Apparently, business is not an easy thing. Not every adult person thinks of being an entrepreneur, so what is entrepreneurship like for kids?
You would probably say, “Children should learn and play,” and you would be absolutely right. However, children engaged in doing business bring themselves more benefits than drawbacks. By implementing one of the suggested business ideas, any child will:
- develop thinking and learning skills;
- learn how to set goals and achieve them;
- understand the value of labor and money;
- acquire entrepreneurship skills earlier than others (this will help them handle business in adult life);
- become more confident in themselves and their abilities;
- get some practical knowledge that cannot be obtained at school;
- decide on their choice of a further profession easier;
- not waste time on useless activities like computer games or social media;
- learn how to dispose of the earned money correctly;
- be able to afford what parents can’t buy;
- in some cases, supplement the family budget, and even earn more than their parents.
Clearly, we do not encourage any kid to take away their childhood and force them to take up a business instead. On the contrary, the idea of engaging your offspring in business should come from your him himself. Some kids would show a desire to earn their own money or have an interesting and useful occupation that they can easily monetize.
There is plenty of business ideas for kids, and one should approach this choice creatively. It depends on the child’s age, skills, and knowledge. The average starting age for a child to launch his own business is 8-10 years, although keep in mind the younger your child is, the more help and support he would need from his parents.
If the child has not decided on one and is hesitating, help him. Observe the child’s hobbies and interests, what he likes and what skills he obtains already. Meanwhile, let’s recall the six most effective business ideas for kids, with TemplateMonster.
- Making Money “in the Neighborhood”
- Private Tutoring
- Selling Handmade Crafts
- Internet Business
- Business for Talented Children
- Sports Equipment Rental
1. Making Money “in the Neighborhood”
Who hasn’t babysat the neighbors’ kids or walked their pets for money? Organizing a local business is as easy as pie and doesn’t require extensive skills or knowledge. What kind of services can be offered by your offspring? The range is wide: running errands, babysitting, dog walking, wet cleaning in the house, watering plants, feeding animals, etc. Elder kids can also cope with mowing the lawn, cleaning the infield, plant cutting, and gardening.
If you want to provide local services, let everyone know what you offer. Write the ad announcement stating there is a child in your neighborhood ready to help with a particular kind of work. Better to include the price-list of provided services right away. Aside from sharing this ad in your locality, spread the word yourself among your friends and colleagues.
4 Useful Tips for the “Neighborhood” Business
- Along with the price-list, specify how much workload the child can handle. For instance, children can’t lift things heavier than seven lbs, so consider this fact if they need to carry heavy bags after shopping.
- The price for one cleaning should depend not only on the size and the number of rooms but also on the fact how much work needs to be done.
- Let the young businessman learn the basic safety rules when dealing with cleaning products, fertilizers for plants or electronic appliances like a lawnmower.
- Let the child walk only with small dogs and only on a leash. Prepare the walking route in advance.
Ensure the complete safety of your child, however, would not be possible without your constant control. You should always be aware what client your kid has gone to, and when one should come back. It’s preferable to take orders only from familiar neighbors but if the client is “new,” better to accompany the child. At the same time, keep track of the child’s workload. If one has no time to do their homework or is too tired, reduce the number of “orders.”
Remember that kids need to have spare time for useful activities with their friends outside and extracurriculars like sports, school clubs, etc.
2. Private Tutoring
Tutoring is an excellent alternative for both smart kids and teens in need of quick cash and parents who need their offspring to get better at some class. Providing intellectual services seems like a more pleasant thing to do, right? Your child doesn’t even have to be super good at some discipline, especially when it comes to tutoring preschoolers or primary school students. Most importantly, one should have excellent teaching or explaining skills.
Still, choosing a particular discipline like maths, history or foreign language will help your child focus on 1 particular thing. The good news is that tutoring doesn’t always imply teaching traditional science or languages. If the child is good at coding or using computer software like PhotoShop or video making programs, why not sharing this knowledge with somebody else? Things like that are always in demand, so don’t be afraid there won’t be any volunteers.
Speaking of new clients, finding ones at the start may not be that difficult. Aside from spreading the word at your own school, parents ask whether their friends/colleagues need a tutor for their own kids. You can also place an ad in the local newspaper and share the message on social media and local communities. If you take this business seriously, it even makes sense to create your own website.
Here is an example from TemplateMonster of how such websites might look like.
Molehine – Language School Premium Moto CMS 3 Template
If you have your own website, you can even organize online courses via Skype, Viber or other particular platforms that allow you to tutor up to several people at the same time. If your kid is a regular junior high or high school student, they will need to offer a service that is cheaper than the services that older tutors provide.
If your child wants to be a tutor, some work should be prepared in advance. He’ll need to find the necessary textbooks, research training materials and most importantly, draw up the lesson plan. Sometimes all the tutor will need to do is check their student’s homework or prepare one for the upcoming test.
