I am a teenager who wants to create my own work?

[jameshudson45]

I need money, but I live in a small town. I am not willing to work at some place like McDonalds... I want to create my own work. I like cleaning, gardening, art, and I play multiple instruments. Any ideas?

[Harold Mansfield]

When I was a teenager I cut grass, shoveled snow and did odd jobs for money. When I was old enough, I got a job a McDonald's cause a paycheck is a paycheck.

So I'm the wrong person to ask. Besides, people are only going to pay a teen ager so much for gardening, cleaning and art. You'd probably make more flipping burgers.

[Freelancier]

When I was 13, I would do pretty much any odd job anyone would ask, no matter how boring, just to make money. When I got to be 16, I started exclusively doing pretty much exactly what I do now (35 years later). So I understand about not wanting to flip burgers.

So... my advice is to network with as many people and based on who they are, let them know what you can do to help them. If it's someone who you notice tends their gardens in the spring and summer, offer them that help. If it's a local restaurant that has live music, let them know about that side and see if they can hook you up with others who do the same. And so on. Your job right now is to meet as many people as possible in as wide an area as practical. One or more of those people you meet will take a chance and hire you and then you get a reference for the next job.

[Steve B]

Doing odd jobs for money should pay you a lot more than minimum wage if you're any good and you charge appropriately for your services. Exactly how old are you? There's a big difference between 13 and 19. Do you drive yet? If you lived near me - I'd hire you. You should have a wide open market since most kids don't do this anymore. I used to do all kinds of things when I was youg - looking back on it the people really gave me some lousy jobs to do and didn't pay me enough. But, I learned a lot and it gave me some spending money.

[nealrm]

I starting mowing yards for others when I was a young teen. By the time I turned 16 I was both putting on fertilizer in the spring, mowing the laws in the summer and raking leaves in the fall. I made 3 time per hour what you could flipping burgers, worked outside, had as much work as I wanted and generally had money to burn. As a teenager, you have one thing in excess that is always in demand. That is the energy to work. Manual work is a good way to convert that energy into cash.

Since you stated you live in a small town, I am assuming you live in a more rural area. So look into helping out on farm or ranch. In general, people that are willing to do hard work are in demand. You will find something if you look and keep your options open.

[Wozcreative]

•Baby Sitting
• Dog sitting/walking
• Backyard poop clean up
• Since you like art, why not try selling some of your work, jewellery, scarves if you nit etc.
• Store front window cleaning
• Baking and selling that
• Farm or ranch care, animals, plants etc.

If all else fails, get an unconventional job like event organization/setup, sports team related stuff, lifeguard etc.

[huggytree]

if you play piano and have a movable piano you could rent yourself out to weddings......even if you have to pay a moving company for every party to move your piano it could be very profitable...your age would be your biggest problem....you'd have to really sell yourself and be professional

give up on art...being good at art is very common....no money there unless your incredible

id rather work at Mcdonalds than be a cleaner.

not much there for gardening either.....unless you find a rich older woman looking for a young buck/pool boy


any more things your good at? interests??

if you want to get into the building trades you could call around and some builders may pay you to clean up jobsites......also there's always a need for shop boys...my old company had a shop boy who would dig sewers and do deliveries.....he made decent $$, but no benefits

[Harold Mansfield]

When I drove we had a kid that cleaned our cars when we brought them after being out all night.
He made $12 or $15 an hour plus an average of $20 a car from the drivers (X's 15 cars) on Fri and Sat nights. Maybe $10 a car on Thursdays (X's 8-10 cars).
More if someone threw up or trashed inside of one of the cars. And he only worked 3 mornings a week.


My point is, not sure how big your town is, but I've seen some kids make decent cash in this town by working as support for people who make tips. Busser, Porter, Car Detailer, ect. Granted, I live in Las Vegas. Probably different in pretty much any other city, but you get the picture.

Whether or not you can start up a little business doing the things that you mentioned, depends...

Do you have a car?
Do you have a curfew?
When are you actually available between school and any extra curricular activities?
Are you trying to actually start a business or just looking for a quick and easy way to make money?
Do you have resources to get your business up and running (money for cards, fliers and any tools or supplies that you may need)?

[Ted]

I need money, but I live in a small town. I am not willing to work at some place like McDonalds... I want to create my own work. I like cleaning, gardening, art, and I play multiple instruments. Any ideas?

What exactly is wrong with working at a place like McDonalds when you are just entering the workforce? Is it somehow demeaning to you or beneath you?

If it is, then you have a lot to learn about life dude. I wouldn't go around telling people that anymore.

If you want an idea for a part time self-employment gig, I would offer yourself as a helper to older retirees in your area.

I would print up my own little business cards with my name, address and telephone number on them.

Then I would personally visit any of the older folks in the neighborhood and tell them you are available for any chores they need assistance with that you are capable of helping with including, cleaning, gardening, lawn mowing, raking leaves, painting, fixing, running errands, etc....

If you knock on enough doors you are sure to find work. Don't tell them about your attitude towards fast food joints though. They will think you are a spoiled brat.

After doing this kind of work for a while, you just might discover that the fast food option looks a lot better than you originally thought.

[jacksarlo]

I need money, but I live in a small town. I am not willing to work at some place like McDonalds... I want to create my own work. I like cleaning, gardening, art, and I play multiple instruments. Any ideas?

You can transform your passions into information marketing businesses. For exmple there are many businesses online selling guitar courses for $97 and they're not teachers/expert! I suggest you start looking more into info-business which is about selling digital/physical products in a niche, example: guitar courses, ebooks, software, home study courses, books, etc in the guitar niche.

[BNB]

You don't flip burgers at McDonalds. They use a press that cooks both sides, then you simply take them off the grill :)

I think it's great to try and create your own work at such a young age, I did too. I was not successful at it for quite some time and instead worked a lot of different jobs to make ends meet. Fact is, if you think about a job as nothing more than a paycheck, you are selling yourself short. I worked at McDonalds for a couple of years, I worked my way up to shift manager pretty quickly. A franchised McDonalds is a real business, with an owner who has all the same concerns. I learned about scheduling, staffing, labor numbers, inventories, business processes, marketing, and built up some great managerial skills there that I still use today. Their basic manager training course had a lot of great information on processes and business, surprisingly. I probably learned more from this 3 day class than I did in a year at college. Simply because you are learning about a successful business and exactly what makes it tick - and it had nothing to do with making the best burger. I eventually moved on from McDonalds and did everything from serving, bartending, to call centers and even selling cars. Every time I learned a little more. And every single one of these experiences has given me the education I needed to be successful with my own business.

I just think it's kind of funny how negative you all are about McDonalds, when for me it was quite possibly the best business education I have ever received. Don't be so short sighted. A job is worth as much as you want it to be worth. If you go in and try and learn about what makes the business tick, what makes it successful, you'll end up getting a better business education than any college or university.

[billbenson]

I think BNB had a lot of good things to say above. I think everybody on this forum has worked for other companies in their life and gained some great knowledge from that. Whatever you do, do something that you gain knowledge from!

I worked at a horrible job about 2000 as the internet was emerging. The company had a lot of processes in place to make sure that there were no errors in orders etc. I was a inside salesman. The business was a very well oiled machine. The working environment was horrible and I eventually quit, but I still learned a lot there about how to run an online business.