Author Topic: My 12 yr old is looking for a side hustle  (Read 6886 times)

Res Ipsa

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My 12 yr old is looking for a side hustle
« on: July 18, 2017, 07:14:45 PM »
My son has decided he doesn't want to dip into his savings to buy fishing and camping gear (makes 10% annualized in the bank of dad).  Any suggestions for him to make $$?  He is thinking about trying to flip something online. 

SwordGuy

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Re: My 12 yr old is looking for a side hustle
« Reply #1 on: July 18, 2017, 07:20:37 PM »
He could write freelance articles.  Don't know the pay rate, though I suspect it's not that great.

Mowing yards and other yardwork is lucrative, assuming suburbia still recognizes that children working is a good thing and doesn't report you to child services.   



Miss Piggy

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Re: My 12 yr old is looking for a side hustle
« Reply #2 on: July 18, 2017, 08:22:11 PM »
My neighbor makes probably a couple hundred a week mowing lawns. He's 16 now, but he's been doing this for years...since 12 or younger. Charges $25 per week per lawn, which includes weedeating.

bunchbikes

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Re: My 12 yr old is looking for a side hustle
« Reply #3 on: July 19, 2017, 09:44:06 AM »
He is thinking about trying to flip something online.

Flipping video games and systems.

Buy locally at garage sales, craigslist, or whatever. Sell online on Amazon/ebay.


Sounds like the perfect job for a 12 year old. He can probably make way better money than mowing lawns too, once he gets the hang of it.


Bonus points if he learns some basic repairs to fix common game system problems.

meatface

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Re: My 12 yr old is looking for a side hustle
« Reply #4 on: July 19, 2017, 11:55:51 AM »
My son has decided he doesn't want to dip into his savings to buy fishing and camping gear (makes 10% annualized in the bank of dad).  Any suggestions for him to make $$?  He is thinking about trying to flip something online.

I also vote for manual labor. He clearly likes to be outside, so lawn mowing, dog washing, car washing, dog walking, lemonade and cookie stand, etc could all be good options. Depends on your neighborhood I guess. If you live in Manhattan, for example, then many of these would be irrelevant.

afuera

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Re: My 12 yr old is looking for a side hustle
« Reply #5 on: July 19, 2017, 12:14:13 PM »
When I was 12 I refereed youth soccer games for extra cash.  I played soccer my whole life so it wasn't too difficult for me.  Its pretty easy and only requires one 8-hr training class.  $20-$30 a game for kids (5-10 yo) and you can pick a few games every weekend.  I still referee as my side hustle but I now referee adults and high school/club level games.

CindyBS

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Re: My 12 yr old is looking for a side hustle
« Reply #6 on: July 19, 2017, 03:05:21 PM »
being the "muscle" for someone cleaning out a garage/attic/or other declutter project.  I see this more as him be hired by an elderly or disabled person.

Pet sitting for people on vacation.

marty998

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Re: My 12 yr old is looking for a side hustle
« Reply #7 on: July 19, 2017, 03:29:10 PM »
When I was 12 I refereed youth soccer games for extra cash.  I played soccer my whole life so it wasn't too difficult for me.  Its pretty easy and only requires one 8-hr training class.  $20-$30 a game for kids (5-10 yo) and you can pick a few games every weekend.  I still referee as my side hustle but I now referee adults and high school/club level games.

I did this too for a few years from that ageish range (13-18). Good money, and you learn how to be resilient in the face of an angry mob of spectators :)

ketchup

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Re: My 12 yr old is looking for a side hustle
« Reply #8 on: July 19, 2017, 03:41:33 PM »
At about 12 I was modding Xboxes for people for $50 a pop, not sure if there's an Xbox One or other modern game system equivalent.

But yeah, either manual labor, or something to leverage specialized knowledge/a hobby.

MichaelHarvard

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Re: My 12 yr old is looking for a side hustle
« Reply #9 on: July 24, 2017, 12:44:46 AM »
That is so cool!

AmberTheCat

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Re: My 12 yr old is looking for a side hustle
« Reply #10 on: July 24, 2017, 10:29:17 AM »
it's hard for that age.
so my oldest kiddo put out a flyer for lawn mowing in an older neighborhood, and got a few replies. It was good, but i was the one driving him back and forth; not sure it was worth it. What's my time worth what he was paid . . . ???

Please DONT do what some kids in our 'hood have done a few times: gone house to house selling their toys (i felt like that was begging for money) -- or gone house to house asking if our cars needed washing (again - begging) - or one girl set up a foot massage booth outside her house for several hours with a sign. (a weirdo stopped by, and the mom wasnt home). Don't beg or look for handouts from the neighbors.

the neighborhood app is awesome for work ideas. ours has people asking for dog sitters, lawn mowers, lawn weeders, moving furniture & rocks & babysitting.  Flyers are good though for odd jobs . . .  We do like it whenever money from outside of our family comes into our family, so i get this all.


Blonde Lawyer

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Re: My 12 yr old is looking for a side hustle
« Reply #11 on: July 24, 2017, 10:40:48 AM »
One idea would require him to have a car or a trailer on his bike.  I lived a state that had a bottle deposit.  Most families wouldn't get around to bringing the cans back but refused to throw them out too since each can was worth 5 or 10 cents.  The result was bags of cans in the garage/basement/shed.  A high school friend started a business taking these cans off of people's hands.  The people didn't want the money.  They just couldn't throw them out in good conscience.  Every other week she'd borrow her dad's truck and drive around picking up everyone's cans and bottles and then take them to the redemption center.  She did pretty well for herself!

