What are the best ways to make money as a teenager?
When you’re young, you’re hungry for everything, for money, for respect, for experiences, but we’re gonna be completely honest with you, in the same way you’ve learned to love about us, teenagers are pretty much useless. Bare with us.
We know this, because we used to be teenagers and we were overwhelmed by a sense of arrogance, of all-knowingness or at least we felt like the world didn’t give us the credit we deserve, because obviously we were destined for greatness.
A few years later, we finally understood why that was:
Teenagers have desires, but lack valuable skills.
If you’re a teenager, you’re probably impatient, you lack discipline and lack what at some point you’ll see as the big picture.. And it’s ok. You’ve just started playing this game, you’re barely level 13 to 19, and it will take a couple more years until you get the really good gear and take on incredible quests.
This is the time for you to figure as much about yourself as possible and we can’t stress this enough! Everything else will follow on the backbone of that.
Now, we know you’re looking to bring in some cash this summer or even start a side business so we put together your best options. Keep an open mind and NEVER, we repeat: NEVER think any job is beneath you.. That’s a sign of a weak person..
If you don’t feel like reading, enjoy this piece as a video:
That said, let’s do this:
1.
Get a part time job
Shocking isn’t it?!
You want money? -> WORK. This isn’t going to be one of those articles were we lie about secret hacks on how to bring in at least 2000 dollars per day… we’re gonna keep it real with you.
Jobs are super valuable. Even the miserable ones. Why? Because they teach you what you never want to do in life. The misery builds you up internally.
Everyone should work at least one job in retail or housekeeping in their lives so they appreciate it when they don’t have to.
Those of you who are a little brighter might go for a job where they get to build the skills that are important to them for the future. Anything that will teach you how to sell, to talk to people and be just a bit more organized is worth it.
If you’re just after some quick cash here are you best options:
Everything that has to do with rich people: figure out where they hang out and get a job there. Golf, country clubs, resorts etc. Not only do they tip really well, you get to be around the type of people you want to become one day, so beyond the money you get real life education.
If you’re serious about this, go to the businesses in your neighborhood and ask them if they need help for the summer and that you’re willing to learn.
2.
Copywriting
We live in the golden age of content.. If you’re passionate about writing this could be the perfect match for you and a genuine way for you to earn money as a teenager.
Blogs need articles! Ads need the magic words.
Businesses need their websites filled, about pages, product descriptions etc.
Even we at ALUX are constantly looking for talented writers with a particular expertise on luxury and fine living to add them to our team.
What most young people lack is the determination to study and learn on their own.
Follow us on instagram @alux and drop us a message. Tell us a little bit about yourself, about your passions and interests and who knows, maybe we’ll give you a shot.
3.
Buy & Resell
This is one of our favorite things in the world. The people who can pull this off are real entrepreneurs and they’ve got that hustle gene most gurus always talk about.
Why do we like it so much: basically you learn to see value where others don’t. And this skill alone can make you rich in life. Couple it with dedication, discipline and a continuous study of the industry and you can build something great.
Sophia Amoruso started Nasty Gal immediately after college. She bought vintage clothes and resold them on ebay.
Things went well, she started a simple online shop like the one you can start as well by going to alux.com/sell and signing up. Because we’ve partnered with Shopify you get to play around with the store for 14 days, more than enough to get your first sale.
At one point she was worth 280 million dollars before selling her company.
Another great example we love is Benjamin “Kickz”, who at only 16 years old became a millionaire from hooking up celebrities with rare sneakers. He kept buying and selling. This is that hustle gene most people don’t have; that ability to connect dots others can’t or are just not willing to put in the work.
4.
Errands for neighbors
People are willing to pay for all kinds of things, the thing is you don’t know exactly for what.
That’s where that entrepreneurial gene kicks in: going door to door and talking to your neighbors about how you can help them out is yet another incredibly valuable skill that not only will get you paid right now, but will teach you want you need for the future.
