FIRSTLY:
Students must excel in school. Educational excellence must come before your work, especially if your work is competing with your efforts to earn a degree. However, if your papers are on track, you can split your time between 30% (depending on your job) and 70% on your studies. If you use your time wisely, your business will not interfere with your education.
So, how did I make enough money to start a successful significant business in school? How did I save enough money to pay my college expenses without getting into debt?
The short answer: I started a small business, a venture that let me master two unique money habits.
- Saving
- Budgeting
In collaboration with a small laundry business, both skills took me from “a laundry guy” to “the laundry boss.” It didn’t take long before I hired people to do the work. Recruiting skilled team members made the side gig a lot easier; almost fully automatic. About 60 days into the venture, I maintained a 20,000 Naira monthly profit from my friends alone. By the end of the year, this figure had grown to almost N100,000 (One Hundred thousand Naira) per month.
Although, you should know that the entire process felt chaotic, even with close friends supporting me by patronising my services. Everything for me was uncertain. Of course, I felt that way; it was the first time I had ever undertaken something so responsible.
Some questions kept running through my mind:
- Isn’t this job stressful?
- Did I just sell my entire social life for uncertain money?
- Will I still be on the right path with my studies?
- Can I even wash properly?
- When will I start earning enough?
- How will I do the washing, ironing, and packaging?
- How much do I charge?
- How do I get customers?
The Answers?
Soon I got hold of some guidance about planning with a calendar. The advice came with a strategic style to planning my weekly to-do list. The list, a life-saving device, brought some order to my world. It guided me through the process, carving a productive part for my education and my finance.
I feared the most; getting customers turned out to be one of the most accessible parts of the process. Before long, I realised that most students dislike washing their clothes themselves. Some students were even willing to pay extra if i agreed to pick up their laundry and return it. I never did a population count, but I can guess that about 80% of them were secretly looking for cheap laundry service. (People who liked washing didn’t mind taking the burden away).
So my marketing was simple:
* Tell everyone I met about my business (starting from my friends)
* Printed white and black A4 paper with the headline, some texts, and my phone number.
* Circulated flyers etc.
How pricing worked.
After studying other laundry guys around, I decided to charge 150 Naira per piece of clothing. If you bring a top and a pair of jeans, it will be 300 Naira.
Almost immediately, I started paying freelance washers a small amount of money to wash the clothes. They didn’t mind as long as I brought bulk work that made money add up to something worthwhile. If you pay a girl 50 Naira, it will only cost you 100 Naira per shirt and trousers. If she charges you 200 or 150 Naira for a shirt and trousers, you will still gain and gather some profits. At this point, I was doing almost nothing except ironing and packing. As orders kept trailing in, I only hired more freelancers.
Over time, I started getting up to 30 clothes pairs per day, making over 6000 Naira. The idea to expand formed in my head. I knew a lot of money was involved, so I needed to save. I joined a contribution scheme in school; it helped me save very effectively (until it stopped working and almost got me into trouble). I had to be disciplined since to succeed at expanding my business, I needed a considerable amount to rent a good space, purchase work tools, and hire stable, steady staff (the freelance washers were not always readily available).
After some setbacks with cash, self-control, and the scammers that helped us save money in their “so-called savings contribution,” I was able to follow through with my plan and my ideas to expand. The momentum that came with my already established school brand helped me thrive. The business blossomed as soon as my first official “fully equipped” laundry store launched.
Conclusion
As I made straightforward earlier, a vital part of the process was being able to plan, save, and follow through with the plan. I almost got into trouble trying to save money with friends. But these days, you don’t have to go through all that. Digital banks are all over the place; some of them allow you to make saving plans for precisely this type of situation. If you’re looking for a modern, fast-rising bank with subtle differences from the rest, I recommend RavenBank. They have been a solid choice for me. While Raven does not offer all the bells and whistles of some other traditional banks, I love their expertly crafted selection of financial products; tools that make it easy to manage money. With Raven you can save, add all your other bank accounts in one place, and enjoy free transactions with relatively good customer service. It’s fast, simple, and easy to set up (within a few minutes). Again, remember, whatever business you choose to start in school should not affect your studies. If you are determined, patient, and can plan well, you will score both aspects of your life goals.
