Best ways to teens to make money?

[james.hendrickson]

Okay, so I am doing some research for an article and I'm looking around at ways that teens can make money legally and safely.

The complication seems to be that while minors can work at regular jobs, they aren't legally able to sign contracts, which precludes them from a lot of money making opportunities.

How can teens make money? Thoughts?

[MonkeyMama]

Just as an outside the box kind of idea, participating in studies. (I am trying to get my 13yo signed up for a study that pays $500, so it's just very front of mind. Really easy money for a teenager).

Of course, when I was a teen, I made most my money babysitting.
(Until I was 15 and could find a steady W-2 job, to be clear).

[bjl584]

I went the traditional route and found a part time job shortly after I turned 16.
I worked at Kmart throughout high school and college about 20 hours a week during school and close to full time during the summers.

[MonkeyMama]

I was thinking more as a young teen when I initially replied. Age 16+ I made most my money teaching piano.

Walking dogs, tutoring, or any specialized skills that you can market.

[snafu]

Our kids discovered they were entrepreneurs when they were successful selling chocolate bars door to door for a school project. After 1st snowfall they knocked on doors and left info sheets offering to shovel snow from sidewalks and driveways for modest cost.

They were confronted for trespassing by a different neighbour when looking after a senior's flower garden in their absence. That resulted in their names being handed out for helping with 'landscaping,' cutting grass and watering yards for vacationeers.

Movie theatres here offer Saturday matinees for kids. Our kids got themselves hired on to clean a theatre, initially for free tickets, later for an hourly rate [lower than minimum because they were under 16 y/o].

In high school DS #1 proudly announced he'd been hired [Fri.& Sat. 5-8 pm] as dishwasher at a nearby, family steak house. I was really upset with the idea but it was a terrific 'real life' experience. Initially DS was given every dirty job the kitchen crew could think of! They made it clear he could end up working in a kitchen for life if he didn't 'ace - it' in school. By the holidays he was 'busing' tables, by late summer he was waiting tables for 1st seating. [He taught me how to work efficiently in the kitchen]. Best of all my 'meh' student concluded he'd better up his game and graduated in the top quarter of his group.

Every 10 y/o can teach elderly 'Baby Boomers and Gen 'X,' how to use all the features of their cell phone, banking on-line and best apps. 15 y/o are problem solvers. They can find the cheapest flight and best arrival times faster than a travel agent! They could take photos and write ads for e-selling for all the stuff Kon Marie followers want to clear out for a percentage of take.

Any college age student can make school year support money by learning how to operate a spray paint machine correctly. They need to be detail orientated but tape, spray and clean up is an easy business to operate.

[disneysteve]

Our kids discovered they were entrepreneurs when they were successful selling chocolate bars door to door for a school project.

So when I was in high school, I was always selling candy for something - choir, youth group, etc. It was always easy work as high school students love candy. Even teachers would buy candy from me.

The problem was that there were a few dozen of us selling at any one time all competing with each other, and we were usually selling the same stuff - M&Ms and maybe one or two other things.

So I branched out and privatized. I went to a warehouse store (years before BJs and Costco) and bought cartons of candy wholesale. I started selling for $.25 instead of the $.30 that everyone else was charging. And instead of 1 or 2 types of candy, I sold 8 or 10 different items.

Before I knew it, I was selling 100+ pieces a day. I kept my locker stuffed with stock and would replenish my supply throughout the day. I earned a bunch of money (about $30/week which was a lot back then) doing that.

It would never work today as the school wouldn't allow it, kids aren't allowed to go to their lockers, etc., but in the early 1980s it was a good gig.

[moneybags]

My son ref'd soccer games starting at age 12. Pay was $20 per game to be a line judge, when he was a bit older he could center ref for $35 per game (games range in length 60-90 minutes). Being a baseball umpire is another job they can start before age 16 and pay is decent.

