my kid is getting desperate for money making ideas

[SparklyUnicorn]

My daughter is getting into succulent propagation. She sets up a little table on our street about once a month. She doesn't net that much, but it's whatever the modern equivalent of pin money is.

 

Wow, I have no idea what that even is.  Have to google it!

[wintermom]

Things I know 14 year olds do in our area:

 

- soccer or baseball officiating or linesman (they just take the course offered through the community)

- babysitting

- pet sitting

- mowing lawns/shovelling snow

- delivering flyers or newspapers

- working for their parent's private businesses 

- busking or playing music at various gigs (weddings, church services)

- starting their own business to sell self-made goods or provide services 

 

My dd and oldest ds are just finishing up a Business Entrepreneur course run for homeschoolers, though the course is regularly run in high schools across Canada. It provided them with excellent experience as the youth started up their own company, produced the goods, sold them at local malls and markets, did their own material purchasing, marketing, etc. Both my dc will be starting up their own businesses either this year or next. 

Edited April 27, 2016 by wintermom

[wendy not in HI]

There are some awesome ideas for kids and money!  I'm going to pass these along to my kids.  Here are some things that my kids have done in the past:

 

Neighborhood garbage can power washing business.  She gave fliers to the neighbors offering to power wash the day after garbage pick up.  She put her dad's power washer in the back of his truck, and went to the neighbors' houses.  She hooked the washer up to their hoses.  Stinky job!  But she made some good money that summer.  I can't remember what she put in the washer. I think she added a little dawn dish soap.  After the first house, she came back for a mop to scrub with a little.

 

House sitting.  Oldest 2 dd's took flyers around the neighborhood offering to water plants, mow lawns, pick up mail, etc.  They weren't planning to do pet sitting, but did end up feeding a couple hamsters and cats and changing litter.  It was pretty easy, and they had a few costumers over a couple of summers.  They hand watered a lot of gardens and often got to harvest tomatoes and cucumbers.

 

Dd #3 offered art camp to kids.  She offered it to two age groups, one for 3-4 year olds, one for 5-7 year olds.  She did two sessions for each age group.  She created a theme for the week and ideas for each day to go with the theme.  The camp was 2 hours each day for 4 days.  She was awesome with the kids, though I helped with some of the projects. I can't remember how much she charged, but I think it was like $20 for the week. She was about half the price of the parks and rec classes. She was doing it to earn money for a summer camp.  The kids had a great time, but it was a lot of work.  She learned that she should have limited the younger class to about 5 kids, and cut it back to about 3 days.  Several of the moms asked if she would offer it again during school breaks.  Unfortunately we moved out of the area and our next house had more carpet - a little tricky for kids and art.  I hope she can do that again in the future.  (I will add that she is really short, too.  It has made it tricky for her to get babysitting jobs when she is shorter than the kids she is watching.  But she's a great babysitter...)

 

Dd#2 worked for parks and rec at the tennis courts for a few summers.  She started working there the summer before 8th grade.  I think she was 14? (and really short, not quite 5 feet tall at that point. She doesn't seem to notice that she is short!) She helped with tennis classes for young kids and weeding and other odd jobs around the courts.  She was on the high school tennis team and several of the kids worked there each summer.  There seemed to be lots of different opportunities through parks and rec in the area, like planting flowers at the parks and helping with other kid activities.

 

DS is 12 and wants to do some babysitting.  I am going to let him take the Red Cross babysitting course and let him make up a babysitting flier to give to some friends.  He is really great with little kids and a good babysitter when his cousins are here and the moms are busy talking and not watching the kids... I think I will have him highlight that he loves to play - that he will play soccer and legos and clean them up!  I know it's not for everyone, but there are moms of 4 year old little ones who might like that.

 

I have hired my kids to help spread mulch around garden beds.  And weeding.  I'd be willing to hire neighbor kids to help when my kids are grown.

 

I have a friend who sells cupcakes and cookies at local farmers markets.  Local cottage laws allow people to bake and sell a small amount without a registered kitchen. I could see my dd#3 doing this.  

[SparklyUnicorn]

I guess he'll just have to wait.  Although not too much longer.  Most of these suggestions are just things that aren't possible around here or he simply does not have those sorts of skills (he isn't into sports). 

 

Some of these ideas are pretty cool and creative though.

 

 

[bethben]

My 15 year old has started doing online surveys for teens and gets paid for it.  He gets Amazon credit or "points" where he can bid for products like iPod shuffles and then sells those on eBay.  He's figured out their system and has used it to his advantage.

[athomeontheprairie]

My brother-in-law 15 . And just below the legal age where any company can hire him. He works for the school, and the city parks in the office as a ref. he gets paid $15 a game. he gave up six Saturdays in a row, but ref'ed five games each day , which is good money for here.

