The economy may be improving, but that doesn't mean
it's any easier for today's college graduates to find a good, full-time job.
The job market is highly competitive, and even if you're perfectly qualified
for a position, there's no guarantee that you'll get it. But those student
loans have to get paid off somehow, don't they? Entrepreneurship is a big part
of the American dream, and most of us have considered starting a business at
least once in our lives. Building a start up can be an overwhelming experience,
and business leaders must constantly change and adapt to modern landscapes. Not
only that, but there is a huge possibility for failure. It is the task of the
entrepreneur to keep his vision alive and well despite any difficulties.
Handmade crafts
Do you have a knack for knitting, jewelry making or creating other small crafts? If you can produce a lot of items quickly, you can open up an online storefront and sell your creations to the public. Startup costs are extremely low if you purchase your materials in bulk from a craft supplier, and if you can turn orders around quickly, you'll make a profit in no time. You could even turn your store into a full-time gig.
Affiliate Programs:
More than 350 million times daily, people from
over the world use Google.com to search for products and services they want to
purchase online. More than 90% of these people have credit cards or other means for online payment (e.g. PayPal). At
350 million searches daily, you will agree with me that Google.com gets lots of
visitors.
Affiliate programs involve your
partnering with different websites on the Internet which have items for sale. These items could be phones,
books, e-Books, furniture, electronics, cars, jewelries, web-hosting, bags,
boats - you name it
Forming a partnerships like this is
very simple. It only involves your filling out a form - just as if you are
opening a new email account or open a facebook account!
Now, since lots of people are
already searching for lots and lots of different products and services to
purchase. You simply partner with any website/company which their products are
in demand and then place adverts on Google.com for them. For each sale you help
any website or company you partner with, they will pay you commission i.e.
percentage. These adverts you place on
Google are called Google AdWords. They appear to the right of your search
results. If you have used Google to search for anything before, you must have
seen the AdWords adverts placed by other people.
Want to put that marketing or communications degree to good use? Consider starting a social media consulting firm. Small businesses often have to take care of their own social media marketing. But, with so many other responsibilities, the company's owners may be too busy to come up with great strategies for each of the growing number of social channels companies are expected to utilize. As a consultant, you can help businesses determine the best tactics, posting schedules and content for your clients' target audiences. As their follower counts grow, so will your business.
Clothing company
Did you dream of working in the fashion world, but couldn't find more than a few low-level opportunities in the field? If you have a great eye for design, you can strike out on your own and start an independent clothing company. Knowing how to sew or silk screen will help you get off the ground, but you'll eventually need to find a good manufacturer to reach the next stage of growth. As with any business, high-quality products combined with great marketing skills are the keys to success.
Content creation
Thanks to social media and the 24-hour news cycle, creative individuals like writers and graphic designers can use their talents to produce high-quality, share-able content for businesses and media outlets. A growing part-time economy of freelance and contract workers makes it easier than ever to market yourself as a professional freelance content creator. This can also be a great way to build up your skills should you choose to seek a full-time job later on.
Electronic repair
In today's tech-obsessed world, most people have Smartphone’s, tablets and laptops that they use daily. With constant usage, there's a good chance that at least one of those devices is going to crash or otherwise break at some point. If you're a techie who can fix these issues with relative ease, you can offer to repair people's electronics for cheaper than what the big retailers charge. Get started by marketing your services to students at your alma mater who don't want to wait for the campus IT department to fix their hard drives.
Google
AdWords/Affiliate Marketing:
This is unarguably
the world's fastest, easiest and cheapest business to start. It is so
cheap that you can start it with less than $25 (about N4,000), so profitable
that some people earn more than $1 million dollars from it annually, and so
fast that you can begin earning money
from it in less than an hour. And the earning potential keeps increasing daily.
You do not need to own a product,
service or website of your own and about 1 hrs plus of browsing a week would be enough for
you.
Google AdWords: They are those
little text boxes that appear to the right of your search results on
Google.com. It is a very efficient advertising system developed by Google. It
cost you only $5 dollars to register and are charged only when someone click on
you advert. The minimum cost per click is about $0.05.
If you spent your undergraduate years tinkering with sound-mixing software and staffing the DJ booth at your college radio station, starting an event entertainment company could be the right path for you. With only your music collection and your laptop, you can get people out on the dance floor at weddings and birthday parties, or simply provide background music at more-casual events. DJ equipment is a big investment, but plenty of companies offer daily rentals of speakers, sub-woofers and other accessories that you can use until you save up enough to buy your own.
Fitness instruction
Were you constantly hitting the gym after class? Turn your passion for fitness into a lucrative job by becoming a fitness instructor or personal trainer. You'll have to put in a small amount of time and money to get certified, but organizations like the Aerobics and Fitness Association of America offer online certification programs that you can complete at your own pace. Once you're a certified trainer, you can look for openings at local gyms or work one-on-one with clients at their homes. You can also find numerous programs for certification to teach fitness classes like yoga or Zumba.
Successful entrepreneurs require the skills – or the ability to hire someone – to develop their own websites and mailing lists, market their company via blog posts, develop and track a sales funnel, utilize Google analytics, train interns, maintain a basic understanding of technical writing, hire good employees and fire bad ones, write well enough to be understood, know enough to fill a book, raise money, and keep excellent track of company finances.
On a personal level, entrepreneurs must be able to lead, follow, hook up with a mentor, work for 36 hours straight, work alone, work together, and use creative problem solving skills.
Related; 15 Skill You Need To Be The Next Great Entrepreneur
