In the last 20 years, the world has changed dramatically. With advances in technology and the job market in flux, entrepreneurship has become a more viable and attractive option for many young people, including teenagers.

More and more young adults are becoming interested in entrepreneurship, and there are many opportunities for them to succeed. The barriers to entry into the business world are lower than ever, and the rewards for successful businesses are higher.

We are seeing more adolescents and students pursuing an entrepreneurial path or seeking out early business training, which is why we created Beta Bowl. Beta Bowl is a hands-on entrepreneurial immersion for students who want to amass this skill set and gain real-life entrepreneurial experience early.

Why You Should Become a Teen Entrepreneur

There are many benefits to being a teen entrepreneur, or the parent of a teen entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship is a unique path that can empower those who embark on it. Whether a teen finds immediate success or faces setbacks and challenges, the entrepreneurial ride is a varied and educational one.

list three things teens will learn from entrepreneurship 1. Self-confidence 2. Analytical and problem-solving skills 3. Resourcefulness

No matter what route they choose, teens with entrepreneurial skills will have a wider set of abilities than their friends and colleagues. They’ll also have a deep, nuanced view of the larger challenges their organization faces. This unique perspective will give them a big advantage in school, work, and life in general, setting them up for success in any field. One of the best things about being entrepreneurial is the ability to create your own independence and financial stability, instead of being stuck working for someone else and relying on a steady paycheck. This should give teens a sense of empowerment and safety, no matter what the job market looks like.

Be sure to check out our fun and accessible finance course for teens, pre-teens, and young adults at Learning Financial Independence – we talk a lot about starting your own business and how to handle the finances!

Business Ideas for Teens 

The biggest misconceptions that parents and teens often have about starting a business have to do with money and expertise. Most teens who want to start a business, but haven’t yet, believe they lack the necessary funds and/or the necessary skills, intellect, or expertise. While there are some businesses that may require millions in funding and a genius-level IQ, there are many more that don’t.

In fact, there are tons of businesses a teen can start today without investing more than a few weeks’ worths of allowance, that they can scale and grow into large, lucrative businesses. In most cases, those businesses don’t require a technical genius or someone with an MBA from Stanford…here are a few examples:

Idea: Pet Sitting or Training…or Doggy Daycare in the Summer

There are many ways for an animal-loving entrepreneurial teen to make money, including pet sitting, walking, training, or a doggy daycare business. These businesses require no startup cost. Apps like Wag! and Rover make it easy for people to find a dog walker or sitter with the click of a button, but there is something to be said for the familiarity of a friendly face.

Teens could make more money walking pets or sitting for them by going door-to-door and talking to neighbors and friends’ parents in person. They could also take in multiple pets at once if they’re home during the summer.

How to Get Started

The most straightforward way to start a pet sitting, walking, or training business is by going door-to-door in your neighborhood or contacting the pet owners you already know and offering your services. You could emphasize that you live nearby as a big selling point, rather than trusting their pets with strangers from apps.

If you want to start your own pet-sitting business, you can create a profile on pet-sitting apps and promote your service on your own social media. You could also start a referral program, where you offer a discount to anyone who refers you to another pet owner. As summer approaches, you can start telling your pet-sitting and walking clients about your doggy daycare and offer to book their stays ahead of their planned vacations.

Idea: Local Gardening or Lawn Mowing

For teenagers who are okay with yard work and physical labor, a gardening or lawn mowing business can be very profitable. A lot of people find gardening and lawn maintenance to be a pain and would rather hire someone to do it so they don’t have to. In fact, in neighborhoods where the yards are kept up well, it’s not uncommon for families to spend a lot of money every month on services like these.

A great selling point might be to offer cheaper services that are just as good as the competition – you will be able to get more customers and make more money.

How to Get Started

Although it may not be challenging to establish a gardening or lawn maintenance business, you must confirm that you have access to the essential tools. Most likely, you will need a lawnmower and perhaps a rake. Also, depending on the specific job duties, additional gardening tools may be required.

