By Dr Tom Ohikere
The roles of education are critical to the realization of the goal of eradication of extreme poverty and hunger as entrenched in the Millennium Development Goals. Therefore educational system must be equipped with cutting edge facilities and qualified human resources armed with relevant knowledge and life skills if they must serve as efficacious conduits to stem the scourge of extreme poverty and hunger in Nigeria.
It is only with well informed and adequately empowered adults that the resources of our environment can be harnessed to conquer poverty and hunger. It is based on this premise that investing in the educational sector assumes prominence as a complementary tool to the fight against poverty and hunger in Kogi State and to boost her revenue base.
Therefore it feels comforting to recommend among others that adequate funding of formal educational system and the introduction of technical education in the State is imperative and urgent to respond to the needs of learners who must acquire knowledge and skills to improve food production, create employment opportunities and generate income in order to reduce poverty and hunger in the State and in turn boost the IGR of the State.
Without reservation Kogi State Government in the bid to advance the State ensure that they invest massively in the education sector and also encourage private investors to invest in the education sector. And much needs to be done as there is a growing needs for students to improve and increase their education and the adults to continue improving their education. With this solid demand in the educational industry, you can launch a business either improving on skills or teaching brand new skills.
To ensure you know what to offer and what to cover in your business here are ten examples of educational business ideas you can possibly in Kogi State.
The business opportunities in the education industry is massive and any entrepreneur who is serious about making money can leverage on the opportunities available in the industry. As a matter of fact, any entrepreneur who is creative and really imaginative can create his or her own business concept that can be highly marketable in the education industry.
Starting a private nursery and primary school is one of the many businesses an entrepreneur who is looking to invest and generate revenue from the education industry should consider starting. Just all you need to do if you are considering to start a private nursery and primary school is to ensure that you visit the department of education (ministry of education) of Kogi State to confirm the requirements for starting a private nursery and primary school.
Another formal education business an entrepreneur who is interested in investing in the education industry should consider starting is to open a private (high school) secondary school. The school could be a boarding house, a day school or a combination of both, you are only required to obtain a license and accreditation from the departments / ministry of education of the state.
Start a Crèche and Pre School
Working class parents or even busy parents who have children that are not of school age usually enroll their children in crèches. If you are considering starting a business in the education industry, one of your options is to start a crèche. The location you choose to start this type of business matters a lot. It wouldn’t be a wise decision to start a crèche in an area that is dominated by retirees.
Some of the suitable locations to setup a crèche are; estates that are dominated by young couples and nursing mothers. Furthermore, they prefer that such crèches is close to their offices; this is so that nursing mothers can easily be attracted. Working class nursing mothers prefer crèches – so that they are able to make use of their breaks; by dashing quickly to the crèche to feed their babies.
Start a Music School
Starting a music school is yet another thriving and profitable business in the education sector in Kogi State, People pay to learn how to play various instruments and also to learn the rudiments of music et al. If you have a degree in music and you are looking for a business to start, one of your best options is to start a music school in Kogi, being a Confluence State. This type of business can be capital intensive for an aspiring entrepreneur; you would need money to rent a facility, purchase different music instrument and also pay a handful of staff et al.
If you are interested in this type of business and you don’t have the required start – up capital to setup a standard music school, then you should go to people’s homes to teach them how to play different musical instruments. It is a good means of raising start – up capital to setup a standard music school.
Start a Driving School
Driving school is yet another thriving and profitable education related business. Year in year out teens who have attained the driving age requirements and even adults alike who don’t know how to drive, approach driving schools to learn how to drive. If you are looking for a steady source of income in the education industry, then one of your options is to open a driving school; a place where you can teach people how to drive.
It is important to note that before starting a driving school, you will be required to obtain the required license, permits and approval from the appropriate authority in the state. Aside from the little stress involved in securing approval, permit and license for a driving school, it could be fun teaching people how to drive especially if driving is one of your hobbies.
Start a Catering School
Another interesting education related business idea that an entrepreneur can consider starting is to open a catering training school. This is a school where people can learn how to cook various local and intercontinental delicacies, and how to bake cakes et al. This type of business requires that you secure license and accreditations from relevant authorities. So, if you are looking towards starting an education business, one of your options is to open a catering training school in your community.
Start a Charter School
What are Charter schools? Simply put, they are schools that are run independently of the government. However, these schools are still highly expected to meet the requirements and standards of the local and state government. This type of educational system provides parents with something quite different from what they get from the public school system.