As a kid, I made extra money around Christmas wrapping Christmas presents.  Parents who have kids who still believe in Santa have a hard time finding time to wrap the gifts without the kids seeing evidence.  I'd either go to their house and wrap them all or they would drop presents off at my house, I'd wrap them and then they'd pick them up all wrapped.  You have to be decent at wrapping.  I have no idea now what I charged.  I think most parents gave me a $20.  It all started because my grandmother had arthritic hands and asked me to help her wrap her gifts.  Other people then asked if they could pay me to wrap theirs.

Poundwise

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Re: My 12 yr old is looking for a side hustle
« Reply #12 on: July 25, 2017, 01:20:57 PM »
Wow, great topic! Posting to follow!

Blonde Lawyer

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Re: My 12 yr old is looking for a side hustle
« Reply #13 on: July 25, 2017, 02:21:01 PM »
There was just an article in my local paper about a 12 year old with a furniture flipping / restoration business.

DarkandStormy

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Re: My 12 yr old is looking for a side hustle
« Reply #14 on: July 25, 2017, 02:48:37 PM »
-Babysitting
-Lawn care - either lawn mowing or offering to do weeding/mulching or both (may be hard at a young age without a parent's help)
-Selling old toys, clothes, etc. on eBay if not marked for hand-me-downs
-Paper delivery route
-Lemonade stand (don't know if this would be profitable in your neighborhood)
-Could he lifeguard?

Scotland2016

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Re: My 12 yr old is looking for a side hustle
« Reply #15 on: July 25, 2017, 04:38:03 PM »
Picking up dog poop! There is a very successful company in my town that charges $11 per week (one dog) to come once a week, pick up the poop, and haul it off.

marshdesign

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Re: My 12 yr old is looking for a side hustle
« Reply #16 on: July 25, 2017, 08:05:33 PM »
You tube videos! No really, he can teach or talk about anything. Build up his channel and then he can apply for the ad revenue program, I think you just need your first 10,000 views. Is he into video games? He can do video game reviews! I have a 3 year old, and we do not have cable, so we go on the youtube app for videos to watch for him. There are so many toy review videos that are just racking up the views. All they do is play with toys and have fun.


TrMama

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Re: My 12 yr old is looking for a side hustle
« Reply #17 on: August 01, 2017, 12:50:22 PM »
My 10yo started a paper route recently. It's just the local flyer/neighbourhood freebie paper 2x/wk so the route is compact and all downhill from our house :-)

Paper route is nice because it's regular income and doesn't require any hustling. Downsides are that it's regular and if we go away she's supposed to find a sub. Other downside is that if you sign your kid up for sleep away camp, you get to do their paper route while they're gone. Oops.

As she gets older, I suspect she'll start selling her art. She's super artistic and the canvases are starting to take over our house.

LadyMaWhiskers

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Re: My 12 yr old is looking for a side hustle
« Reply #18 on: August 01, 2017, 02:23:31 PM »
Depending on the density of your living place, collecting cans/bottles can be lucrative. I did it in elementary school, and with condos going up all over, the construction sites were a goldmine.

garion

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Re: My 12 yr old is looking for a side hustle
« Reply #19 on: August 02, 2017, 08:30:35 AM »
Thanks for all the posts and great advice!  He started a dog walking business. His mom (wisely) vetoed his first choice--dog sitting-- because guess who would end up cleaning poop off our floor or getting up to quiet them in the middle of the night?  He's also looking for a second stream of income and is seriously considering several ideas mentioned above.  Thanks again, all!

We pay the teenager next door to take care of our pets when we're away for a few days. He comes to our house though! That might be another option if you have neighbors with pets. Cats at least are pretty low maintenance. He could just go over once a day to feed the cat, refill water, scoop litter, play with string.

mucchad

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Re: My 12 yr old is looking for a side hustle
« Reply #20 on: November 03, 2017, 03:36:30 AM »
posting to follow

FallenTimber

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Re: My 12 yr old is looking for a side hustle
« Reply #21 on: November 05, 2017, 08:01:52 AM »
Since it's been a few months, any updates here? Would love to hear how some of the other ideas might have panned out for your son.

Our first son is set to arrive next month and my wife and I, both entrepreneurs, have often pondered over this same question.

Bracken_Joy

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Re: My 12 yr old is looking for a side hustle
« Reply #22 on: November 05, 2017, 09:14:36 AM »
Does he do any sports or similar? My husband taught private lessons through his teens for martial arts, and always had way more cash on hand than the rest of us, haha.

I did quite a few side hustles, but only kept the money from babysitting/nannying. Everything else was donated, which probably helped with business haha.
-Collected cans and bottles. (Especially useful after Game Days and Holidays. I'd go around, bring bags. A couple times people were so hungover I just went in and gathered all the cans myself. Made good money this way).
-Dog walked, dog care (at their house, never at ours. I didn't stay nights with the dogs, but I would go over right before bedtime and let them out and go over again first thing the next morning). Also did some training for teaches dogs to walk on leash appropriately.
-Baby sat, nanny work.
-Mowed lawns, raked leaves, tilled soil in spring for gardens, spread bark, etc.
-I also picked fruit for people and took a portion of the fruit as my payment.

Chesleygirl

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Re: My 12 yr old is looking for a side hustle
« Reply #23 on: November 05, 2017, 09:50:55 AM »
I would pay someone to weed my yard in the summer time. Not much need for it now that the weather is getting cooler, though.

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!