• Be a personal coach – Are you a fitness freak who enjoys hanging out at the local gym? If the answer is yes, become a personal coach or fitness expert to a classmate. Amateur dietitians too can easily find a market.
• Be a painter – Painting is a job that requires only minimal capital. Get a brush or two, paints, a ladder and overalls, and you are ready to start. It may well progress to more paying dry walling jobs in the future.
• Be a fashion designer or a writer – For individuals suffering from the creative spark, both are good options. In fact, schooldays are the right time to start on a portfolio of your own.
• Dabble in real estate – Admittedly, this is one of the riskier options and requires some amount of natural flair, but many students do find it worthwhile. I knew a guy who bought himself a Mercedes at 23; he bought a house for 60k, refurbished it himself, and sold it for 110k.
• Start a cleaning and laundry service – No doubt this option will definitely attract many customers because not many people actually enjoy doing laundry. This can progress to a whole new business line in the future too.
• Start a ride service – For those who have a vehicle, travel regularly and enjoy driving, a ride service is an apt choice.
• Be an eco/green consultant – Do you feel incensed when you see forests disappearing and animals becoming extinct? If you do, go green and become an eco consultant. Read, write, and blog on the subject. Do your duty to the planet and earn money in the process.

So much for the physical, offline businesses; on the online front, business options are more diverse and interesting:

• Designing – If you are skilled at Photoshop or CorelDraw, you can shine at student parties and functions by designing brochures, banners, etc.
• Copyediting – This type of work does require some creative and language skills. However, the jobs are generally highly paying.
• Researching for term papers – You will find many clients for this service as very few enjoy researching or facts checking for their term assignments and the like.
• Designing websites – This is viable if you have an Internet connection and enjoy playing with colors and fonts.
• Developing content for websites – All websites need content writers. The jobs offer good payments and are highly flexible.

The idea is to play to your strengths. After all, the best lessons you learn are the ones outside the school.

Thinking about taking your business to the next level or starting one in general? If you live in a small town, then you should definitely consider it! Small towns and cities offer some advantages and benefits that you may not find in larger, more populated areas such as Washington D.C., New York, Baltimore, Miami, or Los Angelos. Looking at places like Roanoke, VA, Colorado Springs, CO, etc. you will find plenty of business opportunities that could be very successful.

Here are 11 reasons why small towns and cities are attractive business locations:

1. Potentially weaker competition because the big box retailers and business are not focusing on the area or have focused on larger cities.
2. Opportunities to work with smaller and more dynamic companies that are interested in helping you succeed as well as themselves.
3. Better chances for media exposure. Small town papers and news channels will eat up a story about a young entrepreneur or new small business opening in the are. This is press you probably wouldn’t be able to get in larger towns.
4. The cost of living can be extremely less in small cities and can make opening or expanding your business more viable. Retail/office lease prices are less as well.
5. You can usually drastically lower your commute time by not having to fight through traffic during peak hours.
6. Access to more resources such as universities and their departments (such as the VT Knowledgeworks)
7. Better chances of getting to know influential people in a region and more opportunities for intimate networking.
8. Getting out of a more populated city can bring you closer to quality of life amenities such as golf courses, parks, hiking trails, mountains,
9. Small town attitudes and relationships can be very helpful. Knowing your customers and the people you serve by name, dealing with them regularly, and leveraging any other relationships you may have in area such as family or friends can be HUGE to your business.
10. Advertising and marketing efforts can be more cost effective in small towns.
11. Lower operating costs including electricity, utilities, health care, etc.

A big thank you goes out to two good friends of mine, Stuart Mease and Mike Michalowicz, for their input and thoughts on the topic. I highly recommend checking out their websites!