Have your friends always asked you how you do so well in school? Do you spend a lot of time studying and working hard in school? If you work hard and get good grades in school and spend a lot of time doing it, why not make a little compensation?
I am not telling you to cheat. I’m not saying to sell essays and answers to your friends, by no means! You should sell your skills.
Are you one of those kids that get straight A’s just by listening in class and not studying much? If so, this won’t work for you. With this business you can sell your notes.
If you take notes in class and take notes from your book and do exceptionally well as a result, you should sell your notes to your friends.
This is going to take some hard work. You need to make sure you have something good to offer.
This won’t work very well at the very start of school. You should start it after you know what to expect from certain teachers of different classes.
Take careful notes in class and notes from your textbook. If you’ve noticed that most of the answers are found in class, be extra careful in taking good class notes. Do the same if most of the answers are usually found in the textbook.
When you have all your notes, combine them. It’s best to do this typed up on a computer so that you can rearrange and they will look neater.
Condense the notes. Don’t repeat any material. You could choose two different formats of notes, an outline or bullets. Include roman numerals then letter, numbers, etc. Use effective titles that are short and descriptive. Here is an example:
I.Animal Nutrition and the Digestive System
A.Digestion and Absorption
1.one-way digetstive tract
a.possess a separate opening (mouth)
b.food moves in only one direction
2.specialization exists in the digestive tract for
a.storage of food
b.mechanical breakdown of ingested chunks of food
c.chemical degradation of food material
B.Ingestion
1.teeth are the primary tool for holding and chewing food
2.the teeth grasp and dismember prey, tear bulk food, and grind it to a more manageable size
etc.
Write notes that are easy to understand and include everything they will need to know. Type them up and print them out to look very neat.
The best part about this idea is that it will probably help you do better in school. When this is a business, you will need to have these notes top notch with constant reviewing to make sure they will work best for your clients.
Another perk is that you will already be spending the time doing to work for school, so it won’t be that much more work besides marketing and printing. Also, the only materials will be paper and ink.
In the beginning, you might want to start free. Give your notes for free to a couple of friends, but make sure they know that they won’t be free forever. Use them as a testing ground. Try giving it to friends that you know won’t spend hours aside from your notes studying from their own notes and other sources so that you can have a good idea of how it’s working.
Let your friends try out your notes 2 or three times, preferably before a test. If they like them, monetize.
If you asked 2 or 3 friends, you may decide to continue to give them the notes for free or at a discount as a thank you. If you get large enough, this won’t hurt your income.
It will work best to sell it per week, or per chapter, depending on how your class is set up. If it’s per week and there are notes about everyday, you may want to charge $2 – $5 per week. Don’t go too high, remember these are high school students and need to be able to afford it. You can also depend it on how much work you put into it.
For instance, you might charge $5 – $8 for a difficult AP class that requires an extra amount of work, but maybe on $3 for a basic earth science class.
Include a disclaimer with your notes. Make sure your clients aren’t under the impression that they are guaranteed an A if they read the notes once. Here are some possible disclaimer or instructional ideas:
-Read the assigned reading prior to class
-Listen in class
-Study through the notes once everyday and twice before an exam
-This study guide does not guarantee an A!
If you don’t want to charge continually every week, you can decide to make a study guide for each quarter or before big exams such as the midterm or final exam. Collect all your notes in a packet. You could even include questions and answers at the end. Sell it at a fixed price, maybe $8- $10. It’s better than a basic study guide because it’s geared towards the specific class and exam.
This works best in a public school because you may have a lot of people taking the same class. This opens up the opportunity for more clients. It may even work for a college class to sell notes from a class previously taken.
The best advertising is through word of mouth, especially in high school. Tell everyone and tell them to tell everyone. Make sure you have enough paper and supplies to fulfill the needs of all your clients.
This works best for science and history classes, but you could experiment with others. Think and you might come up with some new ideas.
Think about it, if you have 20 people regularly purchasing your notes every week for $3 a week, that’s $60 a week! Multiply that by 2 classes and that’s $120. The possibilities are endless! Well, almost.
This is the best way to improve your own grades and get some money!