Pro tip: find things that might need fixing that you would be willing to take care of and then talk to them about it. From painting fences, cutting grass, fixing up a shed.
You might be laughing right now, but that’s that subtle arrogance in you that you need to control before you can make any real progress.
5.
Airbnb co-host
Airbnb and short term rentals have been blowing up in the last 5 years making it the perfect opportunity for teenagers to make money. More and more hosts need help and are willing to pay to get it. If you live in a touristy are you can easily find work and get paid. Just go to alux.com/airbnb and sign up. – just to keep things transparent, if you do sign up to airbnb through our link you’ll get 39 dollars of your first trip and in return we get some credit to use as well.
Then you can search your area and contact the hosts. Offer to be the person who drops off the keys when they’re unable and work your way up.
If you’re serious about this and use it as a learning ground, it won’t be long until you have your own property up and running.
That’s how you start in real estate these days.. At least that’s how we did.
6.
Airbnb Experiences
If you’re over 18 – which is technically still, teenager territory – you can join airbnb experiences. Sign up to airbnb as usual and navigate to experiences.
You know your area better than anyone else and tourists would love to discover it with the help of a local, that’s where you come in.
If you take this serious, you could leverage the high number of tourists visiting to your advantage, make friends from all over the world and also get kickbacks from local stores because of the business you’re bringing in.
There are also other alternatives to airbnb you can use if for some reason it’s not available in your are. Use your google detective skills to find the best platform for you.
7.
Tutoring
This is the perfect time to reference one of our favorite quotes from the best joker we’ve seen on screen:
If you’re good at something, never do it for free!
You might not be aware of this, but times have drastically changed. Tutors are no longer retired teachers punishing you when you’re misbehaving and refusing to study. Now, there are tutors from anything that’s valuable.
If you’ve got a skill that other people want to learn, they or their parents will gladly pay you to teach them how to do it. You just need to think a bit outside of the traditional box.
For example: did you know Fortnite coaches are paid up to $25 an hour to help improve the skills of people embarrassed by their gameplay? Yep, parents are paying tutors for their children not to suck at fortnite in the us, because other kids make fun of how weak their gameplay is.
Get good at whatever the market needs and then start bringing that money in.
8.
Photography
There’s never been more demand for photographers. We live in the diamond age of narcissism. Instagram is the second thing people in the morning after their eyes… and everybody wants to put their better side on the platform.
If you’re a photographer, make you personal IG look epic, then find other people who want to get a cleaner and more premium feel of their profile.
They’ll be willing to pay you to snap the pics and help them out.
The better you get, the more you can charge and select your clientele.
9.
Editing: Video, Foto or Audio
Let’s keep things in the digital realm some more. You’ve probably watched our videos on youtube, you follow us on instagram @alux, you’re probably also listening to podcasts all the time what do you see???
People are investing in content left and right.
All this content needs to be trimmed, edited, packaged, managed and uploaded.
As a young person with an understanding of what’s happening in this space you’re the perfect fit to jump in an take some of that workload off.
Both individuals and companies will gladly pay someone who can improve their performance and optimize their workflow.
“But alux.. I don’t know how to edit anything or how to take photos or the things you mentioned so far on this list…” …. …. Then learn!
You’ve got so much time on your hands… stop putting some of it to good use and play around with these tools. In time you’ll start to see progress.
10.
Social Media Management
Everybody is looking for talented social media managers these days because these are the new rules of the game. But it’s not as easy as you think.
Just because you’ve been using Instagram for awhile it doesn’t mean you’re ready to do it professionally. When you’re managing a company’s social accounts, you are the voice of this business and represent it in this social bubble.
You need to understand the business, to understand the platform and be smart in the way you engage with the followers.
Read as much as you can about how to be better at this and then use that knowledge with the clients. Once they start seeing results from your work, you become valuable to them and can charge more and more depending on the type of results you can generate.
