16 Ways to Make Money As A Teen

When I was fifteen years old, I wanted to two things, independence, and money. I wanted to go out and enjoy myself with my friends, and I wanted the money to pay for it. The problem, while my parents would give me some flexibility to spend time with my friends, other than some pocket money, I didn’t get much else. If I wanted money, I need to earn it. From an early age, I not only had a paper round, but I also did a selection of odd jobs to make money and support my independence.

Make Money As A Teen

According to statistics, 46.% of youths (Age 16-24) in the United Kingdom have a full-time job, but there are few statistics for teenagers below 16, as the labour law prohibits child labour which means that children below the age of 16 are not allowed to work fulltime. That said, teenagers from the age of 13-16 are allowed to work for a limited number of hours, also known as part-time contracts.

If you are a teenager who is looking to make money while carrying on with your studies, then below are ten jobs that could easily earn money if you’re too young to get a full-time job.

Part-Time Job

Most business across the UK will look for part-time workers to support the team during those busy times of the week. You can start working part-time as soon as you’re 13 years old, but you’re typically limited to 12 hours a week during schools terms and 25 hours a week during school holidays (25 hours at 14, 35 at 15, 35 at 16 unlimited at 17).

Before your 16 years old, you have limited rights in terms of earnings, but once you hit 16 years old, you can legally earn £4.55 a hour. If you’re looking for a part-time job, you can check online, but I would also check your local paper or lookout for job adverts in your local city centre. My top three Part-time Jobs would be;

• Shops – The number one job for teens is definitely working part-time in a shop in your local shopping centre. Nearly all shops require some form of cover for busy periods of the day or at weekends, and rather than hire a more full-time staff to cover these times, of the day, they will simply hire teens to help out.
• Babysitting – This is probably aimed more towards your later teens, but doing a few hours “children sitting”, at £5 pounds an hour, can really bring in some money. Remember, your job is effectively to watch children and therefore you could combine babysitting with one of the below online jobs.
• Dog-walkers – If you live in a major city, you can be sure there will be dogs that need walking and sitting each day. If you’re a dog person, could easily charge £10 per day to take a dog for a walk, or even watch over a dog while the owner is away on holiday.

Summer Jobs

In the summer months, when the weather is slightly better, finding a job a teen is extremely easy. The same rules apply to above in terms of the number of hours you can work, but your choice becomes a lot wider, not only do you have the same jobs that you had in the winter, but you also have a selection of jobs that get popular in the summer. Below are my top five favourite summer job for teens;

• Using Your Entrepreneurial Skills – is a great way to earn money as a teen. Whether it is selling out old things that are not needed or used anymore, or setting up your own stall selling drinks and ice creams in your local park, or even setting up an account on Etsy (You can open an Etsy shop if you’re under 18 with parental consent) and selling your home-made jewellery, ceramics, paintings and drawings.
• Waitering is an excellent way for teens to earn money. The flexibility of shifts makes it easier for teenagers to manage their studies and work-life. Waitering is a great way to earn money as the hourly pay system makes it easier for teens to decide when they can work shifts, and when they need to focus on their academic work. Moreover, apart from the hourly pay, teens are often able to generate more money with the help of tips.
• Washing Cars – It’s easy to do and wildly popular over the summer when cars tend to get muckier during dry spells. You could easily walk around your local car-park and offer your services, or join your local garage as a car washer.
• Sports Coach – If you are involved in any sports teams or clubs, it may be possible to be hired as a coach to younger members of the team. I know several people who were asked by their sports coach to teach Saturday morning classes. One friend, for example, makes £7 an hour coaching her local rugby under-5s team. So, if you are already part of a team, it may well be worth asking if there are any vacancies for instructors.
• Theme Park Jobs – Generally in the UK Theme Parks will close over the winter and open in the summer where there is demand. The peak of the season is always the summer holidays where all theme parks will recruit extra, temporary staff to cope with the demand of children on holiday from school, wanting to go to the theme park. If you’re looking for a summer job, this can be one of the easiest places to find a part-time job over the summer.

