What are the best ways to make money as a teenager? If you’re serious about making money and you’re willing to hustle, there are ways to make money AND gain meaningful entrepreneurship experience. Here are my top 10 legitimate and meaningful side hustles that teenagers can use to start making money.
- Tutor.
- Participate in focus groups or online surveys.
- Sell products at your school.
- Become a secret shopper.
- Make a blog.
- Sell custom-made items on Etsy (or in-person).
- Start a sweaty start-up.
- Freelance.
- Retail arbitrage.
- Start a Youtube channel.
1. Tutor.
If you’re a good student, you can make good money teaching other students how you study. The most popular subjects that require tutoring are:
- Math – Geometry, Algebra I, Algebra II, Calculus AB and Calculus BC
- English
- Science
- AP/IB Courses
Typically, the more advanced the course matter you’re teaching, the more you can charge. To build a customer base, put up fliers around your school and let your teachers know you’re looking for tutoring opportunities. Provide discounts for students or for upfront payment. Like with any business, be punctual, professional, and prepared for every lesson to build your credibility. Tutors with no experience typically start rates at $20/hr, but once you gain more clients you can charge whatever rate you want.
College students can usually teach more subjects and charge higher rates. Here are additional services that college students can provide:
- Tutoring for the SAT and ACT exams
- Tutoring in SAT Subject tests
- Resume and interview prep for college applications and/or students searching for internships
The highest rates I’ve seen are around $80/hr.
Startup cost: None
Expected return: $20-30/hr when first starting out, $40-60/hr with 2 years of experience, $80+/hr for 5+ years experience and for more advanced coursework
2. Participate in online surveys and focus groups (18+).
In case you’re not familiar with online surveys and focus groups, these are websites that will ask you for your opinion on a topic or product and pay you money. These surveys can be in-person or online.
I would suggest not trying to make your money on sites like Swagbucks or SurveyJunkie. These survey sites offer you “quick” and “easy” tasks that you get the equivalent of a couple cents or a few dollars for. Once you reach a certain threshold, like $10, you can cash out your rewards.
There are better websites out there where you can get paid around $60-80 an hour taking online surveys or in-person focus groups. In my personal experience, these are the best websites to use:
- Respondent (18+)
- Focus Pointe Global (18+)
These sites have the highest payouts, fastest response times, and good user experience. The interviews themselves are also very fun. I’ve been asked my opinion on subjects like skincare, ride-sharing apps, toothpaste, and grocery shopping experiences. The hardest part of applying to surveys is qualifying. I made a post specific to Respondent, which claims to pay out $140/hr on average, on how to increase your chances of getting selected.
Start-up cost: None
Expected Return: $60-80/hr (does not include time spent applying to surveys).
3. Sell products at your school.
If your school supports entrepreneurial ventures, you can buy snacks, candies and school supplies at your local stores and sell them to your classmates for a profit. Here are some of the best-selling products in schools:
- Candy bars
- Chips
- Soda
- Sour gummy candies
- Baked goods like muffins, cupcakes, and/or brownies
- Stickers (see number 6)
- Cute stationery like mechanical pencils, jelly roll pens, and notebooks
- Charms and bracelets
Reinvest your profits into the products that sell best. Check with your school before selling food-related items as some schools do not allow it. This is an easy way of getting your feet wet as an entrepreneur. You can use the money you earn from this to fund a new venture.
Startup cost: Low
Expected return: ~$50-$100 a month
4. Become a secret shopper (16+).
Secret shoppers are paid by companies to visit their shops, act like regular customers, and then write up a report on how the experience was. If you’re secret shopping for a restaurant, for example, you’ll be asked to act like a normal customer, order a meal, and then comment on how you interacted with the server, the manager, and how the overall experience was. The company will reimburse you the cost of your meal and you’ll get some additional money on top of that as thanks for your time. Secret shopping is a cool way to find new products that you otherwise would normally try on your own. Keep in mind that there are some scam websites that will ask you to pay to join: you never have to pay anything to get started mystery shopping. Here are some great legitimate websites to try:
Start-up cost: None. Just make an account to get started.
Expected return: Averages about $50-$100 a month, but can be a lot higher depending on how actively you look for opportunities.
5. Make a blog.
Blogs are a great way to make passive income, but they require a lot of work to get started. Also, you’re not going to make money quickly: it typically takes a minimum of a year before you’ll make any money at all.
Blogs make money mostly through three channels:
- Advertisements
- Affiliate marketing
- Selling you products or online courses
For example, this blog makes money through affiliate links. If you find my content helpful and choose to sign up to a site through one of my affiliate links, I make a small commission. That keeps the website going and allows me to continue making new content.
The great thing about blogs is that if you create good content and build a following, they will generate income even as you sleep. If you’re interested in starting a blog, I’ll be creating a comprehensive guide on how to start your own blog soon. In the meantime, here’s a great link on how to get started here.
Start-up cost: Medium
Expected return: Varies.