3. Selling Handmade Crafts
Business ideas related to hobbies, handmade products can create a real boom among adults. Provided your kid has some excellent crafting skills and creativity, selling their handmade products can be very profitable. Here is what your child can sell:
- Knitting mittens, socks, slippers, hats, scarves, children’s suits;
- Manufacturing soap;
- Handmade jewelry;
- Wooden items like shelves and photo frames;
- Scrapbooking – decorating photo albums, photo frames, postcards;
- Decoupage – decoration of furniture, dishes, interior items by gluing colored paper cutouts.
How to Sell Handmade Items?
The child can show their items to friends and school pals. If the child’s friends want to support the kid in their first attempts to do business, there is a high chance they will become their friend’s first customers. You can also organize the garage sales nearby your house or during the local fair.
But all of this is nothing compared to online sales. Once you are confident that the kid’s product is in demand and it’s time to expand the business volumes, think of creating an online shop. This is how your online store can look like if you buy one of our TemplateMonster eCommerce web templates:
Nokshi – Handmade Crafts eCommerce Website Template
4. Internet Business
Let’s just admit that our kids can no longer live without electronic devices and properly-working WiFi. Gaming and social media is a huge issue today … but at the same time a great way to make money. Internet Business can bring more profits even a little child can handle it. What exactly? Here are 2 Internet business ideas you should try:
- Creating your own blog or a social media profile.
The child creates his own social media account on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook or Twitter or makes his own website. Hard to believe but thousands of kids make money by sharing their life moments and views online. If the blog gains enough readers, the person starts getting offers from advertisers, which brings bloggers quite a nice from profit from what they do. Inevitably, the prime criteria to make people love you as a blogger are charisma, the presence of acting talents and knowing how to speak or write well. The kid can make a thematic blog, which means he can devote all his posts to a specific topic, like cooking, handmade tutorials, English lessons, fashion and beauty, computer toys, etc. Videos reviewing toys and cartoons are gaining millions of views on YouTube at the moment, which makes video blogging (vlogging) a profitable niche. - Running your own website.
Another alternative to earn on ads is creating a webpage. Don’t think as if having your own website is time and money consuming. After all, you have affordable and even free TemplateMonster web templates for all kind of topics, from pets to cars and fashion.
Help your kids buy the template and leave the rest of the work to them. Let them show their imagination and creativity and fill in the website on their own. Find out if their information will be interesting to the targeted audience and think about what will help to increase the site’s popularity.
Undoubtedly, getting profits from such business is a hard job and kids should understand this. It might not bring any money in the beginning, so you got to stay patient and do your best to help the child raise the audience and get their first advertising offers. - Working with advertising services.
A vast number of existing Internet services would offer volunteers to watch commercials, click on links, read letters, take tests, play demo games and write reviews on ones, give answers in the questionnaires and much more. It’s not like your child will be paid hundreds of dollars per 1 thing, but it’s a good alternative if none of the described options fit them personally.
5. Business for Talented Children
Every parent believes his child is gifted. Indeed, every kid has unique skills that should be developed, and some of them can already bring profits. Let’s say, your child has a talent for drawing. One can take part in local art exhibitions and supported by sponsors, which let the best talents win monetary prizes. Spend a little time on research, read forums, post your child’s drawings online, perhaps, your one will become as popular as the 4-year-old Aelita Andre.
Aelita Andre is the youngest artist from Australia recognized by art critics, whose parents supported her talent and even organized her own art studio with everything necessary. At the moment, the girl’s paintings are already being sold for almost $1,000,000!
If the child has excellent acting or signing skills, make the dream of a million children come true. Sign one up for various castings, play in extras and send demos to recording studios. Communicate with people related to the movie or show business industry and tell about your talented child. Children get paid quite well for participating in ads and TV shows, especially if your child is charismatic and enjoys the process.
Finally, your girl or boy look attractive and get an offer to work in the model business, let one try it. This business is quite cruel, just like show business, so the only way to become successful here is to devote yourself and your child to modeling. Make sure that you and your kid are ready for such kind of pressure.
6. Sports Equipment Rental
To start such business without any significant investments is easy as long as your child engages a couple of other friends that own sports inventory like:
- bicycles, skateboards, rollers;
- helmets, other protection, skates;
- skis, sleds;
- frisbees;
- scooters;
- badminton and tennis rackets;
- toy weapons, etc.
The only thing left is to open the “rental point” in the backyard of your house and involve the other kids in playing games. This type of business implies thinking over the entire system of rental, including the rental price of each item, as well as the effort and time required to make the business successful. It’s not surprising that business teaches kids to be more attentive and responsible. A business also teaches kids many other qualities that will be useful in their adult lives.
End of the Line…
Summing up, it’s necessary to say that young business people are, first of all, children. They need attention, help, support, advice. In between business plan discussions and implementing these ideas in reality, don’t forget to praise and support your child at every stage and remind them of the fact that they should never put business ahead of their happy childhood with friends.
Read Also
Top 45 Ecommerce Business Ideas for 2018
25+ Best Kids & Children WordPress Themes 2018