The charter schools are independently funded through students’ enrollment fees, levies, as well as other fees that are expected to be paid. Charter schools are beginning to gain more grounds in different countries of the world. So if you are interested in owning a business portfolio in the education industry, then one of your options is to start a charter school.
Start a Fashion Design School
Another highly thriving and profitable business venture in the education industry is a fashion design school. The fashion industry is indeed a thriving industry all over the globe and clothing line is a subset of the industry. No doubt the clothing line industry has the widest range of customers; everybody on planet earth wears clothes howbeit different designs, quality and style.
There are standard fashion design schools in major cities like New York, Milan, Paris, Senegal, Togo, London and Nigeria et al like in Lagos, every year, Students from all over Nigeria meet at LegsApparel Fashion school to share a common passion: Design.
It is here that young talents find the expertise, know-how and experience to become professionals in this rewarding field, People can enroll here to learn all about fashion and if you are a fashion designer with pedigree, you should consider starting a fashion design school in your city or state; there are loads of students who will be willing to enroll in your fashion school.
Start a School for Art and Culture
If you are interested in arts and culture, there is nothing wrong in setting up a school specially dedicated to teaching students practical lessons on arts and culture; a place where students can enroll to learn various crafts, painting, carving, sculpturing, tie and dye, stage play, film script writing and dancing et al. This type of business requires a spacious facility and faculty members.
Start a Computer College
Starting a computer college is yet another profitable and thriving education related business an entrepreneur can successfully start. A computer college is a place where people learn different subjects about computer; it could be learning about computer hardware, it could be learning about networking, it could be learning about software programming, it could be learning about graphics and desktop publishing, as well as anything, as long as it relates to computer.
If you establish a standard computer school that is accredited by the government of your country; a computer school that awards recognized diplomas et al, then you are likely not going to struggles to get students to enroll in your computer college.
Start an Online School
The concept of online learning is rapidly gaining grounds. Universities all over the world are beginning to create online learning platforms for students all over the world. There several subjects that can be studied via an online school; it could be obtaining a technical skills and a diploma and it could obtaining a Degree or an MBA et al.
If you are passionate about impacting knowledge, all you need to do is to secure the required license, permits and accreditation from the government of your country and you can successfully start your own degree / diploma awarding online school.
Open a Bookshop
If you are considering starting an education related business, then one of your options is to open a bookshop; a store where books of different genre from different authors are sold. There is a large market for books; especially if you have done your homework before stocking your bookshop with books.
If you are considering starting this type of business, aside from the fact that you will be operating your bookshop from a facility (brick and mortar store) it will be to your advantage to also maintain an online book shop. It will give the online community an opportunity to patronize your bookshop.
Start a Printing Press
Books are one of the major mediums through which people learn. Books are printed from the printing press. In essence it is safe to say printing press business falls under the educational sector. So, if you are looking towards starting a profitable and thriving business, then one of your options is to launch a printing press; a place where education books can be produced.
Start Stationery Manufacturing Company
Pencils, pens, erasers, sharpeners, staplers, crayons, rulers, compass, notebooks, notepads, stick – on, notice boards, boards, et al are essentials that are used by students and teachers alike in schools hence it is safe to classify stationery manufacturing business as part of the business opportunities available in the education industry. If you are looking for a business to start in the education industry, you should consider going into the production of stationeries; there is a large market for this type of business.
Start an Online Library Business (e – library)
Online library is another platform where people learn different subjects at an affordable fee. The internet has made it possible for people from different parts of the world to be registered in the same library. Online library (e – library) is a resource center where you can comfortably conduct a thorough research and study from the comfort of your home no matter the part of the world you live in as long as you have internet enabled device (smartphones, computers, notebooks, tablets et al).
People pay registering fees and of course membership fees to make use of online libraries. If you looking towards starting a business in the education industry, then starting a well – equipped e – library is one of your options. You can start your own online library (e – library) and attract membership from different parts of the world.
Go into Retailing of eBooks
Retailing of any educational material is considered a business in the education industry. As an aspiring entrepreneur, one of the easy ways you can make bucks from the internet if you are a good and creative writer is to author sell eBooks. There are countless numbers of subjects that you can write about and of course there will be ready markets for such subject.
One of the easiest ways to generate monies from selling eBooks is to start writing self – help books or books on ‘How To’. For example, if you are good with graphics, you can write a book on ‘How to create your own logo’ there are loads of people out there that will be willing to pay for such book.
