How To Make Money As A Kid
Did you have an entrepreneurial friend growing up that started started a lemonade stand, sold individual pieces of gum at school or traded and sold baseball cards? Those early age experiences are wonderful foundations to help kids understand the basic principles of business – buy low and sell high, supply and demand, sales and negotiating and much more!
As technology, laws and society changes, old and new opportunities have become more mainstream to help kids get this same level of experience and knowledge.
Check out these new and innovative ways on how to make money as a kid both locally and online.
Open A Lemonade Stand
OK, OK, this one isn’t new. Actually it’s probably the most well known little venture that kids can put together. However it’s so cute, how can you not have it first on the list. But there are options to create a twist on the simple lemonade stand and maximize profit.
Differentiate yourself
Be unique and standout from all the other lemonade stands that people have seen over the year. Come up with something that will attract any passerby
For example, you can go really high end with quality products and healthy twist by squeezing your own lemons and using only the highest quality products (filtered water for ice cubes, pure honey as a sugar replacement, recyclable cups). Add a flair of quality with these elegant disposable cups and a splash of soda water.
You can go for style and use “packaging” like mason jars.
Or you can go for volume and low prices as your main value proposition. You can buy packets of lemonade, prepare huge quantities of water in your pitchers, and get cheap paper cups. After mixing the lemonade powder and the water, offer it up at a really low price and you’re good to go!
Timing
Make sure you pick a weekend where the weather will be nice and hot!
Location, Location, Location:
Set up near outdoor activities, a park, near an public pool, a bike/walking path or a popular tourist attraction with high traffic walking area.
Marketing
Then it’s time for Sales and Marketing. Make large visible signs. We recommend one at the lemonade stand that stands out (ideally reaching above an average adults head so it can be visible for a distance). Then set up 2 other signs in each direction down the street about 200 yards that can attract individuals to your lemonade stand.
Something like “Wouldn’t an ice cold refreshing lemonade be perfect right now? You’re in luck, make a left and we’ll see you in a minute…”
The Upsell
You did all the hard work of getting your customer to your lemonade stand and sell them your great lemonade, but now it’s time to increase “share of wallet”. That means, getting your customer spend more than what they initially thought they would. Be a little bit inventive and offer some food products which will complement your lemonade offering. Some examples of this include pretzels, bread, pizza, granola bars, power bars, cookies, etc. You may even offer combos and volume discounts to sell more.
Increase Life Time Value
And finally, if your new found customers enjoyed their experience and your products, why not keep in contact with them. Ask them to provide you their email address so that you can send them out future offers. Maybe you can start your own brand of lemonade mix, or you can start your own YouTube cooking show like MaddiesCookingShow.com and have them follow you on YouTube.
How Much Will You Earn? Approximately $0.4 per cup of lemonade.
Offer Power-washing Services
Manual labor is one of the best services adults are open to paying kids for. Many neighborhood kids will do the typical lawn-moving or snow removal. But power-washing is also a great way to make some money.
Some examples of what home owners will want to get power washed include :
- Sidewalks
- Patios
- House siding
- Lawn equipment
- Driveways
- Windows
- Patio Furniture
- Storefronts
You can start by simply getting a buckets with soap, sponges and tools to scrub and leveraging the owner’s hose. Bring a strong nozzle to create enough pressure to make the work easier.
If parents have a powerwasher (or if you were to purchase one), then the quality improves and jobs can be done more quickly and with less effort. Power washers can end up being pretty expensive but a good quality powerwasher with wheels to make it easy to transport such as this one
Marketing
One you have your equipment you need to start attracting clients. Start by creating a simple poster with a picture of yourself holding your power washer, explaining what you can do for your clients and your prices. Provide a phone number where you can be called or texted and an email address.
It doesn’t need to be complicated. Just print our a couple hundred and place them in every mailbox in your neighborhood.
