The Business Twins posted an article How Teens Can Make Money This Summer which gives some great advice for teenagers and students looking for a summer job. What really caught my eye though was the last point on self employment, where they say:
“…paint address numbers on the sidewalk. I remember moving into our new house and a guy came around charging $20 dollars per house he did. And guess what? I remember seeing almost every house pay him to paint their address numbers on the sidewalk which only took about 15-25 minutes.”
I wouldn’t suggest painting numbers on the footpaths in the UK or the council will no doubt be having words with you, but it did remind me that on the new estates around here (well over 1000 new homes) there are a significant number of homes that don’t have a house number or just have a piece of A4 with the number scrawled on blu-tacked to a window.
When I’ve asked them about it (nosey aren’t I) they generally tell me that they hate/can’t do DIY but that they’d love to have a proper number up. So if you’ve got a new estate nearby why not get yourself a selection of numbers and borrow your Dad’s power drill (make sure you know how to use it safely) and get out there selling both the numbers and a fixing service. The numbers alone typically retail for £20-£40 in DIY stores so you should be able to find some cheap wholesale on the Internet and then charge £5 for fitting which won’t take more than a couple of minutes. Overall for the supply and fitting of a number you should be able to make £10-£15 profit.
Going beyond that however new homes are full of little bits of easy DIY that needs doing, so if you’ve got the experience market yourself as a handyman while you’re there and see if there are other jobs you can help with – putting up pictures, mirrors, toilet roll holders, towel rails, curtains or assembling flat pack furniture amongst others.
For other teen business ideas check out my teen business week.
This blog is about business opportunities and ideas that I spot, think of or hear about and think are useful and interesting. It is intended to provide ideas and inspriation for you to help you find the right business idea for you to then grow it into a successful business.
Thanks for the linkback! When we first moved into our new neighborhood we wanted to paint addresses on the sidewalk, but found out you had to be 18 to obtain the permit.
-Gregg
I am currently hoping to find a student to try and do something worthwhile. It is not technically a job as it is not, like these, about making a profit. That said i am sure it could be self supporting and it does need entrepreneurial spirit.
What I want is someone to arrange sponsorship from some large companies for a school in an impoverished area (not UK I mean a poor country). The idea is that they (the companies) should sponsor school meals for the school in question. To set this up directly with the school will make it much more likely to actually happen rather then see the money go to graft higher up the chain. A student could get sponsorship both for the meals and to visit the country, select the school and arrange the deal.
I would be keen to arrange a few initial introductions and to talk about a process to gain more high level intros. I would also be happy to offer strategic and tactical advice to help make this happen.
Rufus Evison
ReasonedRants.BlogSpot.Com
Rufus,
Sounds like a worthwhile project to me and while it may not make the student money it’ll certain provide them with some useful and worthwhile experience and contacts.
John,
As you say, the intention is not to make money for the student but to provide worthwhile experience at a relatively high level. It will look good on a CV, give them organisational experience and several high level contacts. Also it will do some good and should be fun. I even have a few pet projects that couold be handed over to someone who managed somehting like this. If you know anyone suitable please do point them my way as it just seems someting that should happen.
It has been shown that projects like this have many benefits for the recipients. The nutrition makes the school results improve considerably. The incentive of food means that children who otherwise would not be allowed to go are actively encouraged. This helps to even up the sex ratios as typically girls are the ones who are kept back. All in all I feel it is a good thing. I have a reference if anyone is interested. It is sat somewhere on ReasonedRants.BlogSpot.Com, though i am now moving that blog to the background to make way for a shorter one.
Rufus Evison
there are no jobs for me as i am only fifteen what jobs are there?
Tom,
That depends where you are, but rarely in life will jobs come to you, you will need to learn to go out and look for them.
Have you asked your local newsagent for a job, or the local pub/bar/restaurant?
Great idea, but I would suggest that more meals could be provided with the sponsorship money if the initiator’s trip to select the school was self-funded. Too many so-called charitable organisations use the money collected for such schemes to provide their ‘managers’ with foreign travel and paid employment at first-world rates, when the money could be put to better use at the point of need. Finding a suitable recipient is not difficult by judicious use of resources available in this country, e.g. the internet, libraries, etc.
Self funding might not be an option for a poor student. That said the costs of a student doing cheap travel without wage will be significantly lower than were a full blown charity initiative to employ someone to do this.
At one point I did a 9 month set of traveling for $300 plus my initial ticket. To do this for a charity in the usual way would cost much more and, as you say, eat away at the purpose of the scheme.
That said I have alarger problem with the initiative. This is that no one seems willing to volunteer, or to refer me to someone who might be willing to volunteer.
If i could find a volunteer I would happily keep track of what went on to ensure that the scheme benefitted and that the meals were not all being eaten by travel and related benefits.
Rufus Evison
Hi, I’m interested in helping feed the 3rd world school children thing but am unsure how to contact you???
Hi Gemma,
I posted a reply on my blog, but I do not think you saw it. You can either email me (my email address is my firstname followed by my surname as below @yahoo.com) or you can phone me on “0776 45-889.42″ if that is easier.I hope to hear from you as I am quite keen that this hsould happen.
Rufus Evison
P.S. John, if Gemma has submitted an email address when posting her comment perhaps you could let her know how to contact me?