Raising Entrepreneurs

Welcome back!

I promised you some great unusual ways to make money, and here are some ripper suggestions from Steve Gillman – if you’re not sure how to make a successful business out of these ideas, Steve recommends that you try the Cash-Smart Kids program to get you started.

Here are some money making ideas for kids. These simple businesses can be started with very little money, and grown into larger operations in time.

Make And Sell 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. You can paint them with flowers, or with people’s names. Look around at what other’s have done for ideas. Ask your parents to help you buy the right paints, and how to price the finished rocks.

Now, if you want a bigger business, you’ll have to delegate. You can pay other kids for each good rock they bring to you, and then find an artistic friend you can pay to paint them. With other’s doing those parts of the work, you can get busy selling more of them. Maybe you can even get a gift store to sell them for you if you give them a good percentage of each sale.

Be A Computer Helper

There are many young kids who know a lot about computers. My own nephew was getting paid for programming by the the time he was fourteen. Even younger kids might get paid to show old folks how to use a computer for basic things, like setting up and using an email account and accessing the internet. Telling grandparents to spread the word would be a good marketing ploy.

Buy, Fix And Sell Bicycles

This one is for the older kids who like to fix things. You can get books that show you how to repair bicycles, and you can start by learning how to repair your own. Then you need to see what people are paying for used bicycles, by going to yard sales and looking at advertisements in the classified section of the newspaper. Take notes. Once you know what the bikes should sell for, you can start buying broken ones to fix.

Make sure you buy them cheap. Let everyone know what you are doing too. Sometimes people may give you old bicycles that they were going to throw away. During spring clean-ups in some towns people throw away bikes as well, and you can take these from the junk at the curb (if it’s okay with your parents). I once met a man who collected sixty bikes in one day in this way.

You’ll need to have a little money to buy parts and old bikes when you start. After the first sale, use the money to buy more bikes and parts. Wait until you have several sold before you start spending any of your profits. You can sell the bicycles in front of your home with a simple sign, or you can get your parents to help you place an ad in the paper if you have some expensive or popular bikes to sell.

Sell Fishing Worms

If you are near an area where people fish, you may be able to sell nightcrawlers or worms. Visit a bait shop or other place where they sell them to see how much you can charge. You can sell them at the lake or stream where the fishermen are.

To get the worms, check the lawn after a rain. In some areas there are hundreds of night crawlers all over the sidewalks after a summer rain. You can also dig under wet piles of leaves to find them. You can start without any money if you save plastic butter tubs and coffee cans to sell the worms in. Later you can use your profits to buy nice Styrofoam containers with lids.

The next step could be to invest your profits into a good book on how to breed night crawlers, and the equipment to start a little worm farm. If you can produce a steady supply you might be able to sell them to a bait shop. They will pay less than the fishermen since they need to make a profit too, but you may make more because you can sell so many at once and spend more time “farming” worms than trying to sell them.

By 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

, and for help getting your business started, check out the Cash-Smart Kids program – there’s a special offer on at the moment with incredible bonuses included at no extra cost.

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