Humor will not be tolerated!! -Portia

As a BYU student, what are some services/activities/other things that you would prefer to pay someone else to do rather than doing yourself? About how much would you be willing to pay? I've been intrigued lately by the idea of starting my own business rather than working for other people to pay for my undergraduate education, so I'm trying to get an idea of what kind of things there is demand for. (The moment I decided to seriously look into this possibility was, fittingly, while I was eating at Subway--a restaurant started by a high school graduate hoping to find a way to finance his tuition.)

Also, does anyone have any actual experience doing something like this? Do you know of any unexpected challenges I might face? Legal hurdles to jump over? Other such things I might not be taking into consideration?

Well, when I was a BYU student, I was living on about $600/month. So I probably wouldn't have paid for anything non-essential. But if I did have money, these were some things I would have wanted to pay someone to do:
-GROCERY DELIVERY!!! That would be awesome. I didn't have a car (still don't), and sometimes buying groceries was a nightmare.
-Shuttle service to and from campus late at night. Safewalk is awesome if you live nearby (do they still even have safewalk?), but if you live a 40 minute walk from campus and you frequently stay later than the last bus leaves, that's not so awesome. Or there was the week that I sprained my ankle and just couldn't get to campus on crutches and my friends with cars were all being jerks (yes, they really were) and wouldn't let me drive to school with them.
-Cleaning service before cleaning checks.
-Someone to go to the bookstore and buy my books so I didn't have to stand in line forever.
-Snow removal/lawn mowing for people with houses. Probably not the biggest market in the non-student crowd, but if you branched out a bit you'd probably find some senior citizen customers. My parents pay some kids a lot of money for this.

I always have business ideas! They're fun.

If you're sticking with the "services that BYU students will pay for" line of thinking, then NerdGirl has some good ideas. However, a lot of students are like her, ie living on a small budget and possibly unable to pay for services like these. Also, those are all things that take a lot of time and possibly a lot of resources, which means it will be difficult for you to maximize your profit. And don't forget things like advertising to the student body and establishing credibility.

I'm totally biased, but I recommend getting into some kind of online business. Especially if you have an area of expertise you can write about or have some other ideas for great content. Content-based businesses are huge right now. I'm working on launching one myself, actually, as a side to my company. The biggest downside is that you would almost definitely have to wait several months before you start seeing much of an income (at least several months; it could be a year or more). However, if you can hit on a good idea and get it found, you could start making money in your sleep.

I second the bookstore and the cleaning check ideas. I also wish there was a laundry service who would pick up my dirties, wash them, and return them folded, but I would never, ever pay for it. My brother was of the entrepreneurial spirit, and during his BYU days he made a little money buying old computers and monitors from students and BYU surplus sales, fixing them up, and selling them again. He also had a moving company and a cleaning company, for a short amount of time, and he toyed with the idea of a lunch delivery service. I'm guessing that you'd need to find something for which you have a particular interest/expertise/skillset, and work around that. Take a look at Bob - she's making thousands of dollars making friendship bracelets and selling them on Etsy. That's hardcore.

(this was written before Bob posted above. Bob, what is your new side project, if I may ask?)

I've decided to join the legions of mildly successful small business owners who give advice to other small business owners. However, I have a new way to present it that I haven't seen before - how not to do it. I have one blog post published written in this style: http://irishlanders.blogspot.com/2012/0 ... e-not.html Not only do I have about a year's worth of content simply on the topics of small business that I already know about, but I'm also making plans to invite others I know who are experts on other small business topics. Not to mention that the eventual site that will house these articles may someday expand to tell people how not to do a whole range of things!

A friend of mine did the cleaning check business once and made a lot of money. I am going to be taking next winter semester off for financial reasons (basically, because I'm doing an unpaid internship next summer that will make working--for someone else, anyway--completely impossible), so that would actually work out perfectly for me--I'd have finals week almost completely free and could just spend the whole week doing a marathon cleaning session. The general consensus, though, is that students do not have money and therefore do not want to spend money if they can avoid it except in cases of duress. (Also, I do not and will not have a car.) So really, I need to go looking for cases of duress, preferably on the magnitude of finals week...

I would like to second the grocery delivery idea. I realize that without a car this may be a difficult business to start, but I hate walking to buy my groceries. I have seriously looked into having groceries delivered in the past, but there are no good options. I would have considered this even during my semester when I was working 9-10 hours a week.

A friend of mine just suggested car servicing, which I know absolutely nothing about, but that reminded me that I do know or almost know quite a bit about bicycle repair and maintenance. Thoughts? Is this something you've ever needed or could see yourself needing?

Sure, but there are a lot of bike shops in Provo, and most of them don't charge all that much. I don't think you could make very much money doing that.

YES! I am currently have partial custody of a bike that is desperate need of brake repair, and while I'm decent at repairing tires our attempt at brake repair left them worse than they were to begin with.

@Fred, while there are several bike shops that don't charge that much, there is still the fact that you have to go to the shop. I hate asking friends for a ride, and with bikes in disrepair you can't ride them to the shop. I'd be willing to pay a little extra to have someone come to my house and fix my bike.

I'm gonna second (third?) the freelance bike repair idea. Side notes: (1) that was the only thing I actively sought help for from my home teachers! And they pulled through and fixed my bike. (2) Where I'm living now, all the bike shops charge upwards of $60 for a bike tune-up. Ridiculous. I know in Provo most places are like $30, but I still feel like even that was pushing it. Anyway, I think it's a good idea.

On Taiwan, bike tuneups were essentially free. There was also no charge for labor unless they replaced something.

Yeah, I was gonna say, I would have paid more for bike repair if it meant I didn't have to actively drag it to a shop. My bike broke in October last year and it stayed that way until I went home, because I was always either too busy or too lazy to get my bike (with tires that didn't turn) to a shop.

I've pretty much decided I'm going to go ahead with the idea. Since I only sort of know what I'm doing, I'll be doing repairs of any sort for free at least until the end of September to build up experience. So if any of you have a bike in Provo that needs some sort of repairs before then, let me know.

You should check out the Provo Bicycle Collective:

http://vimeo.com/44695306

After a brief scan of the facebook page it links to... I definitely should. Thanks!

Are you in Provo now? Because like I said, i have a bike in desperate need of brake repair. Technically it's not my bike, and I don't want to invest a ton of money into it, but I would love to ride it.

I'll be back either on the 20th or the 22nd. Consider your bike my first test subject.

If it's not still in my possession, I shall offer your services to the bike's owner.

Heh. Ironically my bike needs some help as well. (I've been meaning to go down to the bike collective, but haven't had the time yet.) If you want to work on it, you are more than welcome to!