Do you want to start a business to raise funds and score high in your school project? If YES, here are 50 small business ideas suitable for a school project.
Schools require that students carry out projects at certain intervals as part of their overall assessment. Such projects can be carried out in varied subjects, and the students are more often than not allowed to pick a topic that interests them most.
The idea of profit and making money can spark interest in school projects from otherwise disengaged students that is why schools also organize business projects. Business projects can be used to teach students analytical skills, personal finance, the nature of credit and debt, incentives, economics and fiscal policies.
Many schools allow their students to come up with their own products/services, plan the materials and resources they will need, propose an allocation of expenses, project their profit based on a given budget, and advertise and sell their products/services. These projects may be done regularly, like once in a term or quarter.
Most of these ideas are brought about to teach children about money, making profits, and how to save. Experiencing how to save, spend, earn money and keeping a budget at the same time are great ways for kids to develop a grasp of economics at a young age.
In this way, they also develop a sense of responsibility and will find out early on the essence of spending money wisely and saving for emergency purposes in the future.
For the student with an entrepreneurial spirit who may wish to choose a viable and profit making idea for his school project instead of doing the usual research that is normally done by students, here are 50 that would be just great for a school project.
Best Business ideas Suitable for a School Project
1. Make cookies
Quite a lot of people love cookies. And not just cookies but deliciously baked edibles like cupcakes, pound cakes, pretzels and just about anything home-baked. When used as an income source, cookies and baked goods are easy to make, easy to transport and pretty easy to sell.
Kids can learn to find the best quality ingredients at the cheapest price and come up with ways to streamline the production process so the business requires minimal time investment. Get a handful of good cookie recipes, some cute, inexpensive packaging and start churning out delicious treats that will help line your pockets.
2. Jewelry making
Kids who have an eye for fashion or who love to be creative can find jewelry making a rewarding and profitable business. It doesn’t have to be complex pieces with semi-precious stones. Wooden beads, painted glass and hemp bracelets are hot sellers.
Designed pieces may be sold online or at local trade shows and church bazaars and even to fellow students. This is also a suitable business idea that can be continued after school.
3. Get artistic
A lot of students are very talented and creative. Such students can take advantage of such creativity to produce various things that can be used for a school project. Young artists can design a variety of creative pieces, from canvassed art work to hand-designed greeting cards, which they can sell to make money.
Additionally, you can offer Logo design, brochure layouts and web design for people and small businesses in the community. It is a fact that a lot of people are making a living from selling their artworks.
4. Greeting cards
Teachers could leverage on the talents of students by letting them produce and sell handmade greeting cards. Greeting cards generally employ several creative and technical skills – poetry, prose, visual art and layout. Whether one kid does it all or several kids work together to deliver the goods, a greeting card business in these days of ecards, text and emails will be especially valuable around the holidays.
5. Gift baskets
Assembling and designing gift baskets are a great way for kids to express their creative side while sharpening their ability to identify what the market wants and finding innovative ways to provide them. The contents of a gift basket are as varied as the people who order them.
Whether a child sells pre-made baskets or accepts orders for custom baskets, the business comes with natural busy seasons like Easter, Mother’s Day, Christmas etc.
6. Recycling project
Another idea is to start a neighborhood recycling center that can be run on the weekends from a local park or right from the family garage. Recycling is big in the united states and many people are making a living from it.
7. Make candy
Making and selling candy is another lucrative but cost effective school project. Students can test their entrepreneurial legs by deciding to sell snack-sized candies to their peers between classes or during recess at school. Though some schools may be critical about this, but once your teacher approves, then you are good to go.
8. MultiMedia Rental
As a teacher, you can turn one corner of your classroom into a mini multi-media rental place. You may ask the class to bring the books, magazines, computer and video games, audio CDs, and DVDs that they are willing to have rented out to the other students in the school. Then teach them to come up with a code for each kind.
For instance, books can be coded with the letter B. Tape appropriate codes on all the items and record them all on a master list.
This will let you keep track of which ones are rented out and which ones may be missing. Next, also make sure to remind the students to place a rental card at the back of each item, which the borrower fills out with his name, grade level, section, and contact number.
This card shall be left with your student. When all of these things have been prepared, then it is now time to fix them attractively on shelves with labels and advertise the venture to the rest of the school community. This is a good way students can make money, and it is also a good business idea in the outside world.
