be relevant to know how to do bookkeeping myself, I rely on software for that. Otherwise I don't think being a business student or not matters much, we business majors really don't learn about how to actually run a business. The books I've read on personal finance, businesses and entrepreneurship since I was a small child helps much more with getting the entrepreneurial mindset, whilst from my college education I gained some basic concepts of corporate finance and paper assets. I own mutual fund shares but don't trade stocks.

Currently I am starting an online import/export business as well. I work at a large multinational corporation and regularly put in overtime and get home around 9 or 10 in the evening. I put useful blogs and such into my RSS feed reader and try to absorb information on the go with my smartphone. When I get some downtime at work and sometimes during lunch hours I manage my inventory online (writing product descriptions, editing listings etc). I've been using an hour or two at night during weekdays and hours and hours on weekends to physically process the products I ordered wholesale such as checking and repackaging them; I plan on offloading this work to the manufacturer side or to just hire local college students as helpers in the near future once I have more working capital in the business.

Hopefully what I'm doing will be of help to you to see if as a college student you have enough knowledge/time to manage a business. Information is abundant online and in books, and in the case of the former a lot of it free. And time just takes discipline to find. I use a timelogger app each day to document every minute I spend to make sure I'm not just randomly surfing online for no purpose at all for hours at a time. I also use another app to log my progress towards my goals. I keep a journal, keep todo lists and set mental deadlines for myself to stay on track.

Another advise I would have for you is to not try to tackle problems before you encounter them, because you won't know how to nor know the exact problems you'll be facing. Learn as you go, improvise and work things out as issues arise.


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[911WhoDis]

Hi there dude, could you specify what limitations you perceive there are, being a 21-year-old college student? That way I reckon guys (and gals) around here might be able to better help you other than repeating "just believe in yourself man."

Is it your age? Do you find yourself too inexperienced/too young, not knowledgable enough, or is it your busy college schedule, because sometimes students need to attend lectures, do homework, study outside of class and work part-time that they end up having more time tied up than a professional who works 9-5? You mentioned you're not a business student, and do you think that's also potentially limiting?

I am a 20 years old recent college grad (class of 2014) and I was a business student, but my concentration were finance and real estate; I know some accounting but not nearly enough to be relevant to know how to do bookkeeping myself, I rely on software for that. Otherwise I don't think being a business student or not matters much, we business majors really don't learn about how to actually run a business. The books I've read on personal finance, businesses and entrepreneurship since I was a small child helps much more with getting the entrepreneurial mindset, whilst from my college education I gained some basic concepts of corporate finance and paper assets. I own mutual fund shares but don't trade stocks.

Currently I am starting an online import/export business as well. I work at a large multinational corporation and regularly put in overtime and get home around 9 or 10 in the evening. I put useful blogs and such into my RSS feed reader and try to absorb information on the go with my smartphone. When I get some downtime at work and sometimes during lunch hours I manage my inventory online (writing product descriptions, editing listings etc). I've been using an hour or two at night during weekdays and hours and hours on weekends to physically process the products I ordered wholesale such as checking and repackaging them; I plan on offloading this work to the manufacturer side or to just hire local college students as helpers in the near future once I have more working capital in the business.

Hopefully what I'm doing will be of help to you to see if as a college student you have enough knowledge/time to manage a business. Information is abundant online and in books, and in the case of the former a lot of it free. And time just takes discipline to find. I use a timelogger app each day to document every minute I spend to make sure I'm not just randomly surfing online for no purpose at all for hours at a time. I also use another app to log my progress towards my goals. I keep a journal, keep todo lists and set mental deadlines for myself to stay on track.

Another advise I would have for you is to not try to tackle problems before you encounter them, because you won't know how to nor know the exact problems you'll be facing. Learn as you go, improvise and work things out as issues arise.


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Thanks for your insight, my biggest concern is that I am very new to the business/entrepreneur lifestyle so i dont know all the risks that come with selling to the public. Lately people have been F*cking with my head telling me that if you sell online without an LLC or liability insurance, you can get sued and people can target your assets. As a college student with no real revenue i really cant afford any of that yet. I do believe in myself, but I don't really know how to tackle this situation.

 

[The-J]

It honestly doesn't matter but you seem eager to get started, which is good. There are a few ways to get your feet wet, such as Craigslist flipping, a service-based business, or affiliate marketing. I started with a service business to pay the bills. It's not a bad way, either.

No you do not need a degree in anything to do business effectively.

Also, a LLC costs like $250 or something and is so quick to get. Liability insurance isn't a bad idea either depending on your niche, but most niches it's not even a big deal

 

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[Hassen]

Thanks for your insight, my biggest concern is that I am very new to the business/entrepreneur lifestyle so i dont know all the risks that come with selling to the public. Lately people have been F*cking with my head telling me that if you sell online without an LLC or liability insurance, you can get sued and people can target your assets. As a college student with no real revenue i really cant afford any of that yet. I do believe in myself, but I don't really know how to tackle this situation.

Why don't you get started by getting onto a platform with the products first instead of building a website as a selling platform yourself? Sell on eBay. Get incorporated or insurance after a while when you have the money to spare. For eBay, buyers cannot sue out-of-state sellers from home state, and really who goes to court over an item bought on eBay anyway? I've never heard of the fear of being sued as an issue at all amongst eBay power sellers, this is the first time I see this issue even brought up, to be honest. Although I suppose being a non-US subject myself, anybody wishing to sue me would theoretically need to go through the Supreme Court (if I recall any of my US Government class from high school correctly) so I have nothing to worry about for a while.
Start small (sell small and cheaper stuff too, you wouldn't be able to order large items in big volume to justify sea freight anyway when you're just starting out in import/export), and with the bare minimums first.
Another thing you can try is called local arbitrage where you buy locally underpriced items from big chain stores or thrift stores and flip them online for a profit, it's akin to Craigslist hustling. Again, I've never heard of people being sued in situations like that; you're not a manufacturer of the items and I can hardly think of any way for anybody to sue you unless you're selling counterfeit luxury products.
And bottomline, LLC in the States is not that difficult to establish. Anyone can register a sole proprietorship, if you're really that concerned.
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