As an entrepreneur,you will agree with me that one of the challenges you will face even when you have the capital to start your business is location. The location where your business is really does matter. And this can boost your selling point. Before I continue, you may want to ask what a selling point is
A selling point is that quality that distinguishes you from your competitors and this selling point is what will make you to stand among your competitors.
You will most times have problem competing with people that do the same business like you,so you have to find a means of reducing the competition. Let me quickly bring a science theory into this, according to Charles Darwin in his famous work, he talked about the survival of the fittest which says; The person with the strongest attributes live while the once with little or no attribute die. This theory can also be applied to business. In business, people with the right ideas and plans tend to survive while those with little and no good plan tend to have problem surviving in their business journey.
In this article I will be talking about a very strategic place to start your small business and examples of small business that can survive there.
Now going straight to what I have to tell you, School environment like universities, Polytechnics and some other educational organizations that tend to contain a lot of people remain one of the best places to establish and avoid a whole lot of competitions for your business. Although, starting a business in school is not absolutely a perfect way to avoid competition but the truth about this is that you will get customers to your business if you have a very good approach.
For example, you can quickly do a fast comparison of sales between a small restaurant around a school environment and a restaurant that is not within or around it. You will most likely find out that a school restaurant sells more than the other. And the reason can not really be far fetched as you tend to get customers easily without stress due to population. You can also do the comparison of a cyber cafe found around the school with the regular ones.
Some of the Business you can start in a school environment
1. Clothes selling
This is one of the business that sell most in schools as every student want to wear new and fine clothes. People in this business even make more money now due to the reign of designers, cloths that are not normally supposed to be 10dollars for example are now been sold for 30dollars all in the name of designers. So every student wants to wear designers and by so doing enriching the pocket of the sellers.
As an entrepreneur, this is where your own opportunity is, you can make use of the advantage of buying clothes in large quantity and resell at a retail price. There are various ways you can get new clothes at a very cheap price and sell it at a higher price in which ever country you are. With mini importation, It is really easy to get your products to make more income by getting it directly from the manufacturer or a bigger company outside your country. In case you have not checked my mini importation guide, here is the link
Mini Importation, A Good Way To Start Making Money
Another huge way of making it in clothing business is by selling fairly used clothes. I remember asking someone about how they get fairly used clothes, and what I heard really amazed me as you can get a big sac of clothes for a very low price and sell it with more than 100% of profit.
You may want to ask if students buy fairly used clothes? Yes, in fact, according to my observation, students buy fairly used clothes than new ones because it is a way lot cheaper and easy to afford. So in case you want to dive into the business. Work more on how to achieve this and make good use of the opportunity.
2. Photography
You can also earn good money from taking pictures and videos. I realized that this business is a good way of making money if you connect and advertise your business well. Another way to boost your business sales is to brand and make sure to connect your self to the right people. What I have noticed so far is that your customers have a major factor to play in this business because recommendation is very necessary. So if you are looking for a way to earn a lot in this business, try to network and offer good services to your clients because they are capable of helping you with new customers if your works have good reviews.
As a photographer,you can help cover events in schools, example of common events are matriculation day, graduation day and other form of formal and informal parties. The truth is that you will always have events to cover in schools if you have the right friends around you.
In case you don't know how to start, to learn photography takes just few months, you can also help yourself by checking YouTube video and any other platforms that deal with photography. Watch videos, learn and put into practise.
3. Cafetaria/ Restaurant
There is a slight difference between a Cafeteria and a Restaurant. A restaurant involve table service and the customers are been attended to by waiters but cafeteria involves less or no table service, cafeteria serve basic foods while restaurants focus more on offering a better service.
Without further explanation, you will agree with me that this two tend to be a good source of income in schools, companies and organizations, so in case you have a good skill in cooking, you can try this business. You can also start this business if you don't have cooking skills. All you just need to do is to get people that are skilled and pay them base on agreement.
4. Laundry services
This is another business that can fetch you good income, some students are so lazy that they find it difficult to wash their clothes. You can make use of this opportunity to get their clothes and wash for money. These days, there is no really much stress as regard washing as there are washing machines everywhere that can do the washing. All you need to do is to get a washing machine, inform them about the service you render, you can also do a door to door marketing. In this way, I'm sure you will get customers.
5. Catering Services
Catering service involves the provision of food and drinks to people based on their requests. There are a lot of food you can start making for sales, as a caterer, you can prepare and present food for dinner,bar,bridal shower etc.
You can also venture into snacks making like candy, potato chips, cookie etc. You can bake cakes for sell and also for events. There is a high chance that you will make it in this business as most of these food are always in high demand. You can take lessons in case you don't have enough skill to start a catering service. Catering class can usually take up to a few weeks to months depending on where and how you want to learn.
Pls be aware that this article is written based on observation, so it is not necessary that you totally opt in for this idea because as I have said earlier, location is just one of the factors that will affect your sales. But in case you are convinced and you are sure you can make good use of this information, Pls do not hesitate to take the step.
These are one of the business you can start in a school environment. You can also add your own in the comment box below, and also you can share what you think about setting up your business in a school environment.
I hope this really helps? Thank you for your time. Pls make sure to subscribe and follow me on this blog.
Labels: Entrepreneur Tips
