Today, we continue from where we stopped last week on the subject of college entrepreneurship and how to take advantage of the opportunities prevalent in the university community. We start off from we stopped:

Résumé writing service – Whether applying for a summer internship or preparing for life after the university, a majority of college students need a well-written résumé. Internships and jobs are at a competitive high right now and the way a résumé looks and reads can make or break a student’s chances for a position at his or her dream company.

First and foremost, it’s important that your résumé be impeccable so you can guarantee your services to other students. Go into your school’s campus career counseling center to learn about résumé writing and perfect your own. The internet will also be your primary tool to help with research of résumé formatting.

If you’re an excellent writer with a sharp eye for how to organise information clearly, résumé writing is an easy opportunity for you to help others and make money on your own time.

Professional résumé writers can charge thousands of Naira per résumé; however, as a university student catering to other young and upcoming fellows, start off by keeping rate fairly low to both attract and make your service affordable to this committee of people. .

Bookkeeping – Oftentimes when you think of bookkeeping, numbers, math, accounting and finance pop into your head. However, you don’t need to be a finance major to pursue a job as a bookkeeper. Professionals will tell you that having a basic knowledge of accounting may be helpful, but it’s not a necessity. If you have decent computer skills and the ability to navigate real-world problems, bookkeeping is a great option for you.

All businesses are required to maintain bookkeeping records, so there is always a demand for bookkeepers; outsourcing a university student as a bookkeeper is an obvious way for these companies (especially the smaller ones) to limit costs and avoid hiring an expensive professional.

Startup costs are low. They include software such as QuickBooks or Xero, which cost anywhere very little, and marketing your services to businesses through job listings, referrals or your in-school network. You are recommended to charge around low for a start for bookkeeping services, although this fee can vary depending on the complexity of the work and the extent of your experience. Start lower, and when you build your skills and referral base, you can price upwards.

Jewelry maker – You don’t need to be a world-class jeweler to start your own jewelry line. some people started off by making simple knot friendship-bracelets. Years later, you may find yourself making wire-wrap jewelry, which you will be selling on any of the e-commerce platforms that charges nothing or a small fee per listing.

Without any formal education in business, you can learn how to sell online by practice and, thorough research and watching online tutorials, which is highly recommended to any aspiring jewelry maker and other startups. Also focus a lot on photography, because great photos are one of the most important aspects to successfully selling online. Focusing primarily on your business website search engine optimisation and promoting designs on social media platforms are the best ways to drive traffic to your products.

Startup costs are minimal; creating an account is completely free and listing an item is negligible per listing. Depending on the kind of jewelry you make will determine the costs of materials - so if you wish to work with wire, you will need basic wire wrap tools that come bundled in a kit, such as a wire cutter and several types of pliers.

Avoid using expensive materials such as real gold and silver or precious stones. You can upgrade your materials once you have started selling your items online and have built up a reserve.

Delivery and errand service – Let’s face it: people are lazy and busy at the same time; so starting a delivery service that offers running errands, picking up takeout or even going grocery shopping for a busy professional or someone who is elderly is a great way to make extra cash. We still don't have a dedicated food delivery service outfit in Nigeria, so why not build one from the university. The examples from other clines show that leading food-delivery services, like Postmates or Seamless, make a fortune doing tasks for others, especially if it is done in a smaller school in an area where these food-delivery services don’t exist yet.

Start by setting up a website where people can place orders. For a low fee, there are a number of platforms already available that make this step simple.

Save all receipts and charge customers after you have completed a task; add a 20 percent fee to the total costs of a purchase to generate your revenue. Market your services through word-of-mouth, flyers and social media pages.

Finally in closing, Grow Faster & Easier – We can show you how and get started for free today. Send me an SMS/WhatsApp message or Call for more details and training opportunities and we will entrench the topic further.

•Lawrence Nwaodu is a small business expert and enterprise consultant, trained in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, with an MBA in Entrepreneurship from The Management School, University of Liverpool, United Kingdom, and MSc in Finance and Financial Management Services from Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University Netherlands. Mr. Nwaodu is the Lead Consultant at IDEAS Exchange Consulting, Lagos. He can be reached via nwaodu.lawrence@hotmail.co.uk (07066375847).

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