6. Sell custom-made stickers on Etsy (or in-person).
I think this is a fantastic idea. Handmade goods can sell for a lot and there’s always a market for cute products. If you have a creative or artistic streak, this may be the hustle for you. Custom made stickers are incredibly popular and the number of repeat customers is high. Single die-cut stickers easily sell from $1-$3 apiece and sheets of stickers can sell from $5-$7 apiece. There’s a great tutorial on how to get started from Jenny Journals on Youtube. Here’s what you need to get started:
- Sticker paper
- An iPad or tablet, something to create your designs in
- A printer and a cutter
- If you can afford it, I would strongly suggest investing in a Cricut, which cuts out irregularly shaped stickers for you. It’s worth the investment.
If you sell stickers at your school, chances are you won’t have any competition at all. Enjoy your economic moat. If you’re not comfortable with selling items in person, you can sell on online platforms like Etsy.
Startup cost: Medium (Cricuts and iPads are expensive).
Expected return: Varies depending on whether you’re selling in-person or online. Online, it takes longer to get results but you also have a larger customer base. Long-term, this might even end up becoming your full-time income (check out coffeemonsterzco for a great success story).
You can also sell other crafts on Etsy as well, not just stickers. Here are some popular items sold on the website:
- Handmade jewelry
- Charms
- Birth month or birthstone related goods
- Custom stickers
- Custom made cards (Greeting, holiday, wedding)
- Bath bombs
7. Start a sweaty startup.
If you’re serious about making money, consider starting a sweaty startup. These startups often require physical labor on your part, but the profit margins you can make are high. Offer to clean homes, mow lawns, pressure wash, and/or paint houses and you can make anywhere from $20-$60 per job. And let’s face it – as a young, fresh faced teen you have a leg up on the professional competition that might be in your area.
The start-up cost is also relatively low – you just have to buy a machine and advertise in your local neighbourhoods. Focus on getting a great customer service experience and offer discounts for customers who refer you to other people to grow your business. If you’re interested, take a look at r/sweatystartup on Reddit for help on how to get started.
Startup cost: Low to medium, depending on what equipment you buy
Expected return: $1,000-$7,000 over the course of a summer vacation
8. Freelance
If you have any of the following skills (or you want an opportunity to get better at them), you can offer your services online. Some places where you can get started looking for potential clients are Fiverr, Upwork, Craigslist or even Reddit. Here are some of the popular skills in demand that you might have:
- Writing/editing skills
- Software engineering and/or app creation skills
- How to play an instrument
- Resume review/critique
- How to get better at video games (no, seriously).
- Video editing
- Creating custom art
- And so much more. If you have a talent that you’re good at, there’s probably a way you can monetize it online.
Startup cost: None. Just make an account to get started.
Expected return: Varies. The problem with websites like Fiverr and Upwork is that you have to initially charge very low rates to get customers and reviews before you start to see good traffic. You’re also going to have to deal with customers with low budgets and high expectations. Once you gain enough experience and build up a good portfolio I suggest making your own personal website and becoming an independent freelancer.
9. Retail arbitrage (thrift store shopping, resell on Ebay, Amazon, FBA, or Poshmark).
The idea behind retail arbitrage is simple: it’s just buying low and selling high. If you have free time and a car, you can browse your local thrift stores or discount stores (think Walmart or Target) and see if you can pick up something at a good price. You can then list the item on an online platform like Poshmark, Amazon or Ebay at a slightly higher price that covers your cost of shipping and makes you a little profit. If the item sells, you pack it with the correct mailing address and then ship it out.
Retail arbitrage is a legitimate business model, but be sure to avoid price gouging, which is buying up supplies during a state-of-emergency and then selling at a ridiculous markup.
If you’re interested in trying retail arbitrage, you might also be interested in FBA (Fulfilled By Amazon). This is a service offered by Amazon where you can ship your items to an Amazon warehouse and they will fulfill your orders for you. This means you don’t have to store inventory or pack up every item yourself – instead, when someone purchases something from you on Amazon, they will automatically pack and ship the package to the customer without you having to do a thing. In return, you pay Amazon either a flat fee per item shipped or a monthly fee.
While FBA will cost you more money than shipping the packages yourself, it can be a great choice if you can’t store your products at home or if you’re shipping too many packages yourself and you can’t keep up with demand.
Start-up cost: Medium to High
Expected return: Varies.
10. Make a Youtube channel.
While I’m a little hesitant to include this one, Youtube is a good way to build a following and help monetize your skills. Similarly to a blog, Youtube channels make money through the following channels:
- Advertisements
- Affiliate marketing
- Selling you a product or online course (I’m sure you’ve all seen the gurus)
- Sponsorships and/or partnerships
The reason why I’m including Youtube on this list is because I think it’s a great supplement to other side hustles. For example, let’s say you are a successful freelance photographer and you want to share your tips on any aspiring photographers on how you can get started. Creating a Youtube channel allows you to:
- Create good content and make money off of views
- Recommend your favorite products and make money through affiliate programs
- Show your expertise in photography. If you include a link to your personal website, you’ll likely see more traffic and more people requesting your services.
In short, don’t expect to become Youtube to make you viral and generate millions. Instead, use it as a complement to help grow your other businesses. When one of your businesses helps support the other, this is called synergy.
Start-up cost: Medium
Expected return: Varies.
That’s my full list of top ten side hustles for teens! What do you think of the list and what do you do as your side hustle? Let me know in the comments!