25+ Profitable Small Business Ideas For Teens
One of the most important achievements that most teenagers dream about is to become financially independent.
Who can blame them? Especially in an age and time where young adults are at the forefront of business innovations.
The role models of today including Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, amongst many others have proven that there is no right age to start a business. In fact, the earlier the better.
Bill Gates, for example, started Microsoft in 1975 at the age of 20. Steve Jobs co-founded Apple at a young age of 21 while Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook at the age of 19 in 2004.
What better motivation do teenagers need to start their own strings of businesses as soon as possible?
Beyond reasonable doubt, the advent of the internet and smartphones has truly given leverages to teens – especially those who truly want to start a business for themselves and make money.
Moreover, starting a business early in life will teach you valuable life lessons.
Responsibility, perseverance, hard work, honesty, integrity, time-management, leadership, and communication are all tools for successful living that starting a business can help you imbibe.
And if you are like me, then you should love earning your own money.
I love earning my own money, and spending it without feeling guilty my parents just gave it to me! (I’m not that kind of person.).
On this note, here are 25+ highly profitable business ideas that a teenager who is serious about making money should consider.
top Small business ideas for teens
1. Offering Cleaning Services
This is one of the best small business ideas for teens to invest in nowadays.
It has a wide variety of clients ranging from individual homes to business institutions.
One amazing aspect of this kind of business is the low initial capital requirement.
Cleaning services will work well if you begin by serving the private home’s clients and thereafter expanding your coverage to the bigger institutions.
2. Car wash Services
It is another brilliant small business idea for the upcoming teenagers. Putting up a car wash business is also one of the cheapest just as for the case of the general cleaning services.
You will only need a pressure-washing machine and a good site for the business to begin operating.
Remember, the site must be easily accessible for a steady inflow of customers.
3. Selling Used Books
You can actually make some good cash just from reselling used books. This business is simple to start and run since you don’t even need a room at the beginning.
It just requires some small capital for buying the used books and then reselling them at a profitable price to your customers.
4. Opening a Video Game Center
Considering the fact that most of those people visiting these centers are teenagers, it will be very easy for a fellow teenager to operate it.
So if you have been searching for a good business idea, you must just try this.
It is also easy to start and manage as a result of the low initial capital it requires.
5. Becoming a Social Media Manager
With the ever increasing technological advancements, many business organizations and even individual persons have turned in to online marketing as one of the best and quickest ways of reaching their customers.
As an upcoming entrepreneur, you can be paid just for managing pages on various social media platforms such as Facebook or Twitter.
Additionally, you can as well be hired by politicians and other prominent business people who are usually very committed.
What you need for this kind of opportunity is good writing skills.
6. Becoming a Tutor
Nothing else is as interesting as earning from doing what you actually know and understand.
You can make good amounts of money just by offering home based tuition programs in subjects or areas that you have already studied and understood better.
Remember that this doesn’t require any capital to start, all you will need are the relevant skills and the ability to communicate effectively.
Most interesting about offering tuition services is the ability to obtain more clients just by using online adverts.
7. Offering Babysitting Services
This also another promising business opportunity which young entrepreneurs may go for.
Even though getting clients for the first time has been a major challenge, there will be a constant inflow of cash once it shall have picked up.
8. Blogging
Did you know that you can always make money by writing about what you understand better than others do?
Many people are thirsty of information and so the blogging idea can be much better for a start.
Don’t worry about writing on topics that have already been discussed by other bloggers, what matters is the uniqueness of your content.
In addition, you may as well accompany your blog posts with other adverts which is a great online marketing technique.
9. Opening a Laundry Business
With many daily commitments that majority of the working class do have, thinking of starting a laundry business is even much better.
You will begin receiving dozens of customers after only a few weeks of operation since such people are highly in need of laundry services.
Considering that most of your clients could be very busy, you can even decide to include free delivery services to grow the volume of your customers.
A laundry business is easy to start because you can start by borrowing things like pressing iron or dryers from the parents before you can finally buy your own.
10. Baking and Selling of Cookies
One good thing about any business that is dealing with food is the availability of a ready market because people must always eat.
If you are a teenager outside there and wondering about what to invest in then this is the way to go.
The only key point to note is the fact that your cookies must be of high quality and good taste.
11. Selling Call Cards and Data Bundles
It is among those businesses that one can easily start running within his or her neighborhood.