Vlogging

Vlogging and Video-Making is big business across the many social media platforms, and age is not a barrier to earning money. The key is to attract a decent number of followers and provide them with excellent content. You can start by asking your friends and family to promote your account and later asking the audience for what they would want to see next through comments, will do the work for you.

The platforms are endless and include TikTok to show short video such as your dance moves, Instagram to promote your home business and YouTube to present your video skills though Vlogging, while Twitch allows you to show your best video games.

The idea with all these platforms is to grow an audience. Once you have a decent number of followers, you can start advertising on your channel with the greater the number of views you get, the more money you will earn. If you reach superstardom and become a social influencer, people are likely to buy products that are recommended by you. Therefore, companies and brands will approach you to promote their products.

Websites and Blogging

Much the same as Vlogging above, building a website allows you to create content, and show your work to the public. You can either set up a free website using a platform such as Weebly, or you could set up a website using your own domain name for a few pounds a year. Typically there are three ways to make money from blogging.

• Affiliate Marketing – A great example of this is Amazon who offer an affiliate marketing store as part of their platform. The idea, you write about a product on your website. Your readers read your review and buy the product on Amazon, and you get a cut of the profits.
• Advertising – Much the same way as vlogging platforms above show adverts to your viewers, google Adsense provides adverts to your readers and pays you an amount per views or per clicks. Google Adsense is probably the most well known, but other platforms pay better for a specific niche.
• Selling Products – You either need to be selling your own, or someone else’s products. The idea here, you set up an online shop or platform, and bring readers to your website to buy your products. You collect the difference between the buying/making price and the selling price.

Acting Jobs

Acting is big business across the UK, and there are lots of acting jobs for teens, whether it be on stage, day-time TV or even in the production of movies. Generally, there are two types of acting jobs, speaking and non-speaking roles. Most non-speaking roles will require little or no experience, but a speaking role will require you to get yourself an agent to support you.

If you’re serious about becoming an actor, its worth looking at getting an agent who will be able to connect you to the right people and keep your career on track, but generally it all starts with acting lessons and a portfolio which would include photos taken by a profession photographer.

Like most jobs, try to get as much experience as you possibly can by volunteering for acting roles in school and local amateur dramatic societies that always require teen actors and actresses for their productions.

Online Jobs

We’ve discussed Vlogging and Blogging above, but those are not the only jobs you can do online as a teen. There are plenty, but remember, there are also plenty of scams. My rule for working online, if you have to pay for something, it’s usually a scam. Below are five great ways to earn money online;

• Samesspeak is a US-based company, but given the payout is via paypal and you can set up a paypal account in your teens, it’s a great way to earn money. The idea behind Samespeak is to help people learn the English Language by having a conversation with them through skype. You can earn $10 for each 30-minute English conversation you have with a student. Once you make $100, the money will be deposited into your PayPal account.
• Typing & Transcription Jobs – Can you write well in English? Content is always needed on the internet and there are a lot of opportunities to earn money writing content. In its simplest form, head over to Freelancer or Upwork where there are 100’s of writing jobs waiting for your offer.
• Web Design – I built this website from the ground up, but I know a thirteen-year-old who is far better than me at website design. Not only is he building his own websites, but he is also offering his website services out to people that need help making changes to their website. Again freelance websites such as Freelancer or Upwork have an abundance of jobs to get you started.
• Online Skills – This covers a range of different online related jobs that you can get started with very early in life. There are people out there that will pay for coding help, power-point help and photoshop help and just because your thirteen years old, it doesn’t mean that you will not be in the running for the job.
• Translation – if you can speak a second language other than English fluently, there are always translation jobs on offer.

Final Thoughts

If you’re looking for a job in your teens, there are plenty of options across the online and offline world. If you can get online to work well, there are plenty of reports of teens making thousands each month, but it will take some time to develop your skills and knowledge.

If you need to earn money as a teen, probably the best idea to conetrate on a part-time job to earn immediate income, while you focus on building your online job.

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