9. Photo Booth
One hip service that kids of all ages will surely love is the photo booth. If you have enough of a budget, you may rent a real one to use and just charge more for each photo, but if the class budget is low, you can choose to rent or borrow from someone.
An alternative way, though, is to set up a good digital camera and a huge backdrop tarpaulin with a cool design that can go with a theme.
Do not forget to provide tons of funny, cute, and trendy props, wigs, and hats. You can fix your rates to be on a “per copy” basis. After your photo booth time, guide the students in uploading all the pictures in a computer and print them out. Now they are ready for delivery.
10. Food Festival and Product Bazaar
You may want to have the students go through the process of not only planning but preparing the products by themselves. The easiest food items to make and sell are sandwiches, shakes, juices, burgers, French fries with various dips, and other simple snacks.
You may ask kids to prepare cooked ingredients at home and just bring them to school. Booths can be decorated and set up according to their needs, and kids should have a shifting schedule as to who will be the sellers at a particular time.
However, if there are only a few students involved in one booth, all of them can stay there the whole time and just have different roles assigned.
One can be in charge of the payments, giving of changes, and keeping track of the earnings. Two or three can be the ones to prepare the products. Another one can be in charge of calling customers or going around to give free tastes to people milling about the area.
11. Garage Sale
Another business idea that is suitable for a school project is a garage sale. You can plan and set up a garage sale in school. Have the students bring items from their houses that they do not like or use anymore. Together, you can decide on the prices of the various items which can range from clothes, books, CDs, games, to bags, shoes and accessories.
There are so many things that you can sell, just be sure to monitor the pricing so as to guarantee low prices appropriate for used items. The students can learn to approximate the worth, depending on the kind of item, how old it is, and its present quality.
A space should be set up in a classroom, in the gym, in the cafeteria, or wherever the school will allow you to which the students believe will be a strategically effective location for your business project.
12. Computer Tutoring
Chances are that you have been using a computer for as long as you can remember. You know how to troubleshoot, how to organize files, and how to use Google to find whatever you need. Though these are essential modern skills and not everyone possesses them.
Therefore, you have the opportunity to impart your knowledge by using this as a school project where you can educate fellow students on how to set up a blog, navigate the Web, or sign up for RSS feeds.
13. Pet Photographer
This is can make a very exciting school project for students. You can also start a photography business that specifically caters to pet owners who want photo portraits of their furry friends. They could pay a token for these services.
14. Shoe Shine
In order to take advantage of this business, set one day in a week where students can bring shoe polish and brushes for shoe shining services for the school community.
Promote this project on the bulletin boards all over the school announcing where the shoe shine will be stationed. You may also want to provide a “home service” in which the students offering the shoe shine will be contacted and will then go to a classroom or office to give the service at a certain time.
15. Mobile lemonade stand
In this project, students are made to make the lemonade stand mobile. That is, they prepare the lemonade at home, pack it in a cooler and transport it to where customers want it. Students should create advertising brochures, posters and cards to let the community know their lemonade can be served anywhere.
They must also keep track of overhead costs, such as bulk lemonade mix, ice, disposable cups and gasoline or other transportation costs.
They will need to make sure these expenses don’t exceed revenues. Once they set the price for a cup of lemonade, they can ask each client how many people will be in attendance at the given event, and then calculate projected revenues beforehand.
16. Pet sitting
Kids can be great with animals and can provide short-term walking, feeding and grooming for pets whose owners are out of town. Students should develop their business plan, they should determine how much they’ll charge: either a flat rate for a given amount of time, whether a weekend or a whole week, or an hourly rate that will be fair and competitive.
Have student’s research professional kennels and pet-sitting services in their area to get a good idea of rates. In their advertising efforts, have them specify what services they will and won’t perform.
17. Pie shop
Selling homemade pies is another great business idea for a student’s school project. The students could set up a stand in a busy part of town to produce fries and snacks.
This could be during their practical session class or a time set aside by the school board for students to showcase what they have learnt for a period of time. The likelihood of this idea being successful is very high, especially if adequate hype and publicity is created around it.
18. Websites
For their school projects, and depending on their level of learning, students could undertake to design websites for small businesses or fellow students who have the need of a website. Also, student can create websites for historical movements, scientific theories, or literary concepts
19. Album Covers
An album cover is the front of the packaging of a commercially released audio recording product, or album. Students can create album covers for their school project. The album cover may be connected to a novel and the art work might present a relevant theme in the story.
