Welcome to this post about teen business ideas!
If you’re reading this than I am going to assume that you are a teenager and you’re looking to start a business. If that’s true, congrats!
Starting a business is a teen is a lot to be proud of. Not only do you have a good chance at making some decent money, but you’ll also learn a TON about running a business.
I won’t lie to you, it’s not easy. If you think that everything will work out just the way you want it, I’m sorry to tell you that won’t happen. You should expect things to go wrong. In fact, you should expect almost everything to go wrong.
Being an entrepreneur is about fixing problem after problem. It can get really discouraging at times, but it also can be unbelievably rewarding.
Something I read recently said that entrepreneurs experience the lowest of the lows, but they also experience the highest of the highs. If you’re willing to fight through the lows, you’ll have some amazing highs ahead.
I have compiled a list of 15 teen business ideas. These are ideas that I believe that teens can do just as well as adults. So read this post, find one that interests you, and get started! Without further ado, here are 15 teen business ideas!
Teen Business Ideas
The first five business ideas on this list are ones that almost any teenager can do. You don’t need any special skills or equipment. As long as you’re willing to put in the work, you can be successful at any of these.
Babysitting
We’ll start off with a classic, babysitting. I bring this up because I think this is perhaps the easiest business to succeed at on this list. All you need to do is a little bit of word of mouth marketing, and you’ll land your first gig. If you do a good job, you’ll be called back again and people will spread the news. This way, you’ll land more gigs! Be professional, go above and beyond, and most of all, have fun with the kids! That way they beg for you to come back.
Landscaping
If you’re looking to make some good money consistently, landscaping might be right for you. You can mow in the spring and summer, rake leaves in the fall, and shovel snow in the winter, all the while picking up other odd jobs here and there. Find yourself a dozen houses or so, and you can be busy all year round. If you offer year-round services at a cheap rate, people will love to do business with you because of the convenience that you offer them. I think a lot of people would love to know that they could have their lawn/outdoor area be taken care of all year round consistently without having to find a new person to do it every time.
Pet-sitting/House-sitting
I’m not sure how consistent this would be, but if you found a few consistent people who needed help, pet-sitting/house-sitting could be a business for you. Most of the time this consist of feeding pets, walking pets, talking out the trash, watering plants, etc. You would most likely need to have a decent relationship with somehow before they let you into their house, but if you have enough people like that in your life it could be a good side hustle for you.
Cleaning/Organizing
If you are OCD like me, you could start a cleaning/organizing business. There are so many things that you could clean, cars, houses, boats, etc. As far as organizing goes, many people actually pay to have their stuff organized. If you enjoy cleaning and organizing this could be a good business for you to get into. But, be prepared for some disgusting/disorganized spaces that you might need to clean and organize.
Junk Removal
You could start a junk removal business as a teen. The business model is pretty simple. People pay you to take their stuff away and then it is your job to get rid of it. Most of what you’ll get will probably just need to be thrown away or donated. However, there may be a few items that you can even sell to earn more money. It’s definitely some hard work, but if you’re willing and able than it could be a great business for you.
Tech Business Ideas
If you happen to have some technology skills or knowledge, the next five business ideas are all related to tech. If you’re good with tech, one of these business ideas might be right for you!
E-Commerce
The first tech business idea is an e-commerce store. There are so many different business models involving e-commence. You have dropshipping, reselling, creating your own products, etc. E-commerce stores can either be massive successes or complete failures depending on what products you pick and how well you drive traffic to your site.
Social Media Manager
As teens, there is probably nothing we no more about than social media. That’s why being a social media manager could be a great business for you! All you need to do is contact a few businesses in your local area and see if they would be interested in having you manage their social media profiles. If they agree, you’ll need to post things to their social media pages every now and then. But, the best part is, all you have to do is create the content and post it. It’s not like a regular business where you have to put in a ton of time to make money. However, you do have to know what you are doing in order to retain your customers.
Tech Help
Along with social media, teens also know a lot about tech that the older generations may not. That’s why a great business model could be offering tech help. There’s so many different things you could do to help people with tech. You could solve issues they are having with software, advise them to get new hardware, show them how an interface works, or teach classes on how tech gadgets work. It’s not as clear cut and easy to get customers, but it’s one area where you could add a lot of value as a teenager. If you know a lot about tech, maybe it’s worth some more research.
