10 Great Business Ideas For Teens (Start Earning Cash This Week)

Maybe, instead of working for a traditional employer, you’ve considered starting your own business.

There’s no reason you need to wait until adulthood to become a successful entrepreneur.

Top Business Ideas For Teenagers

Here is a short list of business ideas you can implement right now to begin earning money on your own schedule.

1. Babysitting

Are there lots of younger children in your neighborhood or your family/friend circle? Why not start a babysitting business?

Of course, there are skills you should have if you want to be a babysitter. You should be good with children and like caring for them.

You also have to be mature and responsible. The most successful babysitters are the ones that both parents and kids appreciate.

Parents prefer babysitters who are disciplined with their kids and make responsibility a priority. Kids prefer babysitters who will interact and play with them.

You can advertise your babysitting business via social media, on a neighborhood app, or by sending out emails. You could also hand out flyers to neighborhood homes.

Spread the word by telling friends of your parents and family members you’re looking for jobs. Set your hourly wage beforehand so you know what to tell parents about your rates.

Many babysitters charge a higher rate for babysitting multiple children, too. If you like kids, this could be a great business for you.

2. Pet Sitting

Maybe you prefer caring for dogs and cats over caring for kids. Why not start a pet-sitting business? Many pet owners go out of town for vacation or for work purposes. You could offer your services to care for their pets.

It’s important to note that some pet owners will only need you to check in on their pet once or twice a day. For instance, cats can stay home alone as long as they’re fed regularly.

However, dog owners may need you to take their dog into your home to watch it. This is especially true if they’re going out of town.

You’ll want to get your parent’s permission first before you offer that type of service. Choose your rates and advertise the same way you would for babysitting.

3. Dog Walking

Being a dog walker can be another good business idea. If there are lots of dogs in your neighborhood, you could offer to walk them.

Set your hourly rate and advertise to dog owners near you. If the dogs get along with other dogs, you could walk three, four or more dogs at a time. This will increase your income.

If you are good with dogs and can be responsible when walking them, this might be the business for you.

To make it easier, check out Rover which is an app that will connect you with people that need their dog to be walked.

4. Lawn Mowing

Do you like doing yard work? How about starting a lawn mowing business? You’d have to get your parents’ permission to use their lawn mower first. Or you could buy your own.

Advertise to neighbors by handing out flyers. Offer to take this tedious chore off of their hands. Make some money in the process.

If you live in a northern state where there’s snow in the winter, you could offer snow shoveling services as a part of your business, too.

5. Mobile Car Wash

One chore people have a hard time finding time for is cleaning their car. You could start a mobile detailing business and help them out. Here’s how that would work.

You would go to each client’s home to wash their car on weekends or after they get home from work. This is always a nice benefit for clients.

First, you’d clean the inside; remove garbage, vacuum it out, and wash the inside of the windows. Then, you’d use the client’s hose and water, your soap, bucket and rags and clean the outside of the car.

Be sure to bring towels to dry it off when you’re done, too.

Choose an hourly rate that ensures you make enough money to cover work time and travel time. Advertise your services on a neighborhood app, via flyers, or by asking family or friends for business.

6. House Cleaning

Are you good at cleaning the house? If so, why not start a house cleaning business? You could go to a client’s home and do dusting, vacuuming, and light clean up.

Or, if you’re great at organization, you could work with a client to organize their garage, basement or other parts of their home.

Choose an hourly rate and try to give a quote based on how long it will take to do the job.

7. Mother’s Helper

A mother’s helper is a little bit different from a babysitter. A mother’s helper usually works when a parent is home. They’ll do various tasks as they help parents care for the children.

They might clean up the house or do dishes. Or, they might play games with the children while the mom works from home. Each client will likely have you do different tasks so they can focus on their tasks.

This can be a good job for people who like kids but may not be comfortable being alone with them.

8. Task Runner

If you have a bicycle and live in close proximity to local businesses, why not start a business as a task runner? You could do minor errands and tasks for local residents, such as:

Small shopping trips
Trips to the post office or library
Small cleaning or other home tasks
Short delivery tasks

Or others. Just make a list of tasks you’re willing to do, and list your services on a neighborhood app or hand out flyers to neighbors.

Be sure to have your prices set beforehand, or state that you’ll give a price based on the task.

9. Doggie Doo Scooper

Do you have a lot of dog owners in your neighborhood? Why not offer to make a weekly job out of cleaning doggie doo from their yards. The only tools you’ll need are plastic bags and a poop scooper.

I’d be willing to bet at least a few of your neighbors would pay someone to take that job off their hands.

10. Freelance Services

Are you good with technology, graphics, and writing or would love to get paid to test video games? Fiverr is for freelancers like yourself who want to earn money for their skills.

To create your online profile, you must be 13 years old. Your profile should be catchy and feature your skills. Ideas may be poetry writing, translating, graphic design, testing video games, and more.

How Much Money Can I Make As a Teen?

From our local North Houston research, we found the starting pay to be competitive for neighborhood services.

SERVICE	*STARTING PAY
Babysitting	$10.00/hr
Doggie poop scooper	$10/house a week
Lifeguard	$9.50/hr
Mother’s-helper	$8.00/hr

Maybe, instead of working for a traditional employer, you’ve considered starting your own business. There’s no reason you need to wait until adulthood to become a successful entrepreneur.

Benefits of Owning A Business As a Teen

There are many benefits to earning income via your own business as opposed to working for someone else.

Here are a few of those benefits:

You control your income
You’ll get fantastic experience in all aspects of running a business
Gain confidence as you experience the ups and downs of business ownership
You’ll be able to target the type of clients you want to serve
You can control how big your business grows — or doesn’t grow

Starting a business is hard work, but it also allows for a vast array of experience. You’ll learn what works — and what doesn’t — for the type of business you run.

There are many invaluable life experiences to be had through entrepreneurship. Maybe now is the time for you to start having those experiences.

Summary

These are just a few business ideas for teens to help you make money on your own terms. If you’d rather work for yourself than work for someone else, think about entrepreneurship.

This is great because you will learn some valuable professional skills that will be helpful for any career.