If you want to start a lawn mowing business, the first thing you should do is check if your parents have any of the necessary tools. If not, see if you can borrow or rent them from someone else. In addition to the tools, you’ll need customers. If you live in a neighborhood, this should be easy to find. Just go door to door and offer your services. But make sure you do your research first.

You can find out which gardening and lawn maintenance companies your neighbors are using and get an idea of their prices. Make sure you offer a more attractive deal, with a bigger discount to get them to switch. You can also offer a one-time trial discount, and then offer a discount to those who sign up for multiple weeks or months of lawn maintenance. Locking in months of recurring revenue from the start is a good idea.

Idea: Custom Design Work (Pimp My “You Name It”)

A crafty or custom design business could be a fun opportunity for artistic and creative teenagers to make money. You may even become a popular designer that everyone wants to hire. Custom design work is appealing because you don’t have to create a product from the beginning. You can just alter it to how you want it. For example, you could customize sneakers, skateboards, cowboy boots, or purses.

A lot of money is paid for design work that is handmade and one of a kind, for example a painting with added details like lace or beads, or even graffiti-style art. This is a cool way to put your own unique spin on someone’s item and turn it into something truly special. You can also charge more for work that is handmade and one-of-a-kind, since people see the value in art that isn’t mass-produced and required your time, talent, and creativity.

How to Get Started

There are a few ways to get a custom design business started, which include creating an Etsy profile for your services, creating social media pages to promote your offer, and sending out flyers or emails to your contacts, pitching your new business.

Although it may be helpful, you don’t need to start by getting a few commissions from people you know. Having picture examples of your work and testimonials from satisfied customers will help you get started. Once you get a few customers, you can grow your business by getting referrals. Depending on the season, you may want to offer a special holiday style design or limited-time discount.

Idea: Homemade Small Batch Pet Treats

If you like to bake, are good with animals, and don’t mind doing some research, starting a homemade pet treat business could be a good fit for you.

There are many ways to sell homemade pet treats. You can make them to order and sell them online, have a stand at a local market, go door-to-door to take orders, or get a spot at a local farmer’s market. Make sure the treats include the proper ingredients and nutrition that are good for pets and that they enjoy.

How to Get Started

To begin making your own pet treats, research the different types of pet treats available and learn about the ingredients used and cooking processes involved. Try making your own treats with different combinations of ingredients to see what your pet likes best.

find what works best for you and then marketing it to pet owners that you know, who in turn provide feedback on how their pets liked the treats. This feedback can be used to perfect your formula, after which you can begin to scale your production.

You can use a website and social media to take orders, and if you get enough business, you may need to hire help and outsource production.

Idea: Private Tutoring, Test Prep, or Lessons

If you’re a teenager with a talent for a particular subject, you could be successful starting a business giving private lessons. For example, if you find a particular academic subject easy, you could offer to tutor your classmates who are struggling. Similarly, if you’ve done well on tests like the SATs or ACTs, you could sell your services as a tutor and test-prep provider.

If you’re good at something, you might as well turn it into a way to make money. This is especially true for parents who are already spending a lot of money to help their teens prepare for college. If you’re good at music or theater, for example, you could offer private lessons to students who are struggling.

How to Get Started

You can start a private tutoring, test prep, or lessons business with little to no startup costs. Your target market is typically teens who go to the same school as you. You can advertise by hanging up flyers in the school or in relevant classrooms.

In addition to talking to your friends about tutoring, you could also try sending emails to the parents of students in your classes, or asking your teachers for introductions. Many high school teachers are willing to help struggling students by connecting them with successful ones.

Idea: Social Media Marketing or Branding

Every business need a social media presence and teens are often the very best people to help build a social media marketing plan.  Social media is a big part of young people’s lives, so we would be missing out if we didn’t make use of it. For those who are good at using social media or are willing to learn, this could be a very successful type of business.

