Summer isn’t all about fun and relaxing by the pool. For many students, summer  gives us the opportunity to start making some extra money. As a student I’m always on the lookout for a couple ways to increase my savings account so that when I do go back to school I’m not broke. But some of us don’t like the idea of working part-time jobs. Instead why not create your own business and be your own boss? The earning potential is even larger.

#1) Start a Sports Camp or Give Private Lessons – This is great if you know how to play a sport. I played basketball and tennis during High School, and once college started I began advertising private tennis lessons for kids. I posted up ads at my local elementary school and got a pretty good response from parents who were interested in cheap private tennis lessons for their kids. Alternatively, one summer I decided to upscale the business and create a whole tennis camp. I reserved courts at my local tennis center for one day a week. Then I hired a couple friends of mine who also played and we each taught a group of kids. This gave us a huge amount of earnings much more than we could have gotten if we did part-time jobs.

#2) Buy on Craigslist and Sell on Ebay – This is one of the things I tried when I was in College. I bought cheap things off Craigslist via haggling and then sold them on Ebay. This was great because I was earning anywhere from 35% – 50% profit on each item I sold, although a few of them did lose me money. The key here is that people on Craigslist are often receptive to haggling because they just want to get rid of their stuff. Then sell it on Ebay and voila, you’ve made yourself profit.

#3) Start a video game tournament -Host a weekly tournament by renting out a LAN center for a night (price varies on the LAN center), or have it at someone’s house who has enough computers/consoles. For our tournament, we chose Call of Duty as the game since it is immensely popular. Have cash prizes. For example, advertise a $100 cash prize for the winner and have everyone pay $10 to enter. For the first time you might want to make it free and jot down everyone’s e-mail addresses so you can get them to come out in later tournaments when there is an entry fee. This would also work for something like Magic: The Gathering or other trading card games (including Poker), and you can give out packs for prizes.

#4) Tutoring - If you’re good at a subject, like math, you can help tutor other kids who are struggling. Summer is one of the times that parents are making their kids catch up and you can take advantage of this. Also there are many students who are taking summer classes and need help. Offer your tutoring lessons at your local schools by putting up ads on bulletin boards. Put your ad on Craigslist as well.

#5) Babysitting Business – Get babysitting jobs for other kids, and then charge a commission when they get the job. You will basically be their babysitting broker. For example, you can start out with a group of four friends. Then send out ads to local parents. When the parents call you, tell them that you can send a babysitter right away. Call any of your friends and then get them to go to the job. They’ll pay you $5, and all you’ve done is make a few calls. This business can be upscaled to include several more kids as your business increases and more parents are in need of sitters.