Several students at Harding University have found some creative ways to come up with a little extra spending money.
A few such students are freshman Carlos Romero, senior Katie McKune and freshman Hayley Wallis. These students have started, or are in the process of starting, their own small dorm room businesses.
Their businesses range from Romero, who buys and resells a variety of items online, to McKune and Wallis, who have taken something they love to do and turned it for a profit.
Romero started buying and selling items with a couple of his friends back home in Costa Rica in May 2010. He mainly markets to people in Costa Rica and helps others figure out online shopping since it is not as common in Costa Rica as it is in the U.S. He said he plans for his business to continue once he gets back home.
“I want to make it grow and I want the business to develop while I’m here, and when I get back to Costa Rica I want to have a physical store for it,” Romero said.
While Romero is buying and selling, McKune and Wallis are creating and selling. McKune designs and makes dresses, skirts and bags. She got the idea last spring by simply spending time with her sister-in-law sewing.
After she had made a few things her friends began to ask if she could make things for them as well and they offered to pay. This gave her the idea to start her own business of selling the items she made. Currently she is in the process of filing for a business license and sales tax ID and gathering inventory.
McKune said she intends to use the website Etsy to sell her products once she gets her business license. Wallis takes a sweeter route and bakes and sells cupcakes through her business, Sweetly Sprinkled.
She has been very creative with the cupcakes from her most popular rainbow cupcake to her personal favorite, strawberry lemonade cupcake.
Wallis said she has always been in the kitchen with her mom making dessert while her mom made dinner.
“I’ve always loved being in with the sweet stuff,” Wallis said.
She has recently started watching shows such as “Cupcake Wars” and said that those inspired her.
“I started making cupcakes and the more I did it, the more I loved it,” Wallis said. “I wanted to use my creativity in cupcakes.”
Wallis has made a Sweetly Sprinkled Facebook page so people can join and pick what cupcakes they would like to order. She posts pictures of the various cupcakes she has made. Wallis said she has a book at home with ideas she has not been able to try yet.
She said she had always enjoyed little things but did not see herself being successful in them until she started making cupcakes.Wallis said she would like to start a bakery someday.
These students are just a few examples of entrepeneurs who are proving that it is possible for students to take an idea and turn it into a business while still hitting the books.