Many small businesses and mom and pop shops don’t know how to use social media for their business, or they need a complete digital rebranding to reach customers online. They would rather pay someone who is familiar with social media to help them navigate this strange territory.

How to Get Started

If you search the internet, it looks like there are a lot of people competing to start a social media marketing or branding company. However, there are some easier ways to get a job, which would be especially beneficial for teenagers. A good strategy to use to get on the good side of small business owners is to go to their store and offer your services in person. They might not even be aware that they could get social media marketing services online, so it would be up to you to let them know what they’re missing out on.

If you demonstrate how you can improve their business with things like a stronger online presence, increased sales, and appealing to younger customers on social media, they may be interested in working with you. You can offer them a lower price for the first month as a trial, and then offer a discount for signing up for multiple months. This way, you can create a more stable income, and plan out a social media marketing strategy for the next few months that they’ll want to see through to the end.

Plans for Your Teen Business

As a teenager, it is never too early to start your business. The sooner you start, the more time you will have to achieve success. When you plan your business, think about the topic or industry you’re selecting and make sure that you have a real interest in or passion for the subject, in addition to the financial potential it may have.

When you have found the specific idea you would like to follow, you need to learn as much as you can about your target market. Talk to your friends, associates, or anyone who falls into your target market to get an understanding of what they want, what they like, and what they do not want. This will help you to give them the best possible service. Also, find out what your competitors are offering, and how you can change your service to make it better, faster, or cheaper. This will make it more valuable to customers and help you to stand out from the competition.

Come up with a growth plan, but be willing to make changes based on feedback. Also, testimonials from happy customers are more valuable than paid advertising, so even if you have to give your product away for free at first, it will be worth it.

Rules, Regulations, and Taxes for Your Teen Business

If you want to start a business, there are some things you need to do to stay legal and make sure your business is successful. For example, if you’re selling food, you need to have the proper licenses and follow health codes. If you’re setting up your business on someone else’s property or at a farmer’s market, you need to make sure you have the proper permits and pay any required fees. Following these rules will help you run a successful business.

If you start making a significant amount of money, you’ll want to incorporate your business and file taxes. You can do this easily online, but make sure to do your research first to choose the right type of entity and file the correct taxes. Sites like Incorporate.com and LegalZoom can help with this process.

Dropshipping

The supplier will get the products delivered to the customer directly. The customer pays you the retail price and you pay the supplier the difference between the retail price and their wholesale price. Drop shipping is a low investment way to start an online or ecommerce business in India. Dropshipping allows you to start a business without having to procure or store products. You need to set up an online retail store, and then partner with a drop shipping supplier. When a customer orders from your store, you will need to forward the order to the supplier. The supplier will then ship the products directly to the customer. The customer pays you the retail price, and then you pay the supplier the wholesale price.

After an order is placed on your online store, the dropshipping supplier will process and ship it to your customer. You will then receive payment for the order, which you will use to pay the product cost to the dropshipping supplier after deducting your percentage. To get started, all you need to do is tie up with dropshipping suppliers and market their products on your online store.

Handmade Products

You can start an online business selling personalized handmade products if you’re good at arts and crafts. DIY is currently trending, with many people preferring to give personalized gifts or products to their family and friends for occasions such as birthdays, weddings, and farewells. Millennials in particular are more likely to buy personalized products online to decorate their homes or for use at parties, instead of visiting physical stores.

You can generate income by creating and selling products such as accessories, jewelry, home decor, wall hangings, etc. By displaying your products on social media or other websites, you can market them to receive more orders. The only investment required is for the materials needed to create the product.

Photography and Videography

If you’re good at photography or videography, you can start your own business. There’s always a need for photographers and videographers for special occasions. You could even charge to take creative photos at friends’ or relatives’ birthdays or events. Many occasions such as weddings, parties, themed birthday parties, and pre-wedding events like showers, engagement parties etc. require a videographer. This is a low-cost business with high potential profits. All you need is a good camera or video recorder to get started. Take photos and videos and post them on social media or even Whatsapp to contacts and get bookings.

