For those who feel the entrepreneurial hunger, that drive to build and create, it’s never too early to start fostering those tendencies. Even while you’re still in school, there are ways that you can continue to grow as a learner while also growing as a young entrepreneur. While you may be too young to open your own small business or get a full-time job working for one, there are still opportunities for you to explore the basics of business ownership while also learning other skills and information necessary to help prepare you for a career in entrepreneurship. Here are some jobs you can have as a teen that will help you step into the business world.
Join an online marketplace
For the creative types who want to build a business selling their creations, life since the creation of the internet has made this option much more viable. There are countless sites out there where you can create an account and begin selling your work in no time at all. Amazon and Ebay are two great options, and for the craftier types Etsy offers a great marketplace for those who create custom projects and personalize their work. This can help you learn simple things like how much to charge for certain items and how the cost of labor factors into the total cost of products.
Open a lemonade stand
This option might sound a little juvenile, but the idea is what’s important, not necessarily the product: sell the people what they need. The lemonade stand trope exists because, in the summertime when it’s hot out, people get thirsty and might be desiring a cool beverage, a need fulfilled by lemonade stands. There’s a reason you don’t see children lining the streets in mid-December to sell cold beverages. Find the lemonade in your life that you can use to combat the heat that someone is feeling, and actualize and monetize it.
Offer up a service
Are you great at math? Does playing an instrument come naturally for you? Are you artistic? Then you have something of value to offer to people who may be looking for help with a certain area of your talents. You could offer tutoring services or give musical lessons as a means of generating your own income. Don’t limit yourself, either! Artists may be great house painters or auto detailers, and mathematicians could offer to do tax preparation for friends, family, and neighbors. Look for ways to turn your talents into capital.