Job Ideas For Teens

During my freshman year in high school there used to be one candyman who everybody went to when they wanted candy. He was so good at his job that people literally started calling him "Candyman", inside and outside of school. Kids began to realize that selling candy was a really lucrative business---at least for a kid in high school. By my sophmore year there were a few more "candymen" on the scene. This was quite convenient in that you didn't have to report to THE Candyman every time you wanted candy. Now I'm in my junior year of high school and everybody's a candyman. Now it's virtually impossible for candy to be inaccessible on the 5-acre campus. I've been a candyman for 10 months now, and I'm going to share some tips with you that I had to learn by experience.

1. Buy your candy in bulk variety packs at Costco or Walmart. This will save you money.

2. Start off bringing about 25 candies every day. How much you bring depends on many factors, like your school size. There are nearly 3000 kids at my school and I've been able to sell over 50 candies a day.

3. Try to make regular customers. Find people who will buy your candy every day. Don't be afraid to ask!!! "Hey, you want some candy?"

4. Abide by the Candyman Commandments below...

The Candyman Commandments

1) Thou shall not consume thy product.

Don't eat your candy! You will never save any money that way.

2) Thou shall be unique.

There are all kinds of ways to be unique. For example: One of the candymen at my school turned his backpack into a portable refrigerator by neatly stuffing it with bags of ice. This kept the chocolate from melting. Guess whose chocolate everyone bought....his. Uniqueness and originality go a long way; that's what brings in the cash.

3) Thou shall not overcharge.

Stick to the "everything is $1 rule". (of course little things like lolipops are exceptions). Overcharging will not get you more money...It will get you no customers.

4) Thou shall not undercut.

Being a candyman is not about price competition. People WILL buy your candy as long as you don't break Commandment #3. People will buy candy from you even if they're not hungry--it's human nature to just want candy when you see it. Don't try to sell your candy at a discount and think that you will get more customers. From experience I know that you will not get more customers this way. This will just just lower your profits.

5) Thou shall be in possession of the following items during business hours:

* one-dollar bills. Always keep a stack of $1 bills so that you always have change and never have to let a customer down.

* Skittles, M&Ms, Snickers, Kit Kats, 3 Musketeers, Resse's, Starbursts. These are the basics, the must-have candies. Uniqueness comes into play here. Try to sell a rare, high-demand candy like Shockers (formerly known as Shock Tarts). Don't just sell the Original Skittles; sell the Tropical flavored ones too.


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Now for the big question....How much money will I make? It depends. I personally made around $15 profit a day. You can make more. You can make less. Follow this guide and try to develop your own pattern.

Selling candy is like a passive income---you don't really have to work; you just have to be smart and consistent.

What is Cashcrate?

Cashcrate is a website funded by advertisers. Big companies who want to sell their products pay Cashcrate to advertise their products. Cashcrate in turn pays its members to view these advertisements. The companies figure the more people that view their advertisements, the more their products will sell and the more money they will make.

How much money can you make?

You can make as much as you want. The more time you put into it, the more money you will make. You will start small ($25 to $50 a month), but within 6 months you can be making $2000 a month. I personally made $47 my first month using Cashcrate. I only spent a total of maybe 4 hours. Some people make over $100 a month just by doing the offers and surveys. There are also prizes for the people who make the most money for any given month. For example, in April, one person came in first place and made $105.35. That person won a $150 bonus for making so much money. If you're looking to make A LOT of money on Cashcrate, you need referrals. Some people have over 1000 referrals and they make thousands of dollars a month. Basically, a referral is someone you tell about Cashcrate. When they sign up under your link, they become your referral.

How much time does it take?

You spend however much time you want. If you dedicate 1 hour every day, I'm sure you can make over $100 a month. Referrals take a while to get. If you really strive for it, you can get enough referrals within about 6 months to make $2000 a month.

How old do you have to be?

13 or older

Is this a scam?

No! This is legit. Scams ask you for money. Cashcrate is 100% free, so you will NEVER be asked to pay ANYTHING. You can google: "cashcrate testimonials" to see pictures of the checks people have received from Cashcrate.

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Basically, Cashcrate is a free service and you get out of it what you put into it.

To learn how to make money on Cashcrate, watch these videos:
VIDEO 1
VIDEO 2

Sign up HERE and try it out!

Work at a restaurant...it's self-explanatory. If you want a suggestion on which one to work at, I highly recommend Chick-fil-A. I worked there last year and I had a great overall experience. They pay well--better than McDonalds or Burger King (at least in my area).

Last summer I started my own little lawn mowing business. I live in a semi-rural area and I charged my four neighbors $25 to cut their grass every 2 weeks. That summer I made $500 working for a grand total of 20 hours.

Tips:

Offer fertilizing the grass for a small fee.

Bring your iPod/Zune/mp3 player: It will pass the time away.

