Here are three money making ideas for kids. All of these possible businesses can be started with just a little bit of money. Of course, if the profits are reinvested they can become much bigger enterprises.
Fishing Worm Business
This might be one of the easiest of these money making ideas for kids to try. Of course, it helps if you are near an area where people fish. First, you should visit a bait shop or other place where they sell worms and nightcrawlers to see how much they sell for. Then locate the best lakes or streams where the fishermen are going regularly (make a note of the best times).
Where do you get the worms? Check the lawn after a rain, for starters. Also, in some areas there are hundreds of night crawlers all over the sidewalks after a summer shower. Dig under wet piles of leaves to find them too. You can start without any money if you save plastic butter tubs and coffee cans to sell the worms in, and later you can use your profits to buy nice Styrofoam containers with lids.
If you want to make more money, invest your profits into a good book on how to breed night crawlers, plus the equipment to start a little worm farm. Produce a steady supply and you might be able to sell them to a bait shop. Though they will pay less than the fishermen, you may make more because you can sell so many at once and spend more time "farming" worms than trying to sell them.
Sell Hand-Painted Rocks
Where we live here in Colorado, many people have painted rocks they use for decorative doorstops or paperweights. If you live in an area where you can get nice smooth rocks, you can make them yourself and sell them. Paint them with flowers, or with people's names, or look around at what other's have done. Your parents can help you buy the right paints, and set the prices for the finished rocks.
If you want a bigger business, you'll have to delegate some of the work Pay other kids for each good rock they bring to you, and find an artistic friend you can pay to paint them. That way you can get busy selling more. You might even get a gift store to sell the rocks for you if you give them a good percentage of the money from each rock.
Fix And Sell Bicycles
Older kids who like to fix things can get books that show how to repair bicycles.You can start by learning how to repair your own. See what people are paying for used bicycles, by going to yard sales and looking at advertisements in the classified section of the newspaper, and take notes. When you know what the bikes should sell for, you can start buying broken ones to fix.
Buy them cheap, and let everyone know what you are doing. People may give you old bicycles that they were going to throw away. Also, during spring clean-ups in some towns people throw away bikes, and you can take these from the junk at the curb, if that's okay with your parents. I once met a man who collected sixty bikes in one day in this way.
Of course you'll need to have a little money to buy parts and old bikes when you start, unless you have an old bicycle or two in the garage. Once you make your first sale, use the money to buy more bikes and any parts you'll need. Sell the bicycles in front of your home with a simple sign, or you get your parents to help you place an ad in the paper if you have some expensive or popular bikes.
Copyright Steve Gillman. These money making ideas for kids were borrowed from the "Unusual Ways To Make And Save Money" newsletter. Get your free subscription at; http://www.UnusualWaysToMakeMoney.com
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