Teen Money Making Ideas

Are you tired of waiting tables at your local restaurant, spending hours on your feet after school and on weekends to only make a pittance of cash? Perhaps retail jobs at the mall, with inflexible hours and low, minimum-wage paychecks are getting you nowhere? If rushing from school to work and giving up your weekends for meager pay has gotten you down, let’s think outside the box for a moment as to how you can start your own teen business.

Think about this: how do people make money? There are two options: work for someone else or work for yourself. Jobs geared toward adults building a career offer the building blocks for planning a future - a stable income, on-the-job experience, continuing education and skill development, health benefits and financial planning. Throughout high school, you will be planning for your future by examining your options - college, vocational training, or venturing onto a career path via an entry-level position in your field of choice. Internships and summer programs can provide opportunities to explore potential career fields of interest to you. This is your future, but let’s return to the present!

For many teens, a job represents a means to an end: to make extra money. Whether you are saving to buy your first car, have money to buy the things you want, or even save money toward college plans, jobs that don’t pay get you nowhere fast! If you’re working for someone else, it’s fair to assume you’ll be limited to the hours and low pay most entry-level jobs offer for hours and hours of work.

Is there another option besides working for someone else?

Yes! You can start your own teen business and work for yourself! The best advantage of having your own teen business is this: your own efforts determine your success. Think about this: no matter how hard you work at your entry-level job at the mall or local restaurant, you will only make the same low hourly wage. However, with your own teen business, you make more money if you work hard! You determine how you want to conduct your business: how much you want to work, how quickly you want the business to grow, the products you want to sell, and how much money you’d like to make. Sounds great, doesn’t it?

How Do You Start?

I know your next question: how do I start? Starting your own teen business may seem like an overwhelming decision. What type of business should it be? What type of things can I sell? Where would I sell things? What type of money can I make doing this? Let’s answer your questions one-by-one and I’m sure you’ll see how easy starting your own teen business can be!

You may see ads in the employment section of the newspaper heavily advertising lucrative jobs in sales. There is a simple reason for this: the free market, (people buying and selling all types of services and products), is our way of life. Think for just a moment about how many ads you see on TV, hear on the radio, and browse on the internet. How many products have you bought or considered buying recently? Perhaps you went to the mall and bought new clothes, shoes, or DVD’s? Sales is a popular choice for another reason: the potential to find customers, sell items and make an admirable stream of income. There is an endless variety of products available to sell, but this leads us to the next point: what type of things should I sell?

Choose A Teen Business With Your Interests In Mind

Since you’re starting a teen business, we have to consider two things as for what will make this a fun and successful experience for you: what your interests are and who you feel comfortable marketing your products to. This is what helps us decide the right product to sell. By choosing something similar to your own interests, you’re more likely to be knowledgeable and excited about the product you’re selling. Also, let’s think for a moment about who you would like to sell products to. It will probably be more enjoyable to meet other teens who share similar interests and will likely be interested in your products than, say, meeting middle-aged adults who may not be interested in your products. Someone like-minded can be an enjoyable conversation and sale; trying to appeal to someone who is not interested or knowledgeable about your product makes selling real work!

As you’ve been thinking about what type of product you’d like to sell, let’s think about your interests again. I’m willing to bet that movies are one of your primary interests, aren’t they? No matter what type of movies you like, you probably know everything there is to know about the movies you like. You probably have friends who also like similar movies. Best of all, you’re comfortable and relaxed talking about movies, favorite actors and films and enjoying them. These are all qualities that make for a great product to choose, and have the makings for a great opportunity for sale!

A Hot Business Idea

When researching teen businesses, one idea comes to mind: selling dvd’s. Why? The answer is simple - money. In the United States alone, 16 billion dollars worth of dvd’s are sold each year. This is a huge market! And may be a viable option for a teen business idea. If you think that trying to find a source for buying wholesale dvd’s would be a problem, think again. Nowadays, there are plenty of choices. One website which comes to mind is Bundled DVD’s. This website offers start-up packages for anyone to purchase DVD’s to sell for fun and profit. Low prices ensure that you will be able to markup your product and make money quickly on each and every sale!

At Bundled DVD’s, you can buy dvd’s at wholesale prices. For example, you could get mixed DVD bundles sets which include a a variety of DVDs with over 400 different titles. Genres such as: action, adventure, animated, children’s, classics, comedy, martial Arts , sci-fi, western, and a bunch of other genres. Not only that, but they even offer dropshipping. This means that they will even ship directly to your customers without revealing it was they that sent it! Cool, huh?

Marketing Your Hot Selling Product

Now that we’ve identified a hot selling product for your teen business and where to obtain it, let’s discuss where you can sell your DVD’s. Online marketing has hit a boom, pulling in enough revenue to compete with even the largest chain retailers.

If you have a Myspace or Facebook page, you can easily add your products to your profile to reach more potential customers through mutual friends. You can also list your items on E-bay, CraigsList and other online classified websites as well.

Once you start to make sales through your online advertising efforts, you can have Bundled Dvds send the orders directly to your customers. If, however, you choose to ship to your customers yourself, you can get dvd bubble mailers through a link on their site. The padded bubble mailers will allow you to mail your customer’s order in a safe and secure way.

Don’t forget about your local town! Flea markets, craft fairs and street fairs all offer the opportunity for small merchants to set up a table or booth to sell products for a low cost. By sitting at your table for a Saturday afternoon, you can not only sell your products, but also give away flyers or cards to spread the word and attract more business to your products online!

How Much Can You Make?

Lastly, how much money can you make? This is always the question that everyone wants to know! The amount of money you make could easily be hundreds each month, just in your spare time! Remember that figure of 16 billion dollars I mentioned earlier? Well, think of yourself getting a portion of that market. The more you advertise your products - tell your friends at school, mention your links in blog entries, tell your friends about it on myspace and facebook, you can build your customer base. It depends entirely on your effort and what you hope to achieve.

While working at a regular job has benefits, it cannot be matched by the capability of your own potential! Why not think about starting your own dvd business? Then, you can begin working for yourself tomorrow!