Overcharge: Your neighbors will be willing to pay you more than it's worth since you're a kid.

Pros:

It's extremely easy...you just drive around.

Cons:

If you live in a more urban setting, you may not find much work.

You can only mow lawns within a certain proximity, unless you plan on buying a truck to transport your lawnmower great distances.

You have to pay for gas.

If you're good at math or any other subject in school, parents will be willing to pay you a decent sum of cash to help their kids out. My neighbor used to pay me $50 to tutor her son in math on Saturdays. Considering I only spent 2 hours a week, that's a lot of money!

Tutoring is not as terrible as you may think. I have to tutor kids at my school anyway since I'm in the National Honor Society...and that's without getting paid, so I'd be glad to tutor for money. I actually had fun tutoring my neighbor's son.

How do I find a client?

In my case, my neighbor just asked me, since she knew that math was something I was good at. Also, as part of the National Honor Society, we receive requests for tutors by email. You may not be so lucky as to find clients these ways, so what you can do is search Craigslist for people who are looking for tutors in your area. You could also print flyers advertising your tutoring service and post them up in the main office of your school (put your phone number on them). You should get swift responses.

To begin with, it's not that bad!!! I used to have to babysit my nephew all the time...and that was without pay. The most important thing is to be responsible; keep the baby away from danger. Don't turn your back. I'm sure you can make at least $10 an hour babysitting.

I make beats for fun. I haven't gotten around to selling any yet, but If you're good you can make a lot of money selling beats.

What you will need:

Computer: Since you are viewing this website, I don't think a computer is a requirement you should be worried about. However, your computer should be fairly up-to-date. It should have at least 512 MB of RAM and a processor speed of 2.0 GHz or more. RAM is very important; the more RAM the better.

Digital Audio Workstation (DAW): This is just a computer software program that allows you to produce and sample sounds then sequence them. Don't feel intimidated...This is very easy to do. I use many different DAWs, but I recommend using FL Studio for beginners. If you get more into it, I recommend using Reason as well. A demo of FL Studio is available for download, and it can do EVERYTHING the full version can do except save your work.

or....

You can buy a synthesizer for $3000 that does everything....you might want to stick to the computer and DAW.

What you will want:

Sounds: You will definitely want a huge library of audio samples. VSTs are like virtual synthesizers. There are many different VSTs that produce all kinds of sounds. Google "free VSTs" and you will find many free VSTs; the better ones cost money. Soundfonts are files that contain different sound samples of instruments. You can find thousands of free soundfonts online. You can access thousands of free soundfonts at sf2midi.com but you have to sign up first (it's free) The only thing about that website is that they limit your download speed since you're a free user. Otherwise they have a great library of soundfonts. Propellorheads Reason uses its own proprietary "Refills" for sounds. There are hundreds of these available; each refill holds many different sounds. There are ways to get all these sound samples and programs like FL Studio and Reason for free on the internet, but those ways are illegal, so it's up to you if you want to take that route.

External Hard Drive: As your collection of sound samples, soundfonts, VSTs, Reason refills, etc. grows, you will need more memory to accommodate it. I bought a 750 gb hard drive for this reason and it's nearly full. If you want to buy one, I recommend using your mom's credit card and buying one off of eBay; this will save you a lot.

Midi Controller: This is basically a keyboard (like a piano) that you use to control the note inputs in your DAW.

Audio Interface: This is basically a bridge between your midi controller and your computer. You could spend hundreds of dollars on an mbox, or you could spend $10 for a midi-usb adapter on eBay...go with the adapter. The only real advantage of the mbox is that there is a slot where you can add a microphone that runs on fantom power.



Microphone: A microphone is not necessary, but if you want to add vocals to your beats you will want one. Don't buy an expensive microphone. Buy a usb microphone, like the Samson CO1U. That's what I bought and it works beautifully. If you don't buy a usb microphone, then you will need to find an expensive way to connect your microphone to your computer.



Headphones: If you buy a microphone, then you will need headphones with which to listen to your beats while recording your vocals; if you play your beats out load while recording, you will get feedback.

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There are many websites dedicated to selling your beats. Here are a few:

Thebeattrader.com
Givemebeats.com
Beatswagger.com
Buythatbeat.com

Search YouTube for videos on how to make beats. Try searching for "FL Studio".

To start a car wash service, you will need at least 6 people. Get two of your friends to hold up big signs saying that you are washing cars. Get 3 more to help you wash the cars.

How much should we charge?

The typical price to charge is $5; I don't recommend charging any more than that.

Where can I set this up?

Usually you can pick a gas station and ask the owner for his permission for you to conduct your car wash there. Most should say yes. Alternatively you can do it in a supermarket parking lot. Wherever you choose, make sure your sign holders are placed strategically at a busy road; this will maximize the number of customers you get.

Collect the carts in the parking lot. It's as simple as that.