The job market is a crowded one, and finding a job is increasingly becoming difficult. It is even worse for fresh graduates who are looking for their first jobs; most employers want to hire people with experience. How do you gain this experience when the same is disqualifying you from getting a job? It is a rough market. And it is the reason why many graduates have resorted to being entrepreneurs instead of waiting around forever for that dream job that may never come. Here are some innovative business ideas for startups.
Delivery services
A lot of people around the world are very hard working. It can be challenging to juggle between a job, family, social responsibilities, school and hobbies. People barely have enough time for simple activities such as picking up their dry cleaning. Graduate entrepreneurs can turn this problem into an opportunity.
You would be surprised just how many people would be willing to pay anything to have almost everything done for them. Some are already paying to have food delivered to their houses and places of work. The rise of services such as Amazon and Prime Now has encouraged this trend. People are paying to have electronics and groceries delivered to their homes in just two hours. The concept works. You only need to decide on the products.
Laundry service business
Starting a laundromat business can be pretty easy. Having experience in the industry is not a necessity. However, you are likely to face a lot of competitors. Before setting up shop, ensure that you find a prime location. Also, many people nowadays have a lot of environmental awareness. Applying eco-friendly laundry equipments in your business would make your brand stand out and have a competitive advantage.
Find ways to set yourself apart from competition and research on supply costs and fees. Although the startup costs for opening a laundry service business are quite high, the demand for the service is guaranteed; everybody needs to have clean clothes regularly. Costs for starting a laundromat business may include building costs, material and personnel costs, licensing costs and financing costs.
Photography and video coverage
Photography and video coverage does not require much as far as start-up costs are concerned. The only necessary thing to have is a good camera. It will enable you to cover weddings, parties, funerals and other events. As you scale up, you can buy more equipment and hire a crew.
This business has a lot of flexibility. You can charge customers depending on the class of the event. If you want real money, you can cover high-class events held by rich people and even charge double the price.
Event entertainment
An event entertainment company is easy to start. All you need is your laptop and music collection. Your job is to entertain people by making them dance during birthday parties and weddings. Sometimes all you need to do is provide background music in a casual event. Acquiring DJ equipment can be expensive, but some companies are willing to hire out speakers and other equipment. You can rent this for the meantime before you save enough money to buy your own.
Social media consultant
Marketing and communication graduates can put their acquired knowledge to good use by starting social media consulting companies. Many businesses chose to handle their social media marketing. However, business owners may not have the time to come up with robust strategies for each social media channel hence the need for social media consultants.
As a consultant, your work will involve coming up with great strategies to take advantage of the many social media channels available. You will determine the best strategies to use, the appropriate time to post, the target audience and the relevant content to post. The idea is to turn the audience into customers and to increase the brand’s visibility.
Affiliate marketing
Most graduates would love to implement their startup business ideas from home. Affiliate marketing is an excellent example of how you can earn a stable income without having to leave your house. It is a business model where companies reward marketers for bringing customers or visitors to their business. Many companies rely on affiliate marketing to increase their online sales.
Affiliates have a unique link. When customers buy or subscribe to products using that link, the marketers get commissions. Starting an affiliate marketing business is easy. All you need is a highly converting product or service to promote and a channel through which to advertise it. Various channels include social media, email marketing or personal blogs.
Conclusion
Entrepreneurship is not easy, but it is gratifying. Smart college graduates understand that there are not enough jobs to go around and have decided to take matters into their own hands. However, not everyone chooses entrepreneurship because they can’t seem to find gainful employment; some have discovered that owning a small business that is scalable is way better than being employed. These graduates expect more from their careers than working 9-5 jobs in stuffy offices.