Go B2B
B2B or Business to business essentially means doing work for businesses, not just for individuals. Many small businesses such as restaurants, shops, auto mechanics, etc are busy working inside their businesses and often forget the importance of keeping their store font nice and tidy. Take the same poster and go to every business in your neighborhood and hand this to an owner or employee and tell them you’d be happy to schedule a consultation.
Share of Wallet and Life Time Value
Again there’s a great opportunity here to increase how much these individuals and businesses will spend with you. Start by finding products that you can recommend that fits well with this business.
For example, if they are happy with the work you’ve done on their storefront, offer them a discount to go to their home and do their driveway and siding. Offer to come back and seal their driveway now that you’ve power washed it for them. You don’t need to know how to seal a driveway, simple find a driveway sealing company and tell them you have a lead and ask them to pay you a certain amount for you finding them the business.
And make sure you take down your new customer email and phone numbers and stay in contact with them for future business. Send them special offers periodically and see how many become return buyers.
Referrals
Referrals, or word of mouth recommendations, is a great way to grow your business. Tell any satisfied customer that for every referral that they provide where you get work from them, you will give them 15% off their next service. This allows you to get more jobs without having to do any advertising. And because you offer a discount on future service, your customer is bound to ask you to come back to do more work on their property
How Much Will You Earn? On the low end, you can earn $40 for a driveway and $200 for siding of a home.
Similar businesses
Lawn moving services, gardening services, snow removal, lawn aeration, driveway resurfacing, Gutter cleaning, window cleaning, painting, graffiti removal.
Dog-Sitting
Many dog owners consider their pet as a family member and want their dog to receive the best attention and care. The only problem with this, however, is that there are times that they won’t be able to cater to their dogs because of their busy schedule.
The responsibility of taking care of a pet is not to be taken lightly. You need to walk the dog, ensure it is fed, looked after so it doesn’t get hurt or into any trouble, and overall keep it safe and entertained until it’s owners come back to pick them up.
Marketing
Their are sites like Rover.com and Care.com that exist to help dog sitters market themselves. To get started you can simple create a profile. It does take some time to earn ratings to help you get more business. The best way to get started is to dog site friends, neighbors and family and have them provide strong ratings through the platform. You may need to lower your prices in the beginning to get momentum started.
We also suggest tailoring profiles to small dogs only until you become more accustomed and can handle larger breeds.
Minors will need a parent or guardian to assist and vouch for you when leveraging on this website.
In addition, it also makes sense to create flyers and posters and hand them out to all your neighbors that have dogs.
You may also want to get create a Doggy Day at your local park as a launch for your business. Have your parents run a barbeque attendees, invite dog focused businesses so they can also market their products (and ask them to share in the cost), and have dog friendly activities. Have your dog owning neighbors to sign up and this can then become your marketing list to contact them for your dog sitting service.
Share of Wallet and Life Time Value
Never forget to make sure you increase your customers share of wallet. Offer grooming services while you are dog sitting such as bathing, brushing teeth and brushing the dog’s coat. You can offer dog walks through the park for an extra small amount.
And can even reach out to local pet businesses and strike a deal to offer some of their products to your customers at a discount. The more value you provide to your customers the more likely they will become repeat buyers.
How Much Will You Earn? $20 to $30 per hour of work.
Similar businesses
Cat Sitting, babysitting, house sitting, feeding small pets during vacations such as fish, lizards, etc, helping on farms such as feeding chicken and livestock.
Do Extra Chores
This is one of the easiest ways to make money as a child at any age. You may have a talk with your parents about giving you extra chores or other house works which are beyond what your age can do. Listed below are some examples of the duties you can do as a kid:
- Mow lawns
- Sweep the garage
- Help in gardening
- Plant-sit
- Help out with the laundry
- Wash the dishes
- Sweep the whole house
- Vacuum rooms
Do not close your services to just one chore. You have to find a combination of tasks to do to be able to maximize your help and earnings as well.
