Write a commentUnder 18 and looking to earn some cash? The desire for independence and freedom from a young age is on the rise these days, and it never hurts to earn that little bit of extra money through doing some hard graft. There are plenty of things that children can do to be rewarded for their efforts.
Earning money as a teenager is not only a great way of understanding the rewards of hard work, but it will also teach them about savings and build their confidence as working employees. Let’s have a look at the list of things that kids can do to make money.
Make Money as a Kid
Just because you're under 18 doesn't mean you can't be a budding entrepreneur and start earning yourself a bit of cash. Here are the best ways for Children, Teens and under 18s to earn money...
Paper round
Finding work in this area may depend on your local newsagents. Despite this, with no experience required to deliver newspapers, this job is great for children wanting to keep busy, get out of the house, and earn a small, starting income.
Leaflet Delivery
Many small local businesses are willing to pay for promotional leaflets to be delivered around their local areas. Try getting in touch with a few via social media.
Chores
Car washing, window washing, garden maintenance, you name it. The possibilities are endless when trying to pick up a bit of extra money in this area since regular chores will always need to be done!
Whether this is for parents or other people in your local neighbourhood, offering cleaning services is a simple yet effective way of making money for someone under 18-years-old.
Putting outdoor work to one side, household chores will be in demand yearly, including mopping, dusting, and hoovering.
Surveys
This method is an effective way to earn a little extra bit of money – and a lot of surveys allow under 18s on their sites. The great thing about surveys is that they require minimal effort.
You can earn cash or vouchers just for giving your opinion! Although you won’t earn a lot from filling out surveys, it might be worth bearing in mind that you only have to be 14 to join some, check out the link below for a huge list of the best survey sites that pay in 2024.
Skill-based competitions
Many kids have talents that potentially turn over some money. The first example that comes to mind is story writing competitions. The prizes can vary but can lead to great opportunities to boost your CV too.
Sell your old possessions
Do you have old DVDs, books, or games that you don’t use anymore? Free up some storage space by selling these things on online platforms or at a physical yard sale. Turn your possessions into cash today.
Seasonal work
Whilst lawn mowing and watering plants may be more popular in spring and summer, leaf raking will be more popular in autumn. Furthermore, the UK isn’t a stranger to cold winters – de-icing cars, de-icing paths with grit, and snow shovelling will be more popular in this season, especially in the northern regions – you can easily adapt yourself to the customer demand throughout the entire year.
Offer pet services
A lot of people are animal lovers, so dog walking or pet sitting may be a perfect first job for kids. The prices can vary on this one, with everything depending on the individual pet owners, however, with around a quarter of the UK’s population owning a dog, it should be easy to find work in this area, whether it’s feeding pets, bathing them, or walking them when the owner doesn’t have much spare time.
Babysitting
Whilst this one may be better for older teens rather than children, it’s a solid way to earn cash by doing yet another simple task. This job can effortlessly be secured if you have friends, family, or neighbours who have children needing to be looked after.
Creating and selling T-shirts
If you’re creative with a wild imagination, this might be a great starting point for a little business. Multiple websites can aid this kind of marketing work, although selling these items at school may also work if your designs are appealing enough for the target audience.
Start a Blog
With many children being keen writers, starting a blog can be great if you can build traffic on your website. Writing can be a lot of fun for kids, however, it can be difficult to start making money with blogs, and might be best seen as a long-term project that they can improve at over a longer period.
Selling things on Folksy
The UK-based online shop, Folksy, is often compared to Etsy. Whilst using this would require a parent’s account, if the child had their permission, they could easily get crafty with making things to sell online. This could involve making things like jewellery, knitwear, crochets, and artwork.
Get a part-time job
Whilst many jobs want over-18s to work for them, finding a part-time job as an under-18-year-old isn’t impossible. Many shops and local businesses take on younger teenagers, providing a guaranteed, steady income.
Running errands
Similar to helping neighbours out with household chores, extending your services to things like grocery shopping or picking other things up for (most commonly) elderly people can be a great starting point for teens looking for work. It doesn’t require experience and is an easy task – perfect!
Get paid to walk
Yes – really! You can download apps in the UK which really do pay you to walk. Users can make money simply by wandering about – if you want to be motivated into choosing a healthier lifestyle whilst also getting paid, this is an effective way of finding that encouragement.
Tutor
This may be one for the older kids – if you are talented at a particular subject, why not teach younger kids and share your skills with them? This kind of project can be common in high schools with many students in lower year groups needing that extra little bit of help.
Teaching the English language online can also be quite common, with some sites requiring no qualifications apart from the fluency of your English-speaking skills.
Poker nights
Although proper gambling shouldn’t be encouraged from a young age, fun games can earn you a bit of cash just by outwitting your friends! If you can master a game such as poker, inviting your friends over for a couple of games could get you earning money in no time!
Freelancing
Showcasing your talents on sites is a great way to earn a small income as well as boosting your CV. Popular freelancing skills include coding, writing, and designing logos. Start sharing your talent with potential clients today!
Sites like Fiverr are available to anyone aged 13 or over and you can sell all the above sills and more. Take a look around at what other sellers are offering and see if you could do the same.
Become an amateur referee
All the little leagues need refs and umpires! If you have a keen interest in sport and exercise, this one might be for you – and will look great on your CV.
Sell stock photos
If you have a keen eye for photography, this is a perfect opportunity to turn your hobby into some cash. Anyone can do it on several different websites, making it perfect for kids.
Creating an online course
If you are a talented student, it may be worth looking into creating an online course to help other students with their studies. Perhaps more people than you may think are willing to pay for these types of courses, and the best thing about this is that your course could be on anything you want!
Become a video editor
Often, jobs like this only require simple software, and small gigs in this area are easy to pick up. Whilst you will need to know a little about technology, the more gigs you pick up in this area, the more skillful you will become!
Write reviews
You can either do this on your personal blog or through paid sites to earn a small income. Similar to online surveys, you can get paid to have your opinion heard. An example of a British review site is Dooyoo. Kids may like this one as you can get rewarded with Amazon gift certificates.
Gaming
This method is not only enjoyable but also easy to make money from. Teens are often glued to their game consoles these days – so why not make some cash from it?
Live-streaming whilst playing video games can be a good option, and simply vlogging your gaming experience can sometimes earn you some money from viewers.
If you think you’ve got what it takes, video game tournaments could be a way to win some hefty bonuses, although you’d have to be pretty skilled to earn anything from this method.
Alternatively, if you have a knack for gaming, being paid to teach other players how to game better could be an option to look into.
Manage social media accounts
This is often a job that clients don’t want to do and will look to hire people to do it for them. If you’re an expert on social media and know all the latest trends, this may be a desirable job to which you can easily contribute to.
Lifeguard at your local pool
This can be an ideal summer job for young people. You can start helping your local community today by simply signing up for lifeguard training and certification.
Check out our list of over 100 ways to make money fast
So, there you have it. Hopefully, this list of suggestions will help you out with earning money from a young age – if you know of any other ways that kids can earn hard cash, please let us know in the comments below!