EBooks are cheap and easy to make and from one eBook you can continue to generate incomes as long as the information that it contains is still valid and useful. EBooks (electronic books) are books in soft copies and they can be downloaded online from any part of the world.
Open an Online Book Store
Another profitable and thriving business an entrepreneur can successfully launch is to open an online book store. There are book lovers all over the world who are still interested in buying books no matter the amount it may cost them.
Starting an online book store is another way of making money from the internet. A company like amazon.com is making huge revenues from selling books online and you can start something similar. You can sell eBooks, audio books and hard copy books on various subjects and from various authors on your online book store. Please note that starting online book store means that you will make provision for shipping.
Online Skill Acquisition Training
Online skill acquisition training school is yet another business in the education industry that an aspiring entrepreneur should consider starting. The internet has made it possible for professional trainers to make money via training people without ever meeting them physically.
For example if you want to train people on how to make hats or sew bags or how to make beads et al, all you need to do is to engage them on video chatting. You can as well send your videos and your training manuals online to those who paid for your materials and services. Distance is not a barrier as far as educating people on the internet is concerned.
Online Magazine and Book Club
Online magazine and book club is yet another business in the education industry an aspiring entrepreneur who is interested in starting a business should consider. This is quite different from e – library and all you need to do is to start a book and magazine club that attracts people of similar interest.
If you are creative, you can attract enough members and the money you make from such business is tied to the number of members that are registered in your book club; membership fees and registering fees et al. One good thing about online magazine and book club is that you can admit members from any part of the world as long as they are ready to keep to the ground rules.
Freelance Researching Business
There are organizations, and individual et al, who contract research works to freelance researchers. Beyond every reasonable doubt, there are loads of business opportunities for freelance researchers and location is not an issue as long as the freelance researcher can deliver quality job per time. Hence, if you looking for a business to start in the education industry, a business that requires little or no start – up capital, then one of your options is to go into freelance researching business.
Start a Paper and Notebook Manufacturing Business
Another highly profitable and thriving business in the education sector that an entrepreneur should consider starting is to go into paper and notebook manufacturing. Although the campaign for preserving trees and our ecosystem is gaining prominence and people are encouraged to reduce the numbers of papers they use especially if they have other options.
But the fact remains that there is a very large market for the paper industry; the market cut across all sectors because people need papers in schools, in offices and everywhere business are conducted. So if you live in a country where you can easily get permits to fall trees, then you should consider starting papers and notebooks manufacturing business. It is indeed a profitable business.
Become a Freelance Writer
People write books or articles, simply because they want to educate people – hence freelance writing jobs can be considered to be a business in the education industry. If you are a skilled and creative writer and you have enough time at your disposal, then you can earn good income as a freelance writer. There are loads of websites you can secure high paying writing jobs from.
Some of the sites where you can bid for freelance writing jobs are freelancer.com, upwork.com, guru.com and elance.com et al. From these sites you can get writing jobs that can comfortable pay your bills while you are in – between jobs or still schooling.
Start Blogging
Another business in the education industry is blogging; blogging is all about educating or passing information to people. Blogging is one of the means several people all over the world are making money from the internet. Blogging is all about creating useful and perhaps educative content for a targeted audience on the internet. If you think that you have good knowledge on a particular subject, you can make money by sharing your knowledge to a wide range of audience via your blog.
This is how making money from blogging works; if you have good contents on your blog, loads of people (human traffic) will visit your blog. The larger the traffic that visits your blog, the more money you will make. If your blog attracts huge traffic, you can attract adverts from top corporate organization. You can also earn money from your blog via AdSense, by offering subscription services to members and also selling your products via your blog.
Start a Photography Academy
Another thriving and profitable business in the education sector that an aspiring entrepreneur should consider starting is to open a photography school; a place where students can learn both theoretical and practical lessons on photography.
You don’t necessarily need to compete with world class photography schools to make it big in this industry. Just ensure that you provide quality all – round photography education in your city and you will be amazed at the numbers of people that will enroll in your photography academy.
Start a Film Making School
Another thriving and profitable business in the education sector that an aspiring entrepreneur should consider starting is to open a film making school; a place where students can learn both theoretical and practical lessons on film making.
You don’t necessarily need to compete with world class film making schools like New York Film Academy et al, to make it big in this industry. Just ensure that you are providing quality all – round film making education in your city and you will be amazed at the numbers of people that will enroll in your film making school.
All the aforementioned presents veritable revenue options in the educational sector that Kogi State can take advantage of to enhance her revenue base and improve the livelihoods of her people.