I started making money when I was 12, babysitting. If I were to give my pre-teen self tips for earning extra money, I’d encourage myself to go into business for myself. I’d tell myself to start a blog! If you like to write, read How to Stay Motivated when You’re Starting a Blog.
Finding ways to work for yourself is the best way to make money, whether you’re a teenager or older adult like me. Entrepreneurs are adventurous and creative, and enjoy the challenge of finding different ways to make money! Most of the money making tips for teenagers on this list are entrepreneurial in spirit, but many involve earning money the old fashioned way.
Making money when you’re a teenager and feel like you can’t get a “real” job may require a bit of creative thinking…
1. Offer to digitise people’s paper photographs. My 60 year old friends don’t have time to scan and save their photos, but they have the money to pay you to do it! (I think this is the best way for teenagers to make money, which is why it’s number one).
2, Find ways to turn your hobby into a money making business (making cupcakes, making rubber stamps, creating tiles, taming lizards, and making natural organic soap are examples of hobbies that can make teens money)
3. Experiment with lemonade or homemade cookie stands (when I was a teen, I made R500 in three hours selling raspberry iced tea on a busy neighbourhood street)
4. Sell jewellery! Princess Jones says, “My mom would actually bring a shoe-box full of my jewellery to her office and sell to her coworkers for me.”
5. Work at a carnival or travelling fair. I did this when I was 13 years old when I travelled with the Bill Dillard Exhibition for a whole summer! I didn’t make a lot of money, but had a fantastic time
6. Mow lawns and do yard-work
7. Do extra chores around your house
8. Walk dogs
9. Get a paper route
10. Get paid to do surveys at home (this is an investment – sometimes teens have to spend money to make money)
11. Clean people’s cars or garages
12. Ask your parents for a raise in allowance in exchange for extra chores
13. Work at a fast food joint. “I worked at Hardees,” says Princess Jones. “It made me go to college; I worked with a son and mother who both worked the same grill.
14. Did I say walk dogs? Or wash cars
15. Weed gardens or rake leaves
16. Teach skating, gymnastics, or other team sports
17. Collect bottles or cans door to door (I earned money as a teen this way, and also found lots of bottles and cans all over the neighborhood. Some call it “collecting ditch bottles”)
18. Look for lost golf balls on the golf course, and sell them to golfers
19. Ask your parents if they can hire you to help them with their jobs
20. Learn how to make money blogging
21. Start websites or blogs for your grandparents
22. Take care of your neighbor’s pets or homes
23. Deliver community flyers
24. Get a job with Dickee Dee (a mobile ice cream selling bicycle service)
25. Host a garage sale (but don’t sell your family’s stuff without permission! That’s not the best way to make money when you’re 14)
26. Bus tables or wash dishes at a restaurant. Washing dishes was how fiction writer Shawn Proctor started out! Now he’s working on a bestselling novel!
27. Ask your parents’ friends if they’ll hire you
28. Ask your older brothers or sisters if they’ll pay you to do work for them. Perhaps you can assist them somehow.
29. Work at a summer camp or a day camp in the city
30. Work at the concession stand at a ball park (this was my second job as a teenager; my first was babysitting. The concession stand was a much more fun way to earn money, but I made more money babysitting)
31. Sell stuff at craft fairs and flea markets
32. Be a mother’s helper (it’s different than being a babysitter – it’s more like being a nanny, but the parents are around most of the time)
33. Teach seniors and elderly people how to use computers
34. Running errands for housebound, ill, or disabled people
35. Post flyers around your neighborhood, advertising your services as a teen willing to do odd jobs around the home and garden
36. Tutor your peers…and if you’re a teen with money management skills, you can teach other teens how to reach their financial goals.
Making money is easy if you are prepared to put in the effort and then do it properly !
It’s all about work ethic, if you have a strong work ethic (and if you learn to sell) you will never be unemployed throughout your whole life
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