19 Highly Profitable Businesses For College Students In Kenya

I understand how hard to be in college and not have no one to call when you need money.

It sucks. Been there remember.

That’s why I have made this list.

With this list of #19 highly profitable businesses for college students in Kenya, you can start making your own money in college starting today.

To make it easier, I will give you pointers into getting into each of these businesses we will discuss today.

• Virtual assistant

As a virtual assistant, you will be helping your boss execute some tasks around within the business. Think of it as an office assistant, but online.

You will be working online, hence the name ‘virtual.’

This gives you the ability to work anywhere you want.

And also to take on as many clients as you want.

To get started, you need to decide the services you will be offering and start pitching your services online.

For example:

You can offer social media management services, SEO, or content marketing, or all of them. To get clients, use freelance marketplaces like Upwork where you create a profile.

• Tutoring business

If you understand a specific academic subject really well, you can make money as a college student teaching it.

In fact, tutoring should be the easiest and highly profitable business for you because, one, you already understand a subject deep enough and that is why you are in college.

Secondly, you have a lot of free time.

You can leverage these two to start a tutoring business.

To get started, pick a subject. It shouldn’t be hard considering you are in college. Consider what you are majoring in, what can you teach very well about it?

For example:

If you are majoring in mathematics, you can tutor high school maths, right?

To get clients, approach local schools around the campus and strike a deal. Alternatively, talk to parents in your church and offer to tutor their kids.

• Blogger

There are thousands of people making money through blogging, making it one of the highly profitable businesses for college students in Kenya.

As a blogger, your work is to provide valuable content to your readers.

If you can do that, everything will work out on its own.

See, the challenge when it comes to blogging in Kenya is attracting enough readers to be in a position to monetize it.

But if you can nail the topic, get something people will want to read, you are halfway there.

With the topic picked, go ahead and register a domain name plus hosting. Then start publishing articles consistently. Consider leveraging SEO to rank on search engines.

• Social media influencer

Social media is a growing phenomenon in today’s world.

Businesses are taking notice, and leveraging influencers with a sizable following to market their products.

Luckily, you don’t need millions of followers to make money as an influencer in Kenya.

With at least 10K engaged followers, you should be able to make at least KES 30K per month.

All you have to do is build an audience, approach brands for partnerships, and make money.

Alternatively, you can bring together a group of fellow influencers, combine the audiences, and make partnership deals as a group.

• Child caretaker

Often, there are kids around the college. They can be belonging to fellow college mates or just neighbors.

You can start a daycare business around the college where both students and the community can drop kids for some hours.

Considering the seriousness of the business (dealing with kids), make sure the environment is child-friendly.

That is to say, there shouldn’t be anything that endangers their safety.

If it is around a busy road, erect a fence around the premises.

• Graphic designer

As a graphic designer, you can easily make at least KES 2K per graphic in Kenya, making it one of the highly profitable businesses for college students in Kenya.

Better part?

You don’t need any special skills to get started. With basic design skills and tools like Canva, you can start this business.

To get clients, advertise your business around the college so clubs can use your services.

Also, consider online platforms like Fiverr.

• App developer

This is a perfect business idea for tech-savvy students and those taking computer-related courses.

Developing and selling apps can make you a millionaire within a very short time.

The trick is to get the perfect app idea, something that people would want to pay to use. Develop it and sell to clients who’d find value in it.

The good news is, you don’t need to know coding to be an app developer in Kenya. Some platforms allow you to create apps without touching code.

• T-shirt designer

T-shirts are hot cakes now. On average, with a t-shirt you bought for KES 300, you can print something on it and sell it at KES 700. That is over 100% of profits.

Considering the amount of time and resources needed to start, it is one of the highly profitable businesses for college students in Kenya.

In fact, you don’t even need to own anything.

Just get the designs and hire a printer.

Take the final product and market like crazy.

Better yet, offer print-on-demand. Here, you only print a t-shirt when someone is waiting to buy it.

• E-book author

In college, you have free time and enough resources to venture into anything you want.

If you love writing and researching new topics, you can start an e-book publishing business.

Here, you can either publish your own e-books or someone else’s and gets paid to do it.

I’d recommend you do both if you can manage.

To get started, you need a deeper understanding of what people want to read.

You know, things they are researching on but aren’t getting enough answers.

Self-publishing e-books take less work.

You need a laptop and a reliable internet connection. And then spend time researching and writing.

