As a mom who wants her children to learn the value of a dollar and the importance of hard work, I’ve spent some time helping them figure out how to make money as a kid. It’s definitely not easy! They’re young, inexperienced, and have limited transportation.
As a result, finding money-making opportunities as a kid is a challenge. However, there are always opportunities as long as you have the right mindset and know where to look.
Where to Start
One of the easy ways to make money as a kid is to start doing housework to earn an allowance. This is the perfect way to introduce the concept of earning income. It’s also the ideal way to help your child gain experience and skills to earn money outside of home.
Once your child has learned some basic skills at home, he or she can offer to provide services to other people you know, either friends or neighbors. Services like babysitting and mowing lawns are always in demand.
Depending on the season, other skills your child can hone at home are:
- Shoveling Snow
- Washing Cars
- Weeding
- Raking Leaves
- Spreading Mulch
If your child is a strong student, tutoring is another great way to earn some extra cash.
How to Get Customers
Once your child has developed some skills that you’re certain others will find valuable, the best way to drum up business is word-of-mouth. If you’re willing to help your child market his business, tell your friends, family, neighbors and co-workers that your son is available and looking for lawn mowing jobs over the summer.
If you want your child to drum up her own business, suggest that she design and print flyers to give to neighbors. Encourage her to mention her availability when interacting with adults and help her practice delivering her pitch so she can do so with confidence.
Finally, urge your kids to think creatively about how to make their services stand out. When my kids were young, a small group of teen girls formed a babysitting “company” in our neighborhood. Because there were four of them, the likelihood that one of them was available when I needed was always high so they were always my first call.
How to Make Money as a Kid Entrepreneur
Many young entrepreneurs start out with a lemonade stand. This is a low-cost, easy way to learn the basics of selling. But to generate some real cash, think beyond the lemonade stand.
Sell Ice Cold Drinks Where People Are Hot and Thirsty
Load up a cooler with juice boxes and bottled water and bring it to a local playground or a sibling’s sporting event to sell to parents and their kids.
Sell Homemade Items
Crafty kids can make decent money selling items they make. Have your kids check out Etsy for ideas. Or they can search for DIY or homemade gifts on Pinterest to find potential projects.
Once your child has created some pieces to sell, encourage him or her to set up a stand at your next yard sale. Or, help your child reserve a table at a local craft fair or flea market. Your child can even hire you as an employee or salesperson and learn about paying salaries and/or commission.
If you’re comfortable with the idea, you can help post them online. Consider some of these online marketplaces:
- Ebay
- Craigslist
- Etsy
- Facebook (in local sales groups or on a page you set up as a storefront)
Sell Anything on Fiverr
If you haven’t used Fiverr, it’s hard to understand what a great resource it is both for finding services and for selling them. People list “gigs” that are available for just $5 each (hence, the name Fiverr). Gigs can be anything from designing your business card to a video of someone singing “Happy Birthday” to the person of your choosing.
So whether your child likes to sing, draw, write, create graphics, or play video games, chances are there’s a way to make money from that skill on Fiverr.
As you can see, there are plenty of opportunities for kids to make money, despite their youth and inexperience. With a little bit of brainstorming and a willingness to work, soon your kids can be stuffing their piggy banks!
How would you make money indoors with your family and you never go outside? Also not by being crafty or by doing chores.
That’s tougher, but not impossible. With parent permission and oversite, a blog or vlog is one option. I’m not crafty, but I find graphics to be different. If you enjoy and can do graphics, you can have your parents set up an account to sell them online (e.g. Etsy). Also, check out Fiverr. People sell all sorts of things there for $5 and chances are, you can come up with a way to make money there (e.g. sing Happy Birthday, do a dramatic reading, make up a poem or rap). I’m not sure about their guidelines for minors though so you’ll have to make sure it’s allowed.