Side Hustles for Teens
Whether you’re a student or just figuring out where you want to go in life, everyone needs some money in their pocket
I’m sure you’ve been told many times that having a part-time job is just part of being a teenager.. But what if you already have a part-time job and your income from it is not enough? And what about university students with already packed schedules, full of exams and assignments, who can’t fit a scheduled job into their weeks? Luckily, nowadays, there are many ways for you to make some extra pocket cash, with very little strings attached.
1. The odd jobs
This is a fairly old-school solution, but if you have a network of people near where you live who know and trust you, you can spread the word about being available for one-off odd jobs. These include things like lawn mowing, babysitting, pet sitting or dog walking, or even running various errands for busy adults like picking up their food shop. Reach out to your family and friends and let them know you’re available and requests will surely come to you.
2. Creative pursuits
If you have a creative skill of any kind, there’s people out there who need you. There are many ways to make money through exercising creative skills, anywhere from drawing and graphic design to video editing and copywriting. You can make use of websites such as Fiverr to advertise your services, or take private commissions by leveraging your social media presence. If you’re a visual artist, websites like Redbubble and Printful make it easy for you to sell products with your designs on them. It’s also a good idea to make yourself a portfolio website where you can show off your work, and services such as Wix and Squarespace make it cheap to set it up.
3. Skilled services
Even if you’re not the creative type, you might be underestimating your skills. If you speak a second language, you can offer translation services online or even foreign language classes; if you’re particularly good at some subjects at school, you can offer private tutoring for younger kids or even other students your age who might be struggling. You could also offer classes on musical instruments or help coach other teenagers in sports – it’s all about leveraging your passions and skills and making use of what you’re good at and now, in the age of social media, you have access to all the free advertisement opportunities you could ever want.
4. Spring cleaning
A quick way to make some extra pocket cash is to simply look around you for items you no longer need. Old toys from your childhood, clothes you don’t wear anymore, videogames you’ve finished, any of these things can find a second home. Besides the well-known giant eBay, which is still alive and well today, many other specialist apps, websites and brick and mortar stores have popped up to help you resell your unwanted goods. Vinted and Depop specialise in helping you sell your clothing items to third parties and stores such as CEX and GAME will take videogames and electronics off you in order to resell them themselves. You can also drop items off at charity shops or advertise your wares on Facebook Marketplace or Gumtree and there’s even a large market for old textbooks! If you need some quick money, just look around your room – odds are you already have it in the form of things you can sell.
5. Content creation
While not advised for making money fast, if you have a passion for creating content for an audience this is a great way to build up a stream of income. Two of the more popular options are livestreaming on Twitch or YouTube and creating video content for social media such as TikTok, Instagram and YouTube as well. It takes a while to build an audience to support you with subscriptions on Twitch or to provide you with advertisement revenue on YouTube, but if there’s something you’re passionate about and you want to show it to the world, it’s worth a try. You still get to make your own schedule and put your content out there whenever you have time.
There are surely other ways to make money without signing up for a scheduled part-time job, so talk to your friends and see what you can come up with; odds are, they’re already doing one or more things on this list. Besides selling what you already own, it’s all about networking and putting your skills, passions and hobbies to use and leveraging your social media presence to advertise yourself. Who knows? You might even find your future career!
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