You also don’t need to limit yourself to chores around your own home. You can help others with their chores as well. If you know an elderly person in your neighborhood that could use a hand, it can be a great way to make some money on the side.
How Much Will You Earn? $2 per hour of work.
Similar businesses
Chores for small businesses, cleaning services for homes
Sell Holiday-Themed Items
A lot of people have their own events and gatherings during the holidays. As a child, you can look for inexpensive items that you can sell online or door-to-door on these busy days. Listed below are some of the examples of these initiatives:
- Sell egg dye kits or colored hardboiled eggs for families who have their own Easter backyard events. This will lessen the hassle of preparing for the adults.
- Offer your Valentine services by making Valentine treats like chocolate cookies or heart-shaped chocolates for gifts. You may also buy one-stemmed roses to complement these presents.
- Get orders a week or two before Thanksgiving and set up a pie delivery service on the day of this holiday.
- Create your own Christmas and New Year holiday cards and sell this online and in your neighborhood. You may also opt to offer a unique service by personalizing these cards.
The possibilities are only limited by your imagination. And you never know what idea can really take off and create a business for you.
How Much Will You Earn? Your earnings depend on the holiday-theme strategy you will choose.
Become An Online Reviewer
Some companies want to hear the opinion of children in regards to their products and services. They even ask for feedback regarding clothing and music before releasing them to the general public. Your opinion will guide theses businesses on how best to improve their products and how to launch them to the industry.
Aside from voicing your thoughts, you can even make more money by promoting these websites to friends and encouraging them to offer their services as well. Upon signing up, you should give your referral link to them so they can input this to the registration form.
As the pioneer of their work, you will receive 20 percent of all their earnings for the first 60 days and 10 percent in the following days. Not bad, right?
How Much Will You Earn? $3 per review.
Similar businesses
Online surveys, scanning parents shopping lists
Have A Garage Sale
Many kids have too many toys and other items that they have outgrown and no longer play with or use. The best thing to do is to set up a garage sale outside of your home. You can sell old gadgets, video game consoles, DVDs and old toys like Legos and collectible cards (Yugioh, Pokemon, etc.). In some cases, you may be sitting on expensive collectibles you might not even be aware of.
Another fast way to earn money is to include selling old clothes in your yard sale or at thrift stores. To increase your profit, you may also ask the participation of your other family members and give them a percentage of the earnings from selling their items.
If you want to gain ideas on how to run the best garage sale out there, try reading The Great Garage Sale Book by Sylvia Simmons.
Buy a copy now from AMAZON.COM
How Much Will You Earn? It depends on the item you are selling.
Similar businesses
Sell items on Kijiji.ca, Craiglist, and other online or newspaper classified for items you’re selling, got to a swap meet or market to sell you items, sell items on consignment at various shops
Collect And Sell Aluminum Cans
The first approach to how you can do this is to collect the soda cans you use in your house, rinse them out , crush them, and collect them in a separate trash can. Once the trash can has been filled, you can sell this to the scrapyard and earn money. This initiative might be a bit slow since you probably aren’t drinking soda everyday and the price per can is pretty low. So if you choose this strategy, you’ll need to step it up to the next level.
Ask for participation from people around you, such as friends, family, parent’s work friends, schools, neighbors, and local businesses. You can offer to provide them with a special garbage can and that you will come once a week to pick them up.
What’s great is that this is also a wonder cause to help reduce waste in the environment.
How Much Will You Earn? $0.50 per pound
Similar businesses
Scrap metal recycling, computer parts recycling, bottle recycling
Set Up Social Media Accounts For Adults
The kids nowadays are more masters of social media than those older than them. Hence, as part of this generation, you can quickly assist and help them set up and manage their accounts. You may also give them a series of lecture on the ins and outs of the social media for a small fee.