 

My dd10 advertised at the local senior center, and helps clean the houses of some elderly people who don't have it in the budget to hire a professional house cleaner to come in. she helps with dusting and vacuuming picking up taking out the trash, making beds, etc.

 

we are also in a very small community, and we know all the people whose houses she's helping in.

[SparklyUnicorn]

If you want to list his skill perhaps we could help him brainstorm. I seem to remember he is good with computer. ?..he could offer summer lessons in keyboarding, word, excel to middle schoolers.

 

Where would he do that exactly?

 

He is good at setting up computers, but geesh people are so sue happy and want nearly free computer help so I don't know about that either.  He once helped a neighbor with his computer set up.  Neighbor paid him a few bucks.  That was fine.  I knew the neighbor enough to know he wouldn't get mad about stuff nor be unfair about it.  But then once my husband sold a computer system for $25 and the woman who bought it seemed to think that it also came with unlimited support and called him about 10 times to ask him how to set it up.  My husband never sold computer anything again after that.  It was really crazy.

[T'smom]

I wouldn't give up on the babysitting idea just because he is a boy! If he is interested in babysitting- put the word out that he's available! I am always looking for a teenage sitter and I'd be fine with a boy. My MIL looked specifically for male sitters when dh was little- 30 years ago!- because she had triplet boys.

[fairfarmhand]

Do you or your husdband have any friends in professional settings?

 

At 14-15, my dd started working in a friend's real estate office. At first it was filing, taking out the trash, cleaning up, helping stage houses,,,but it's morphed into much more complicated stuff.

 

I'd think that many people would be glad to pay someone for these menial but VERY important tasks. These small things take oodles of time and are tedious, but having someone do it can free the worker up for more important money making things.

[fairfarmhand]

Perhaps your son could hire on as a mothers helper for a tired momma with a couple of active preschoolers.

 

I know when my son was 2-5 he wore me out and would have LOVED for an older boy to take him outside and wear him out a couple of afternoons a week. I'd have loved the fact that he would come home tired and dirty and ready for a nap.

[wintermom]

I guess he'll just have to wait.  Although not too much longer.  Most of these suggestions are just things that aren't possible around here or he simply does not have those sorts of skills (he isn't into sports). 

 

Some of these ideas are pretty cool and creative though.

 

It takes some time and intentional preparation to build up skills and experience to start making money. As much as a 14 year old may want to jump in and start making money right way (as my 14 yo would love to), sometimes they need to work on building up their skill-set first. As a parent, you can be on the look-out for opportunities for him.

[Anne]

I hire a couple of young boys (9 & 11 last year) to sweep my (long) driveway off every year and collect all of the gravel from the winter.

 

I've hired those same boys to do yard work, stack wood, all kinds of things that I just didn't want to do.

 

They're not big & strong, but they work pretty hard and as Tita Gidge said, I'm really happy to encourage their work ethic! My husband has taught them how to do some things that he wanted done, or wanted help with.

 

 

Anne

[Spryte]

These are great ideas! Saving them. :)

 

One thing I haven't seen mentioned: cafepress and zazzle. DS has a little shop, with our help, and sells t-shirts. No cost for us, it's more of a way to get his creative bug out. Once in a while we get an email that another shirt sold, which is fun.

 

DS also designed an app. It's on the App Store - but I will caution heavily against that. It required a ton of work for all of us, a lot of support, and the initial outlay was not cheap. It was a homeschool project we did together. It's a free app, only makes money through ads, and at this point - not financially worth it.

[Jenny in Florida]

At 14, in our area, kids can be hired to bag groceries at the supermarket. However, my son found that most traditional employment just isn't open to teens until at least 16.

 

If your son were mine, I would strongly encourage looking for an ongoing volunteer gig at least for the summer. Many day camps and summer programs use a ton of teen volunteers. It wouldn't earn him money now, but would allow him to develop skills and build connections, including making good impressions on folks who might be willing to serve as references later on.

 

My son put in nearly 300 hours of volunteer work between ages 14 and 16 with two large local organiztions (a science museum and a youth theatre program). He also moved into an unpaid assistant role at his dance school when that opportunity opened up and did that for a couple of years. As a result, when he needed to put together his first resume and apply for paid jobs, he had experience, skills and references to list. Although none of those hours resulted directly in a paycheck, those volunteer/unpaid "jobs" did provide many of the same emotional benefits that paid work would have given him. 

 

So, I would encourage my kid to look for volunteering opportunities related to things he already enjoys doing and to commit to doing those well and consistently for a decent chunk of time, considering that an investment in his future ability to earn money.

Edited April 27, 2016 by Jenny in Florida