6 Flexible Ways to Earn Money While at College
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If you worry about how you will cover your college costs, you`re not alone.
Finding work that fits your college scheduled can be difficult, but some options can provide you with that much needed extra cash that doesn`t leave you feeling you`ve sacrificed your future potential just to earn a quick buck today.
You may have already secured a scholarship or a grant, or perhaps you`re just considering college but are unsure you`ll be able to cover the expenditure, for college tuition costs click here.
Whatever stage you`re at, once you arrive, the pressure of funding extra college-related activities, like actually having a good time, can harm your academic goals.
The following six suggestions are flexible solutions to ease your cash flow worries.
1. If you don`t want to leave campus
Get a work-study job.
Work-study positions are flexible on-campus jobs that fit with your schoolwork. The common areas available are, working in the library, the front desk of a dorm, athletics complex and administrative work.
These jobs go early, so if you want to stay in the house, apply early.
2. How about a job where you don’t have to work
House and pet sitting are a perfect fit of work and college as you can study while at work.
People use house and pet sitters to add a little extra layer of security to their property or as company for their pet, this once hard gig to find has grown enormously in popularity over the last five years. Duties involved are usually light, like watering the plants, taking in the mail, and exercising the pets etc.
Some websites that advertise such services are, Mind my house, House carers, Care.com and Rover.
3. Do you have a car, is it reliable?
If so, then become a driver. Just like the boom in house and pet sitting, driving gigs are easy to get and extremely flexible as you can choose your hours. Sites like Uber and Lyft have straight forward registration processes, and you can be up and running in no time.
Play it smart and increase your hourly rate by working at peak times, these are usually on weekend evenings so they won`t interfere with your class schedules and you`ll be earning rather than spending!
4. Not old enough to be a paid driver? Think delivery
If you`re too young to be a paid driver, you can still use your vehicle and this flexible approach by delivering food.
You don`t even need a car, a motorcycle of pushbike work just fine, think of all that free exercise! There are loads of sites that you can use to increase your income like, Uber Eats, Deliveroo, Instacart, Postmates, Amazon etc.
5. Out-source yourself
Yep, hire your skills out, just like the previous three suggestions this one`s extremely flexible time-wise, and you can pick and choose jobs that best suit you.
Part-time services required can range from a bit of gardening, assembling furniture (give me patience), picking up groceries and helping people move house.
Just two of the sites that you can outsource yourself on are TaskRabbit and Airtasker, but there might be others serving your local area, so check them out.
6. Use social media to fix your funding woes
OK, everyone of a certain age knows how to use social media, but very few know how to use it to drive sales for small businesses. This one`s so flexible you can run it off your smartphone.
Most small to medium size business now use social media (Instagram in particular) to help promote their brand, drive sales and bring in customers, but many either don`t have the skills needed or the time required. By taking one of the many free social media courses available on platforms like HubSpot and Buffer; you can quickly train yourself to become a Ninja in the art of business promotion and seriously improve your college funding.