If you’re interested in photography or videography, you can freelance to take photos or videos of events or products. Companies often need product photos or videos to market them, so this could be a good way to sell your photos or videos. You can also upload your original photos to your website and sell them to interested people.

Babysitting

Many couples who work require a babysitter to look after their kids for at least a few hours. This may be after the kids come home from school until the parents come home, or on weekends.

It can be difficult to get parents to trust you enough to hire you as a babysitter for their kids, but you can start by babysitting your relatives’ and neighbors’ kids. Ask them to refer you to their friends and family who might need a babysitter. You don’t need any investment for this–all you need is to like kids, be good at taking care of them, and be able to keep them entertained.

Pet Sitting

People often have pets at home that need to be taken care of in their absence. As such, many people are in need of pet sitting services to look after their animals while they are away. If you have a passion for animals, you can start your own pet sitting business to help others in your community.

There is no investment required to start a pet sitting business, other than knowing how to take care of pets. Market your service to family and friends, and ask them to refer you to people with pets.

Tutoring

If you are a good student, you can start an online tutoring business where you can teach lower-class students. Many parents prefer taking tutoring classes for their children, which give individual attention. You can tutor children of lower classes in your school or neighborhood. You can even tutor children at your home.

To conduct an online tutoring class, you will need a good PC or laptop with high internet connectivity. You will also need a room in your house for tutoring and a board. You will need to spend some time preparing for the class and the course and check the assignments given to students.

Youtube Channel

You can start a youtube channel about anything you’re passionate about, such as recipes, makeup tutorials, singing, dancing, traveling, educational content, general knowledge content, home decor ideas, craft and DIY ideas, etc. You can make money from the views of the videos on your youtube channel.

You can start a youtube channel with just a good camera, some time and an internet connection to edit and upload videos. It may take awhile to start generating revenue from the channel, but as it grows, you can earn good revenue from it. Promote your channel to your friends and family to help it grow and get subscriptions.

Blogging and Vlogging

You can create a blog and write quality content to post online. Vlogging is another option where you can create content to post on youtube. When you choose a topic for your post, make sure it is something you are interested in. This can be anything from food, fashion, lifestyle, traveling, technology review, etc. You can make money from your blog through affiliate marketing or advertising. Blogging and vlogging are both great ways to make some extra money. You don’t need to invest a lot of money to get started. All you need is a laptop and an internet connection.

Dance Classes

Dance classes can be conducted either online or in-person, depending on the preference of the instructor. No investment is required for online classes other than a laptop and internet connection, whereas for in-person classes, an open space or room is necessary. Instructors may teach dance to kids in their neighborhood or choreograph dance performances for groups performing on occasions such as marriages, engagement ceremonies, festivals, etc.

 Yoga Classes

When you have learnt yoga, you can start yoga classes at home. Many people are interested in yoga classes as they help to release stress, relax the body and mind. You can have an hour-long class for people in your neighborhood, or start an online yoga course for your friends or college mates. You will need a plain room in your house or a hall for conducting class, and a laptop with internet connection for an online class.

Conclusion

It is beneficial for teenagers to become entrepreneurs as it is a more secure career option in the future. With technology rapidly changing and jobs being replaced by automation, entrepreneurship is a more stable path. In addition, it makes our children independent and gives them the skills and confidence to create their own success.

If you’re a teen who is motivated, creative, or just interested in exploring your own path, you should definitely take the time to explore entrepreneurship and try to build your own business. You can do this by doing your own research, using the suggestions above, teaming up with a family member or friend, or by taking part in a program like Beta Bowl, which will give you all the resources and instructions you need to take an idea from conception to a viable business.

No matter what business they choose, the experience will be an invaluable one and well worth the time and effort they put in, regardless of the outcome.