Another use would be to have students create natural disaster album covers in a science class where the cover would depict and explain the event.
20. Advertisements
Students can create an advertising campaign to sell a particular product or a range of products. The product can be real or imaginary. This can be used to teach them persuasion, as an assignment for speech class, or to reinforce skills learned in a consumer class.
21. Magazines
Students can create magazines covering large units of study such as the Industrial Revolution or Darwin’s Theory of Evolution, that way many articles can be written. Images may also be drawn or printed and added to the publication. This is a good business skill that if developed properly would be useful after their studies. These magazines can be sold or booked on subscription basis.
22. Inventions
The ability to invent something would always count as a plus for the inventor. Inventing something is a very good school project idea that can also be useful in the business world. Students can be encouraged to think out and create something.
Note that it must not be a new invention as it could be an upgrade of an already existing invention, but it should be something that can address a problem in nature or society.
23. Autobiographies
Students can be encouraged to write the story of their lives as a school project. This assignment may help them learn to write an autobiography, and more importantly to reinforce a broad range of writing skills in them.
24. Comic Strips or Books
Students and kids read a lot of comic strips. Students can be encouraged to create an illustrated comic strip or book representing events from history or a work of fiction. They have a better chance of selling these to fellow students or friends.
25. Blogs
Creating a blog is a great idea for a school project. Students can create blogs for literary characters or historical figures. They can equally take it a step further by creating an actual blog for free at blogger .com where they can start developing their own personal blogs.
Alternatively, teachers can just have students write and organize articles on white printer paper if the internet is not available.
26. Dramas
Putting up a play is another exciting idea for a school project. Students might adapt an existing story or create original works and plays that can be centered on any event in history. The skills and experience gotten from this project, when developed and honed can be applied in the real world movie industry.
27. Skits
Some very talented students have the ability to create very funny and interesting skits. In the real world, people have been known to make a living out of creating skits. Students can be encouraged to create a short skit to bring a historical event to life for their school project.
28. Poultry Farm Project
Another profitable idea for a school project is to encourage students who are studying Agriculture related courses to setup a standard poultry farm as a project. The bottom line is to ensure that the poultry farm accommodates varieties of birds.
This kind of project can be expensive hence they can access funding from the school authority or any other relevant institution.
29. Furniture Making Project
Students who are studying woodworks or any furniture related courses should be made to produce furniture that can be sold to people. It is another way of making money for the school. The bottom line is that if their finishing and marketing skills are good, they won’t struggle to make sales.
30. Arts and Crafts
Creating arts and crafts is ideal for students studying various art and crafts related courses. Once your students are able to produce quality painting, sculpture or handmade crafts, such can be sold in and around the school community.
31. Vocabulary Quilts
For a school project, you can teach students to create quilts with badges representing the meanings of vocabulary terms. The badges should have an image and a few words. This school project can help the students develop sewing skills for the future.
32. Graphics and Video Editing Project
Another art related projects that you can engage your students in is to advertise for people to bring their graphics and video editing jobs to the school studio and they will get it done at rock bottom prices. The truth is that if your students are pretty good; the project can be self-sustaining.
33. Make friendship bracelets
Kids love making jewelry, and with inexpensive technologies like Rainbow Loom, they can produce substantial amounts of bracelets and offer them for sale. Making friendship bracelets, matching colored pairs or even embedding letter beads for names or phrasing will differentiate their product.
Explain profit margin and have them set a reasonable price for each bracelet above their raw material costs. They also need to research venues where they can sell the bracelets, such as local craft shows, community meetings or boutique shops.
34. Smartphone consultation
Students can tap into the emerging tech market by selling smart-phone consultation services. Your students will likely be more adept at handling smartphones, including basic operation and social media, than most adults.
Have them set a basic package for clients, such as a 30-minute tutorial, during which they will provide hands-on instruction and demonstration of someone’s phone. These tutorials can be offered for a flat rate. Students can advertise their services through social media, targeting their parents’ friends and other adults who may be struggling with new technology.
Students should specify what they’ll be covering in their tutorials so clients come prepared. Make sure students perform their services in safe, public places, such as in the school library or other community venues.
35. Errand Runner
The more people are pressed for time, the more they hate running errands. Therefore, you can start a business to run errands for those sets of people. For instance, you can pick up groceries, take the dog to the vet, pick up kids from daycare, and chauffeur older kids to the mall or to a friend’s house.