PC Building
Now if you’re into computers, especially desktop PCs, you could start a PC building business. The idea is simple, buy individual products and assemble them into a PC that is sold lower than what others sell it for. For example, a PC that is worth $500 could be assembled for parts that only cost $400. Then, you sell it for $450, and make a $50 profit. It might not bring in a lot of money, but it could if you got the system down and scaled the business properly. But, be careful, you have to know what you are doing.
Website Designer
Finally, you could be a website designer. If you figure out how to create websites on WordPress or another website builder, you could turn that skill into a very profitable business. What you would do is contact businesses in your area that don’t have a website yet, and offer to build them one for a few hundred dollars. Or you could redesign a website if they already have one. The thing is, you could build their website in 10 hours and be paid $500 in which case you would earn $50/hr which is a lot for a teenager.
Other Business Ideas
Finally, here are five other business ideas you could try if you didn’t like the first ten on this list. But, I will warn you that these ideas are a lot harder than the rest. Not to say that you couldn’t do them, but just be prepared to work hard to succeed at them.
Flipping
You’d be surprised to know how many things you could flip and resell for a profit. I know a few friends personally that flip shoes. But you could also do this with video games, books, tech, or even cars if you wanted to. If you know how to find items on sale and know where you could sell them for a better profit, it could be a great business for you.
Tutoring
If you are somewhat smart and have the ability to teach others, you could be a tutor. Tutors are paid well and it’s a relatively easy business to operate as long as you can get a solid customer base. I would just make sure that you know the subject well enough and you have the ability to explain it to someone else and have them understand it.
Freelancing
You could become a freelancer as a teen! Believe it or not, my main source of income is freelancing and I am only 17 at the time of writing this. I work on Fiverr, a freelancing platform. I do data entry, virtual assistant work, website design, business plans, etc. If you want to hear more about my story and how I make money on Fiverr, check out this page. There are plenty of platforms like Fiverr that can allow you to make money from home.
YouTube Channel
YouTubers make some serious money and have a pretty darn good time doing it. But, it is very hard work to become a successful YouTuber. If you’re willing to put in the work and have something the world would watch, give it a try! But, don’t expect an overnight success. In fact, you might go years without making any progress, but eventually, you will as long as you put in the work and keep getting better.
Podcast
One industry that is really taking off is the podcast industry. People love to listen to something while they are doing things like working out and driving. It’s similar to a YouTube channel, but you focus more on the audio aspect of things rather than the video. The industry is growing fast and this could be the perfect time to jump in!
CENTS Analysis
With all of these ideas, you might struggle to narrow it down to one idea that you want to pursue. If that is the case, I would suggest using CENTS analysis, a process I learned about in The Millionaire Fastlane by MJ DeMarco.
In order for a business to be successful, it needs to adhere to the five main letters of the CENTS acronym.
C – Control – First off, you need to be able to control every aspect of your business. The best way that DeMarco describes it is that if someone else can flip a switch and shut down your business, then you don’t control your business. For example, if you use Amazon affiliates to make money and Amazon shuts down your account, you no longer have a business.
E- Entry – Next, the business needs to have a high barrier to entry. If your business has a lot barrier to entry than everyone will be doing the business. Therefore there will be too much competition for you to compete with. So, the higher the barrier to entry, the less competition you will face because fewer people will enter that space.
N – Need – There needs to be a need for your business. Another way to put it would be a problem that you are solving, or a market that could benefit from your business. Someway or another, you need to add value to people’s lives. The more value that you add, the more money you will make.
T – Time – Your business should be detached from your time. Meaning, that your business needs to be somewhat passive where it doesn’t require your time in order to operate. Time is limited, and therefore so will your earnings if your earnings are attached to time.
S – Scale – Finally, your business needs to be scale-able. In order to scale a business, you need to either increase the number of units sold/customers impacted, or increase your prices. For example, there is only a set number of people who will buy from a lemonade stand in your neighborhood, but there’s millions amount of people who might purchase your book.
CENTS analysis is now the tool I use to tell if a business idea is good or not. It’s really hard to fulfill all 5 categories, so I try to shoot for at least 4. I know that if I can hit 4 categories, the business can be successful, I just might not become a millionaire from it.
The Takeaway
That’s it! There are 15 Teen Business Ideas that you could start today. Pick one that sounds interesting, that you have some background knowledge in, or that you think you would succeed in, and try it! You’ll never know whether or not you could succeed at it until you try!