Make Use Of What You Know
Why are you in college again? Stop for a moment and try to come up with a really good answer to that question. Of course, you are in college to study! If you are in your sophomore or junior year, you would at least have some knowledge of your major – enough to make use of it in the real world.
If you are studying to be an engineer, for example, you should at least have the basic concepts of engineering by the time you are in your third year of college. If you are studying to be a psychologist, the same goes. Computer programming, accounting, social work – no matter what major you are in, the idea is the same. You are in college to learn something and you should know a whole after a few years in school.
Think about it, with this knowledge in mind, you have a potential source of income right in your hands! I can hear you thinking – “Wait, I am not a professional yet, I can’t practice anything without a degree.” True enough, but you don’t have to be pretentious and claim to be a professional to make use of your knowledge and skills! In fact, you’ll be doing just the opposite. Make it clear on the outset that you are a college student trying to find a way to augment your paltry student allowance. You might be surprised at how many people would actually patronize your services.
One thing to consider is how to price your service. The wisest course to take would be to knock several dollars off the going rate. Do some research as to who offers the same service. Find out exactly what they offer and for how much. Then make your move. Try to come up with better terms and a lower price.
Take me for example. I am not a computer science major but I do know my stuff when it comes to computers. Realizing that there are a lot of people who are still not savvy when it comes to technology, I decided to give it a try. I offered computer troubleshooting and repair services. Reformatting the hard drive, installing operating systems and other software, troubleshooting hardware, and even software tutorials – I offered to do these things for a small fee. I didn’t pretend to be the expert but I admitted that I learned all this from experience and most importantly, I delivered the goods.
At first the clients were a few, here and there. After a while, I got more jobs because of word of mouth advertising. Of course, other forms of advertising helped, too. Post on online forums and college sites. Even the campus newspaper helps. Another very good way of getting word around is through the campus bulletin boards. Any college has tons of bulletin boards scattered all around campus. Capitalize on this and post your fliers everywhere you can. Just make it a point to make it clear what you are offering and for how much. Pretty soon you’ll have customers knocking on your door.
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Don’t forget the obvious: a college education gives you plenty of fodder for content development.