Small Business IDEAS for Kids
Kids starting a business may sound crazy and far-fetched, but it is happening all over the place.
From kids with lemonade stands in your neighborhood and teens taking over the Silicon Valley with their ideas to the youth entrepreneurs with million dollar start-ups in Africa, entrepreneurship is growing rapidly among the younger generation.
They want to become financially independent as soon as possible.
They see other young entrepreneurs, like Mark Zuckerberg, who have changed the world while making billions of dollars, and they want to do the same.
There are successful blogs on just about anything you can think of – food, cooking, health, sports, money, education….
But if there are already blogs about everything, I won’t have a chance of making it!
Not with that again!
Remember we talked about creating successful businesses out of existing ideas?
The same principle applies here…
There could be thousands of blogs about cooking vegan foods, but none or very few on how to do it cheap.
There may be thousands of blogs about making and saving money, but not many cover the unusual and crazy, yet practical methods (which is why I started MoneyPantry)
And tanks to the endless number of tools and apps that make it easy and quick to build websites and blogs, you no longer have to know code or spend thousands of dollars to start a blog. In fact, you can start a blog today for free.
You can monetize our blog with ads, affiliate marketing, selling your own eBooks and courses, and so on.
3. Making candles
There are so many different types of candles that you will never get bored making them.
You can start with a basic candle kit, or simply buy the ingredients in bulk. It’s easy to learn how to do it and fun to experiment.
A good place to start is the National Candle Association which is online at candles.org and has all sorts of information about making and selling candles.
You can have floating candles, scented candles, and various types of molded and carved candles too.
Candles sell well on eBay, Etsy, and other sites. They can also be sold at flea markets and craft fairs.
4. Selling handmade stuff on Etsy
Just one look at the website shows the variety of things that you can sell, including jewelry, candles, art, and even jam.
For allowing you to have a virtual storefront on the Internet, Etsy takes a small commission, which is quite a deal if you look at the complication of setting up your own website with a shopping cart online and accepting payments.
Etsy takes all the headache away, leaving you free to pick and sell what you want.
5. Pet sitting/walking
You can even start from your own neighborhood. Put flyers out, let neighbors and friends know, put ads on Craigslist, etc.
The best thing about this business is that it doesn’t require any financial investment(though you may be required to have insurance but that comes into play when your business has grown a little) or tools. All you need is yourself, a pet friendly attitude, and a willingness to work hard
6. Becoming a tutor
Having just been through the system, they are well placed to help younger school kids.
But this idea does not have to be restricted to help with schoolwork. People will pay to learn how to use a computer better, or how to play the piano. Any skills may be something that someone else wants to pay to learn.
To start, you can use sites that make it easy to get paid for teaching various skills.
Here are a few:
7. Babysitting
Baby sitting is another tried-and-true kid friendly business that has been around for years and it still works.
As with most businesses of this kind, getting your first few clients is the hardest part.
You can start with friends and neighbors. But to expand, you can use sites like SitterCity and UrbanSitter to find clients throughout your city.
8. House sitting
Similarly to babysitting, this is another great business for teenagers.
However, because of the responsibility involved, it’s probably best to find clients that are friends of the family. Many people are not going to respond well to the prospect of leaving the keys to the house with an unknown teenager for a period of time.
Housesitting can be quite easy, but requires diligence in order to make sure all the necessary jobs are done. Jobs may include watering the pot plants, bringing in the mail, and sometimes looking after pets which couldn’t be taken on vacation.
Again, there are sites like TrustedHouseSitters and HouseSittersAmerica that you can use to find people in need of house sitters in your neighborhood.
9. Running errands
People are always wanting to get more things done, and having someone to run errands for them will help them to achieve this.
It may be picking up some groceries, or running the kids to their sports practice – for this, a great driving record is required – if the teen is willing to do what’s needed, then there are many opportunities available.
If you don’t know where to start, use the good old Craigslist to place ads, offering your services while keeping an eye on posts from local folks who may need your service.
Of course, being a tech savvy kid, you can also take advantage of apps like GigWalk and TaskRabbit to find clients.