• Event photographer

You wouldn’t miss seeing a photographer at any event.

If you own a good camera, you can start a photography business.

It doesn’t matter whether you are an expert or just starting out, there are a ton of tutorials online on good photography skills.

Book events with help from fellow students. Do a good job and you have clients for life.

Alternatively, you can rent out your camera when you are not using it.

• Freelance writer

If you love writing, you can start a freelance writing business in college.

Here, you bring together group writers where you share work with them.

Pitch your writing services to clients and negotiate higher rates.

Let your writers do the work, pay them, and pocket the difference.

To make more, concentrate on one niche.

This way you can build skill and authority, which gives you an advantage when negotiating rates.

• Personal trainer

As a personal trainer, your job is to help your clients get in shape through exercise routines and healthy eating.

This means that you need to be in shape as well.

You don’t want to be preaching water while taking wine, do you?

To get clients, consider approaching local gyms and enter into an agreement.

As a personal trainer, you can charge a lot of money because of that dedicated touch and closeness.

Also, you can have more than one client. But keep the number at optimal so as not to compromise on the quality of your services.

In terms of getting more clients, use the results of your previous clients to win new ones.

• Research paper writing company

If you have good research and writing skills, you can start this business.

It is highly profitable, considering there will always be a market (as long as you do a great job).

To make more money, you can build a website where students from other universities and colleges can hire your services.

This is a project you can crank out from the comfort of your dorm room and charge any amount for the final product.

But be careful though, some colleges have policies around helping their students with research papers. Be sure to check it out so you don’t end up on the wrong side of the law.

• Student trip organizer

College is fun, thanks to freedom, which means you can travel anywhere, anytime you want as long as you have the means to without having to explain yourself.

As such, starting a tour business in college can be the best idea ever.

Your work will be to get the students the best tour deals to amazing places within or outside the country (if you can).

This type of business can continue to grow even after college days. So, do a great job of serving your clients.

• Car wash business

You only need a couple of sponges, detergents, and a water source to start a car wash business. Getting a constant source of water may be a problem.

As such, you can consider offering mobile car wash services.

Here, you will be visiting clients in their homes or offices and clean their cars.

By doing so, you don’t need to worry about water because you will be using theirs.

This business has the potential to explode into a full-time job.

Make sure you serve clients well to make them long term and you could be fully booked over the weekend.

• Notes digitization services

While everything is moving online today, banking, streaming both music and movies, college notes aren’t.

You still need to sit down with a pen and an exercise book to write lecture notes.

While that may not be a problem, wait until it is revision time. The notes will disappear all of sudden.

If you can type fast, you can offer notes digitization services to both students and lecturers.

Here, your work will be to transform the hardcopy notes into softcopy (can be stored and read on the phone or laptop).

In terms of money, you can charge per word. Hire writers to help with the work.

• Laundry service

Laundry services involve helping college students clean their clothes in exchange for cash.

You can either do manual washing or buy a washing machine.

Also, consider offering pick and delivery services to win more clients.

As the business grows, you can add other services such as house cleaning.

This way, you can make more money by leveraging existing clients.

• Computer/tech dealer

College students need laptops, phones, and accessories.

Also, they need a repair shop and someone to help them understand how to use gadgets better.

Starting a computer shop in college can be a good business idea.

Offer the best deals and quality products to win more business.

To make it even better, you can enter into a partnership with a manufacturer and open a supply shop for a specific brand within the college.

By doing so, you can offer high-quality products and benefit from discounts given by the manufacturer.

• Bakery business

In college, there are all types of parties and events almost all the time. Be it birthday parties, anniversaries, etc.

All of these require food supplies, especially baked food such as cakes. If you love cooking, you can start a bakery business in college.

Start taking orders and delivering them on time. Also, offer things like bread daily, chapattis, and other confectionaries.

The secret here is to make your business the go-to place for a quick bite. When orders start streaming in, hire help and pay them per day’s work.

With such a business, cleanliness is paramount.

The premise should squeaky clean, so does the food. This not only attracts more customers but also keeps you on the right side of local health authorities.

 Wrapping up business ideas for college students in Kenya

You don’t have to wait until after college to start a business.

In fact, this is the perfect time to start because you have enough time and free resources to support your hustle.

Here is what you need to do:

Pick one of these ideas and give it a try to see how it goes. If succeeds, good, if it fails, you learn.

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