After serving a few clients, you can compile the most common issues and questions these adults face. From here, you can create your guide for them to use as a resource. Offering this guide to your clients will make you look more professional, which will push them more to refer you to their other friends.
How Much Will You Earn? $5 per hour of tutoring and $5 for the guide.
Similar businesses
Create websites, manage social media website for businesses, create online course
Sell Creative Services Online
If you are the creative part, there are side hustles online that you where can offer your services. Listed below are several websites you can go to.
Cafepress
Cafepress is the best avenue to start a shirt business. Sites like this accept t-shirt designs, and once a customer buys your submitted plan, the organization will print the shirt and send it to the one who ordered. As the designer, you will be given a certain amount of commission every time someone orders for your creation.
Fiverr
There are various services you can offer in this website. Examples include marketing, graphic design, and multiple types of writing categories. You can sell these for a minimum of $5. However, the real opportunity to make a large amount of money is by tailoring premium services to your clients.
For example, you can sell your article “How To Ask Someone To Prom” to a how-to website for $20. Make sure that you offer the right services to the right clients. You won’t be able to sell the same article at the same price to a dental service website.
Etsy
Etsy is a creative website where you can sell anything – from vintage yard sale finds, ink prints, or custom jewelry. If you have tried to customize specific items, you may post it on Etsy and decide your selling price. The average pricing on the site is around $25 per item.
How Much Will You Earn? A minimum of $5 per item.
Post Videos On YouTube
YouTube knows no age. Believe it or not, this seven-year-old kid is now a self-made millionaire simply by posting toy reviews . With this in mind, you can make serious money by creating entertaining or informative videos and upload it online. The higher the number of your viewers is, the more you will earn from the ads that go along with your video.
Take note that collecting a huge following will not happen overnight. This feat requires some time. But if you are patient enough, more and more viewers will come eventually. As a kid, however, you have to make sure to ask for the assistance of your guardian in this kind of initiative.
Try reading YouTube Secrets: The Ultimate Guide to Growing Your Following and Making Money as a Video Influencer by Sean Cannell. This book will give you the ins and outs of boosting your web traffic.
Buy a copy now from AMAZON.COM
How Much Will You Earn? The amount will depend on the number of videos you post and the number of followers and viewers that come with it.
Get into Photography
Are you the type of kid who has an eye for photography? If you are, then you should maximize this skill and find ways to get paid for it. You may post these pictures on websites that cater to photo buyers. You can license these photographs to stock photography sites such as Shutterstock or iStock.
If you still don’t have the trust of the customers to get high-paying gigs like proms, weddings, and birthdays, you can offer your services as an assistant to the chief photographer. This experience can be an avenue for you to learn and be exposed to this industry.
How Much Will You Earn? For newbie photographers, $10 is enough for a photograph. However, this will increase the more you increase your credibility.
Use your Drone for Cash
Did you get a drone for your birthday or Christmas and have been getting really good at flying it. Well if your drone has a high quality camera (720p or 1080p) you are sitting on a cash machine. Here are just a few examples:
- You can fly your drone and record soccer practices and games to help coaches show their players strategies and game play. You can leverage your drone to help
- You can record weddings, anniversaries, and special occasions for people so they can have a bird’s eye view of their moments on film
- You can work with real estate agents to make impressive views of the properties they are selling
- You can partner with home inspectors and roofers to help get a better view of roof and home issues
- You can even take great aerial pictures and film and post them on sites like footage.net and sell them to other users, companies, news outlets and more.
How Much Will You Earn? This hugely varies based on length of file, quality and if it’s for commercial use but even adults make a comfortable living selling their videos.
Final Words
Remember, as children, you have to know the value of money. It is vital to earning your own money, but it is more crucial to master the art of saving. With the combination of today’s advanced technology and your entrepreneurial spirit, the sky is the limit in coming up with your own income.
Check out How To Make Money for kids by Caleb Maddix to gain more ideas on this niche.
Buy a copy now from AMAZON.COM