You can do a similar strategy with Facebook and google ads. All businesses want more customers; learn how to generate leads for them and they’ll pay you for it
If you’ve already got some of these skills there’s this amazing website to start. Go to alux.com/fiverr and list your services today. You can charge from $5 up to thousands for your services if you know what your doing and
For years we’ve been using talent from fiverr to get from editing to writing to merch design done and more. Fiverr has been our little secret for too long and we decided to reach out and bring them in as a sponsor for this article.
Browse around and see what kind of ideas you can come up with. We’ve heard of people who are acting as middle men between fiverr talent and bigger clients and pocketing the difference, so that might be your new side-hustle.
11.
Babysitting & pet sitting
This is another one of those perfect gigs for Summer, especially if you like kids or animals. You don’t realize just how valuable time together is for parents and a good babysitter is worth a lot of money. Same thing happens when you want to travel and can’t take your pet with you.
The average babysitter in the US brings in $15.70 and hour plus tips. Watching 2 kids brings in 20 bucks an hour. If you are professional and smart you can find customers in more premium areas and those numbers can easily double. People use pet sitting services when they’re away for longer periods of time, so you can charge a weekly or even monthly fee for it.
It’s all about supply, demand and how much do they have to worry about you not doing your job properly. The less stress on the parents and owners, the more gigs you’ll get.
If in the first 2 thirds of this piece we’ve shown you how to get paid for your skills, now it’s time to show you how you can start building something that could be monetized in the near future. The best part is all these are free or super cheap to start with.
12.
Build a social media audience
If you’ve got the skills to manage someone’s social media, you know how to leverage technology for someone else’s profit, you could try it out for yourself.
Our favorite strategy for newcomers is to build an initial audience. Pick the platform of your choice and keep with it as you grow. The best place to build right now is instagram. If you can organically grow a community on instagram you can monetize it fairly quickly.
These low to none barriers of entry have sprung an entire phenomenon of social media influencers. If you’re an Aluxers, you know there are better ways to leverage that position by becoming a mediapreneur. If this is new to you, watch our Trends video from a couple of weeks back. We broke the entire industry down and it’s the most valuable video you’ll see on the topic.
13.
Start a blog
If Instagram is not your thing, but you’re good with writing, start a blog and go from there. Your goal here is consistency. Write… a lot! It will not grow as quickly as a social profile would, but if you build it right it will be waaaay more valuable.
Why? Because it’s yours. You’re not dependent on the rules the platform makes, which can easily change in time and hurt your business.
A blog is your personal digital asset with millions of way of monetization if you reach a certain scale.
The easiest way to get started is on Bluehost. It’s super cheap to start and you can scale things up as you grow.
From our personal experience, entrepreneurs who manage to grow a decent blog usually end up evolving it into something else.. We turned ours into a full grown media company.
14.
Start streaming or a YouTube channel
Speaking of low barriers of entry, YouTube, Twitch, IGTV and Facebook video. This works incredibly well for people who are natural entertainers AND have a skill people are willing to follow.
But it’s never been a time with more competition in this space than it there is today, so there’s that.
Our recommendation would be to go super-super-specific in your early days and then expand your reach in time. If you start a vlog when you have 0 subscribers or followers you might find it a lot harder to grow than if you were to make videos talking about something you can help people with because of some relevant knowledge you possess.
15.
Start a podcast
Everybody’s starting a podcast these days, because radio is moving over into the age of the internet.. Finally! That’s the same reason we started our podcast.
You can start a podcast today if you’d want using your iPhone as a recording device. If you’ve got some money, you can invest in an entry level microphone, there are tons of recommendations on the internet.
Here, the competitive advantage comes from your ability to tell engaging stories that connect with people. In all these businesses you can grow organically if your content is so good people share it with their friends.
That’s how we’ve grown here at ALUX as well. People find our content valuable enough to engage with it time and time again.
Hope you found this session of 15 ways teenagers can make money valuable and we can’t wait to hear which direction you’re going to go in!