It requires very a very small starting capital and this is why it has always emerged one of the best for the starting teenagers.
This kind of venture offers you the opportunity of serving a variety of customers from the different service providers within your country.
It therefore means that a lot of profits will be realized because of the huge numbers of people being served.
12. Offering Freelance Writing Services
Freelance writing is another great source of income for teenagers.
It is simple to start because you only need your computer and a reliable internet connection.
The most incredible of all its features is the fact that you can always work from the comfort of your living room.
With the simple starting procedures, one should only sign up for a writer account and begin making money, no office space required.
Some of the known writing websites include; iwriter.com, dotwriter.com, and upwork.com among many others.
13. Starting a Small App Development Company
Software development is one of the tasks that most people can always learn understand.
It only requires one’s interest and practice. So if you are such a person then lots of cash is just waiting for you.
It is better to go for the business management software because they are in high demand compared to other ones.
14. Landscaping and Lawn Care Business
If you want some of the highly selling business ideas then you should think of landscaping and lawn care services.
Some of the potential clients here are ranging from homes to all types of institutions.
All you need to do is to market effectively and offer friendly prices and soon you will begin receiving a series of tenders being awarded to your upcoming company.
15. Think of Organizing a Teen TV Show
There are lots of teenagers outside there with wonderful talents and experiences.
The only thing they lack is organization.
So if you can easily create something like a club and begin practicing a few drama, then you will soon find your way into one of the popular national TV stations.
From there, you can begin receiving lots of income from various donors depending on whether your program is interesting or not.
16. Ice Block Making and Selling
This is also among the retailing businesses that are easy to start.
It only requires a perfect ice block making machine and highly aggressive sales ladies and you will be ready to make money.
17. Making and Retailing of Throw Pillows
It is also a great business idea only that you must be creative enough in order to earn from doing it.
One amazing thing about throw pillows is the fact that they are used in home decoration and this makes then highly marketable.
Don’t forget that when you are steel new in a given market, you have to begin with some affordable prices to trap more clients.
18. Growing and Selling Organic Vegetables
With the current concerns about human health, a majority of people believe in eating organically produced foods.
So if you can make it a business, you will be able to sell your products at relatively higher prices and hence huge profits.
Additionally, one will also be able to enjoy the availability of ready market.
19. Creating and Selling Online Wallpapers
This can actually double your income, for example, you can create a website where people can easily download your wallpapers or you can sell them directly to your customers.
All you need is good designing skills and you will be rich.
20. Offer Moving Services
In this case, your key clients are those people who have acquired an office or those who are relocating to a new area.
You can make some cash by offering then transportation services and remember you can even volunteer for the first time in order to create a long lasting business contact.
21. Proof Reading and Editing
This is another example of those businesses you may offer right from your living room.
It only requires a valid email address, a computer, and an internet connection.
You can receive orders, work on then and send back using the same email address.
22. Start a Custom T-Shirt Printing Business
The only things you need to run this business are; a small room a store and the printing machine.
It has got many customers and believes me not, there is a lot of cash that can be made just by doing this.
23. Starting an Online Gaming Center
This is also another powerful and highly profitable business which anybody willing to make money can invest in.
There is a larger market since there are millions of game lovers all over the world.
It is one of the businesses that can stabilize quickly and generate more income as well.
24. Selling eBooks
You can make more money by selling your own eBooks or for other authors.
The good thing here is the large numbers of different topics from which an author may choose to write.
25. Sale of Event Tickets
This usually involves those events like sports, comedy shows or even music concerts among others.
Teenagers can make a lot of money from doing such sales since there are always hundreds of thousands of those willing to attend.
wrap up
While doing some research for this post, I found out about 40% of teens want to start their own business and only 3% actually are running their own business.
We can all take our inspiration from Juliette Brindak.
Juliette made her millions after launching the website Miss O and Friends when she was still only 10 years old.
The site, which targets mostly teenage girls, is filled with celebrity gossip, games, quizzes and lots of feature articles.
She has also launched a line of Miss O and Friends books.
Juliette Brindak is currently the CEO and editor of her site and book line and has a net worth of 15 Million Dollars.
You can as well discover our top 40 home based business ideas for women, most profitable farming business ideas, small business ideas for men, or read about small business ideas for kids.
Remember, age is not a barrier!