I wanna start a business

sgx.saint

Hello All.

Hope everyone has had a good day. :j

I am currently 24 and a mature student studying at University. I really want to start my own business to help generate a little cash around my studies.

I'd rather start my own business, then say work part-time as I would love the experience, thrill and learning curve of it all. All income apart from what went back into the business would help to pay of all my debt as well.

So really, I am looking at starting something with little or no overheads, or at least only requires a small investment to start with. I am all out of creative ideas at the minute, so was hoping some of you kind MSE folk might have some ideas, advice, opinions, recommendations or whatever to help me get started on my way.

Sorry if I am asking a lot

Perhaps someone on here ran their own business whilst at Uni, and wouldnt mind sharing some idea or provide some good tips.

It's a pitty as I am only a first year, I can't really use any of new undergraduate knowledge i.e. build a brilliant computer program and sell it. but give it time!!

P.S. Mods, if this is in the wrong place, feel free to move it :beer:

crompton

how about selling ebooks through ebay?

Nile

Hello sgx.saint

I think that your thread will be better placed in the 'Small Biz & Charity Organisers' board, so I'll move it across for you.

Hi, Martin’s asked me to post this in these circumstances: I’ve asked Board Guides to move threads if they’ll receive a better response elsewhere(please see this rule) so this post/thread has been moved to another board, where it should get more replies. If you have any questions about this policy please email [EMAIL="abuse@moneysavingexpert.com"]!!!!!![/EMAIL].

Regards

Nile

sgx.saint

Thankyou Nile.

I am a BSc Computer Studies undergraduate so I am pretty much good at anything to do with computer, the web and technology.

Blogging for business .... sounds interesting, what is it? .... SEO, I can do, but would rather steer clear.

I did see a recent gap in my local mobile phone market, but wasn't sure how to get started.

Basically, I got a new Sony Ericsson W850i, but it was locked to a different network. All my local shops were quoting £50 to have it unlocked and even then they said they would need to send it away as their is no software available to unlock it yet.

But to the contraty, there is software available, all you need is the right cable, and your away.

So I was thinking today if I could offer my services for a price.

..... ebooks on eBay, hmmmm. I wasn't sure if this was a viable option, what would I write and would people actually buy it?

sgx.saint

http://www.officeprofiles.co.uk/

Sorry, I clicked this link and it just seems to sell office equipment. Am I missing something?

[Deleted User]

I still get a bit upset when as a first year undergrad, back in 1998, me and a few mates thought it would be a good idea to start flogging mobile phone ringtones. Sadly, we were more interested in womanising and drinking, so it got forgotten.

Oh, if we'd only put the effort in then </sigh>

MORPH3US

OP which Uni are you at?!?!

I work for a decent UK University helping people like you start up businesses.

We can't help with the ideas, you need to come up with those yourself, but we can help you develop and bring to life an idea.

We also have new business support schemes that can help you get set up. Our schemes give money towards training and capital purchases, you get weekly mentor sessions, monthly training events, office space in our incubator units.....

I am sure your University will do similar. If you let me know which Uni it is would help, I might be able to put you in touch if its a uni in my area.

M

sgx.saint

Yes, I am sure my University does this.

I attend the University of Teesside. I could have a look into the options I suppose

MORPH3US

http://www.tees.ac.uk/sections/alumni/magazine_story.cfm?story_id=2249&this_issue_title=The%20Graduate%202006&this_issue=152

If I was you mate, i'd get myself down to the incubator units and find out if they have any Business Support Schemes.

Let us know how you get on!!!

M

EDIT

Also have a look at the link below....

http://www.tees.ac.uk/sections/business/Entrepreneur.cfm

and

http://www.tees.ac.uk/sections/business/start.cfm

Who_Dares_Wins_2

Hi mate

Just wanted to share with you an idea I put into practice at the start of last semester. Its very simple and worked well for me. One thing students love to do is obviously get drunk! You will find that there are student nights every single night of the week somewhere in your city. I basically sold tickets for these nghts out. All I did was contact the nightclubs or bars who I knew you needed to get a ticket to get into and asked if they were interested in me selling tickets for them. They gave me the tickets and I recieved either 50p or £1 for eveyone I sold. I arranged 4 of these deals with different clubs in Sheffield in one afternoon. They dropped off the tickets and picked up the cash minus my payment the next day. It was easy and a great way to meet alot of people especially at the start of term. Originally I sold them around my halls of residence going door to door. I even helped arrange a bar crawl for over 500 students in Sheffield. I sold about 150 t shirts for the crawl and made £2 for every one I sold. For 2 evenings work that wasnt a bad return. You don't have to worry about setting up a company or anything like that and it isnt time consuming at all. The idea was also scaleable as I only sold tickets to my halls of about 250 people in total. If I had a car I would have been able to travel to other halls and do the same there or setup a ticket order line for people to call me on to deliver the tickets. If I could have done this I would still be doing it now however I couldn't. Eventually my own work started to kick in and the demand wasnt there just from my halls to carry on after the first couple of months. I didn't have to spend any money to start up and easily made a minimum £100 a week whilst I did it. That was enough for me! Anyway just thought I would share! You might want to try it in your area as all it takes is a few phone calls and the ability to sell to someone!

sgx.saint

Nice idea, I did actually think of doing something similar myself. Actually, I have quite a few 'good' ideas, it's just putting them into action and also having to consider business ideas which wont affect my studies (time-wise).