[clatoden99]

Here are a few quick things:

Cut Grass (bid by the job... $35-$50 per lawn, do a good job)
Yard Work (bid by the job ... I'll weed your flower bed for $45, not $6/hr)
Walk Dogs
Social Media Marketing (you can charge $150+ per month per client, sometimes much much more)
Delivering Flyers (I pay $8.50 an hour)
Sales (so many possibilities)
Write Article/Reviews for ClickBank Products (get commissions for referring)
Review walmart products (walmart pays commission for sales)
Sell things on Amazon, Etsy, Ebay or even business to business
Garage sale to find cheap items that sell on Ebay
Birddog by finding abandoned houses for Real Estate Investors (I pay $200 per lead on a good deal).
Fiverr jobs (just look at what people are paying for and how they do it)
These are all good ideas because they require virtually nothing to start, or you can borrow the things you need.

The best way to find ways to make money is to look for problems to solve. People pay for not having headaches, and to have more time to do what they want.

Think of what will scale if you did it 100x a day, or how to scale what you are doing 100x a day. Then hire friends and pay them to do the work while you find the jobs.

[selenagomez1]

I think there are many options which were all listed out above, but my top choice is to let them do the online business like earning money with Youtube since the teens are great to create good content.

Besides, they can sell the products of EBay, Amazon, and more. Besides, they can apply to be a waiter, online seller or more.

[MonryMaestro]

I just setup my own small business buying small items in bulk from China and selling them on eBay for a profit as a teenager. - it isn't as complex as you may think!

[Fishindude77]

Hard to beat good old fashioned physical labor to let them appreciate the value of a dollar.

• Cut grass
• Clean gutters
• Shovel snow
• Wash & detail cars
• Ice cream & root beer stands hire teenage seasonal help
• Newspaper route (still a few around)
• Babysit
• Take care of pets
• Wash windows

The sky is the limit, just need to get off their duff and do something. I know I'd love to have a good kid nearby that wanted to work and earn a few bucks. I've got a long list of chores I could line him / her up with.

[disneysteve]

I just setup my own small business buying small items in bulk from China and selling them on eBay for a profit as a teenager. - it isn't as complex as you may think!

Assuming this isn't spam, I looked into doing this years ago when I was selling on ebay big time. The problem was that there are hundreds of others doing the same thing. Any item I found that I thought might work, I searched ebay and found a slew of people selling the exact same item - even with the same stock pictures. I quickly realized that it was never going to work.

I did occasionally buy items from a surplus company that only had small lots of things so that the market wasn't flooded with them. I did okay with that stuff but it really wasn't worth the effort.

You can do far better reselling items from yards sales and thrift shops.

[StormRichards]

Assuming this isn't spam, I looked into doing this years ago when I was selling on ebay big time. The problem was that there are hundreds of others doing the same thing. Any item I found that I thought might work, I searched ebay and found a slew of people selling the exact same item - even with the same stock pictures. I quickly realized that it was never going to work.

I did occasionally buy items from a surplus company that only had small lots of things so that the market wasn't flooded with them. I did okay with that stuff but it really wasn't worth the effort.

You can do far better reselling items from yards sales and thrift shops.

We have bought a couple of items from a Wholesaler and resold on eBay, but you are right about the competition. We were fortunate to stumble on an item before any other sellers and made some quick cash, but it was only a matter of a couple of weeks before others started selling the item. We undercut them for a couple weeks to make some more money, but abandoned the item after that. That particular item and our timing worked out perfect, but we had some items that we barely broke even on.

[cornfieldj]

My son sells sneakers - often buys them used and refurbishes them. I never encouraged him to do this - and didn't even really know he was doing it till the day he asked his dad for change of a hundred. Haha. I wrote a fun essay about it on Medium.

[disneysteve]

My son sells sneakers - often buys them used and refurbishes them. I never encouraged him to do this - and didn't even really know he was doing it till the day he asked his dad for change of a hundred.

I love it. Good for him.

When I was a teen, I bought and sold record albums (remember those?). I would pick them up at yard sales and flea markets and sell them at a local used record shop. I was paying 25 or 50 cents and selling them for a few dollars.