You need to be a jack-of-all-trades, but it is actually rather easy work, and it pays well. Seniors, upper-middle class families, and busy parents are all part of this target market. The student may or may not need a reliable car depending on the neighborhood, since it is a small school project, but a car would come in very handy.
You might also want to consider offering a “seniors discount” to get your foot in the door, or even working for free for the first few jobs in order to get some great testimonials.
36. Moving Assistant
Moving is stressful, especially when you have a lot of possessions or a large house to organize. A student can comfortably offer up services as a moving assistant to give people a hand. This is a popular service, especially for seniors who find packing and moving to be physically and emotionally difficult.
37. Babysitter
One of the most popular part time jobs for students is babysitting, and this business can comfortably be taken up as a school project.
All you need is a great reputation or great references, and the ability to find local parents. Post fliers in your neighborhood advertising your services. Keep in mind that if you have special skills, such as CPR training you will stand out from the pack.
38. Scrapbooker
This is another exciting idea that students can use for a school project. The students can offer custom scrapbooking services to people who want to preserve their memories in a special way without doing the work themselves.
39. Home check
You can request to make or perform home checks for a small fee. While people are out of town, you can stop by their house and check to make sure the house is in good condition, give it a lived-in look, check light bulbs, flush toilets, and more. It is quite easy and can be done weekly for a flat fee, such as $20.
40. Leaf Removal
Leaf removal, just like snow removal, is a seasonal business, but that notwithstanding, it pays good money and it can also be used as a school project. During the fall, because of the leaf rain, you can offer leaf removal services to those who don’t want to rake their yards on their own.
41. Calendars
Students can take up creating calendars charting the dates of key events. This can be applied to an historical event (like a famous battle), a scientific event or the sequence of events in story. With the aid of good graphics design or drawing skills, the calendars can be made to be very attractive and colourful in order to bring in buyers or subscribers.
42. Snow Removal
If you want to earn some extra cash during the winter months, you can offer to shovel snow for local homeowners for a small fee. This business can be comfortably offered as a school project as it won’t take up much time of the students, and more importantly, they would get paid for it.
43. Personal Shopper
For those who enjoy shopping, you can build a business as a personal shopper and help others pick out the best items for them.
Students can also use this business idea as a school project. To get started, you need to figure out your demographics which may likely be seniors or people who are fashion handicapped and offer this service to them at your convenience and for a fee.
44. Picking up dry cleaning
You can decide to run to the cleaners for those who are too busy to handle this chore. This is a business idea and it can as well pass for a school project if you have a question you want to find an answer to or if there is a problem you are seeking to find a solution to. Example, what is the demographics of people who mostly request laundry pick up services?
45. Create a board game
There are lots of board games in the market and online, but that notwithstanding, you can create a board game for a school project, and if it is interesting, people would be willing to pay a token to play it. Putting the game online can save you on overhead costs. This project demands a lot of creativity before you can come up with something passable.
46. Graphic Designer
Depending on the class and if you have the skills, graphics design is a great business idea that could also be used for a school project. You can offer your services designing logo for both online and offline clients, but you have to make sure that you are very good at it.
47. Documentary
Some students who have portable camcorders could put it to good use for a school project. With adequate planning, preparation and skills, you can put together a documentary on any niche of your choice. You can record a documentary on the difference between how football was played in the 70s and today, or you can put together a video recording of how plants or animals behave in an unfamiliar environment.
48. Aquaculture
An agriculture related project that can be given to students to do in a school in a bid to raise money is starting a fish pond.
The school authority can provide space for students to build their ponds. The students can choose to raise fish, shrimps, crabs, toads etc. in their ponds in a controlled environment. Aquaculture is a very profitable business in the real world so any training on it is very valuable.
49. Chemical Production Project
Students studying chemical engineering should be made to produce chemicals that can be sold in an around the school communities as part of their projects. Chemicals like pesticides, bleach and paints etc have a good number of buyers. The truth is that if their product is well branded and packaged it can compete for market share in their community.
50. Hatchery
Students can set up a mini hatchery where they can attempt to hatch the eggs of different birds to observe the process. They can equally decide to innovate a special brand of hatchery that is unlike the normal one used in the industry, or try to replicate the natural hatching process. A lot of findings still can be made from hatchery and the students can try to discover them.