Whether it's starting a lemonade stand or
launching your own product to pitch on Shark Tank, there are a million different ways
to earn some pretty decent money as a teenager. So today let's go through my
five favorite strategies including the one that I used to turn $500 into $500,000.
Alright let's jump right into it. What is going on everyone I hope you are all
having a fantastic day. So as someone who was an ambitious teenager not too long ago I understand
that it can be a little bit overwhelming with all of the options that you have in terms of making
money. We’ll start with the most basic and work away up to the more insane strategies so the
first money making method I used as a teenager was…brace yourself for this one…getting a job. I'm
not here to sound like your parent and I totally understand that flipping burgers at McDonald's
or in my case making Italian ice at ritas is not the most glamorous thing in the world
but beyond the financial compensation that you can get from a teenage job, more importantly
it's going to teach you the value of money and again I know I sound like a total parent but
trust me that will serve you well going forward and later in your life when you start to make
a lot more money you'll really appreciate it because you'll remember the days when you made
just a few dollars per hour.
Plus when I had a part time job in highschool I earned just $7.25
per hour which I realize is still the minimum wage in a lot of states however there are so many
jobs available right now many of which will start at $15 an hour or more so even if you're only
working just 15 hours a week which is very doable, even after Uncle Sam takes his cut you're still
looking at $1000 a month which as a teenager is all the money in the world… at least it was to
me. But moving on from there the second option is where we're going to lump all of the token money
making strategies for teenagers and that would be starting a side hustle. There are a million
options here but you could start walking dogs, babysitting, washing cars, cleaning houses,
working as a referee or a lifeguard, delivering groceries or door dash depending on how old
you are, teaching music lessons or tutoring, some kind of online freelancing, and of course
the most cliche money making method as a teenager mowing lawns. The sky is the limit here and this
doesn't have to be some confusing overly ambitious formal company.
You can just go knock on your
neighbors door and ask if you can wash their car or mow the lawn. It really is that simple and
if you compare the hourly rate you can earn from something like this compared to the hourly rates
of working even at $15 per hour you'll likely come out ahead with one of these common side hustles.
Plus if you do have more time on your hands and you're more entrepreneurial, you absolutely could
turn walking a few of the neighborhood dogs into a full blown business or mowing a few lawns into a
lawn care service. Again the sky is the limit here and the lessons you will learn will once again
serve you well in the future.
Now those first two are great tried and true money making options
for teens but they both involve trading your time for money and if you really want to maximize your
income you ultimately want to get away from that. So let's move into the higher income options and
work our way up to the strategy I used to earn $500,000. The third strategy sounds really fancy
at first but I promise it's not that complicated and that would be social media marketing.
Again this sounds really fancy like a proper adult business but the fact is, a lot of the
businesses in your area are likely owned by older individuals who may not be as social media
savvy as the younger generation.
That's not always the case but if you are familiar with how social
media algorithms work and you understand how to create content or navigate social media platforms
then you can reach out to local businesses and offer this social media knowledge as a service.
This could include starting or running Instagram pages Facebook pages LinkedIn profiles and even
starting in e-mail marketing campaign on behalf of a local business. Again this one is going to
depend on where you live and what businesses are in your area but this is another one of those
things that you could offer to businesses as a remote service by just emailing them with a
short elevator pitch explaining how you can add value to their business.
Income with this sort
of thing can range drastically but even if you provide the service for just five businesses in
your area and each of them pays you $500 per month to make 5 postings, that's a total of $2500 per
month or $100 per post and at that pace you'd only have to make one post per day which shouldn't
be too difficult. Plus as you learn this space and are able to produce better results for the
businesses not only will you continue to receive recurring revenue from your existing clientele but
you'll likely be able to charge more in the future since you have that proven track record.
And if
you're saying to yourself right now that you have no idea how to start an Instagram page or optimize
for SEO on LinkedIn let me remind you that YouTube is a thing and you can literally learn anything
by doing a quick video search online. Alright this next strategy is by far the most simple and
will provide the highest return despite the fact that it sounds kind of boring but that would be
saving and investing in you. Let me explain… if you're a teenager watching this then chances are
you've asked yourself the question at some point, should I go to college and that question
has become increasingly difficult to answer within the past few years. And while I am a
firm believer that you can make a wonderful living without a college degree and clearly
there are some incredibly successful people who are anti college, for your average individual
it is still a proven fact that college graduates earn significantly more over the course of their
career when compared to high school graduates.
In fact the most recent report from the Bureau of
Labor statistics put that wage gap between high school and college graduates at $35,000 when
looking at median wages. That means that over the course of a 45 year career a college graduate
easily earns $1,500,000 or more when compared to a High School graduate. Now again we are looking
at averages here and that is absolutely not always the case plus this is assuming that
you are smart about where you go to college and what you decide to study. But using myself as
an example, I went to in in State University, took summer and overload credits in order to graduate
early, and was able to earn two bachelors degrees in three years for a total of $48,221.66.
So if
we view that roughly $50,000 as an investment that will yield a return of over $1,500,000
throughout my career that means that investing in myself is going to yield a better return
and even investing that money in the stock market over 45 years at a 7% annual return.
Long story short investing in yourself and your own education will almost always yield a
higher return than any money making strategy or investment could possibly match assuming that you
get an affordable degree in a good field of study. However I realize that is not the most exciting
thing in the world so getting back to those of us with that entrepreneurial mindset it's time to
talk about the money making method I used to turn $500 into $500,000 and a lot of you probably
already figured out what this is but that would be YouTube. Now let's preface this with a few things.
Number one yes I legitimately spent a few $100 on a YouTube course, a tripod for my phone, and a
ring light all for under $500 and after years and years of work this channel surpassed $500,000
in top line revenue.
However taxes are a thing so Uncle Sam gets about half of that and the cameras
that I now record with cost more than my first car so while running a YouTube channel absolutely
can be a very low cost and lucrative business, it can also be a lot more complex than your
average viewer probably thinks. But even if you're saying to yourself that you have nothing
to talk about or you're shy on camera or you don't know where to get started I want to encourage
and remind you that number one I am an introvert, number two I knew nothing about video
editing or cameras or YouTube in general when I first started, and #3 my first video is
literally me in my college dorm room with my iPhone and a ring light.
Everyone has to start
somewhere so if you've been thinking about starting a channel for a long time then my biggest
encouragement to you would be just start. My first video sucks it's still on my channel you're
welcome to go back and have a good laugh but you learn and you grow and you have fun
through that process and despite the fact that I still have a really small YouTube
channel in the grand scheme of things, it still produces a good income and provides me
with a flexible schedule that allows me to do what I want when I want.
It's not going to be the quick
cash grab like going and getting a regular job and it is going to take some time but it can be
incredibly fulfilling and rewarding and I can say first hand that it truly has changed my life as
cliché as that sounds. So there you have it those are my five favorite money making strategies for
teenagers all of which I have used myself but I'd love to know what you think of these strategies
down in the comment section and what money making strategy for teens you feel I left off of this
list.
Be sure to check out some of my favorite financial tools using the links down below the
like button and as always thank you so much for your time I really do appreciate it so much
take it easy and I'll see you in the next one!.