12 min read
Starting Facebook at just 19, Mark Zuckerberg is a prime example that, when it comes to business, age ain’t nothing but a number. Teens can – and do – succeed in business.
You just need to work out where your passion and skills lie and create something that people have a need or desire for.
But… What if you’re not sure where your passion lies just yet? What sort of businesses could flourish under teen ownership? Here are some ideas that might help trigger your first big business idea.
If it’s something you’re passionate about, why wait? Embracing entrepreneurship at a young age not only builds confidence but also provides invaluable life skills that are beneficial in any future career path. It can foster financial independence, allowing you to earn and manage your own money, which can be a powerful motivator and a lesson in financial responsibility. It can also cultivate a strong work ethic, helping you learn the value of hard work, perseverance, and the satisfaction of seeing your efforts translate into tangible results.
No entrepreneur’s journey is the same, but here are some basic stepping stones to start you off on the right foot.
Identify a viable business idea:
Create a business plan:
Understand legal requirements and permits:
Seek guidance:
If you’re imaginative and love to come up with original ideas, a creative business could be a great fit. You might even already be creating your products as a hobby – could you take it to the next level and turn it into a business?
Create and sell artwork, crafts, or custom-made products online (Etsy and Shopify are great starting points) and in-person at local markets and community events.
If you’re slick on social, could you turn these skills into something lucrative? You could help small businesses manage their social media accounts, creating content and engaging with their audience.
If you have an eye for detail and a passion for fashion, consider designing and selling handmade jewellery through online marketplaces and social media platforms.
Provide design services for logos, flyers, social media graphics, and other digital content.
Offer print-on-demand services to create and sell custom-designed t-shirts and other clothing items.
Bake goods or provide catering services for local events, parties, or special occasions.
Provide photography services for events, portraits, or social media content.
Write articles, blog posts, or content for websites, or start your own blog on a topic you’re passionate about.
Plan and organise events, parties, or small gatherings, handling all the details from invitations to decorations.
Repurpose and upcycle old items into new products, selling them through online platforms or local markets.
Whether in-person or online, there are a number of service-based business options out there. Make sure demand is there before setting up – you don’t want to be having to lower your prices to compete with well-established competitors.
Provide pet care services for neighbours and friends, especially during school holidays when people are likely to be away from home.
If you’re great with kids, why not provide reliable childcare services for families in your area?
If you love to be active outdoors, you might want to consider offering lawn mowing, gardening, and landscaping services to your local community.
Offer basic tech support and lessons for seniors, helping them with computers, smartphones, and other devices.
If you’re organised, efficient and great with people, consider assisting small business owners with administrative tasks, scheduling, and other virtual office duties.
A huge trend these days is home organisation. Help individuals declutter and organise their homes or specific rooms to make daily life run more smoothly.
Teach a foreign language to beginners or those looking to improve their skills.
Teach musical instruments or vocal lessons to beginners or intermediate learners.
Run errands, do the food shop, or help with other tasks for busy individuals.
Offer bike tune-ups, repairs, and maintenance services.
If you have bags of energy and are great with kids, consider how you might provide entertainment for parties. You could become a magician, be Spiderman or Elsa, paint faces, become a balloon artist or even a DJ!
Provide guided tours of your city or town for tourists, highlighting local attractions and hidden gems.
Supply sewing services for clothing alterations, repairs, and custom creations.
Wash, dry, fold, and iron clothes for busy individuals or families.
Requires minimal skills and equipment, provides a steady demand, and allows you to work outdoors while earning money.
An online business offers great flexibility, allowing you to work from anywhere and manage your time around school and other commitments. These types of businesses also tend to involve low start-up costs, often requiring minimal initial investment compared to traditional ‘brick-and-mortar’ businesses.
Create and monetise a YouTube channel focused on a niche like gaming, tutorials or reviews.
Start an online store using dropshipping to sell products without holding inventory.
Build a following on platforms like Instagram and TikTok and earn through sponsored posts and collaborations.
Design and develop websites for small businesses or individuals.
Offer tutoring in subjects you excel in via video conferencing tools like Zoom or Teams.
Write and publish eBooks on platforms like Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing. (Jane Austen started writing her first novel, Sense & Sensibility, when she was 19. Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein at 18… it can be done!)
Help businesses with SEO, email marketing, content creation, and social media management.
Take and sell high-quality photos on stock photography websites like Shutterstock or Adobe Stock.
Create and sell mobile apps or offer app development services.
Start a podcast on a topic of interest and monetise through sponsorship and listener support.
Promote products or services through affiliate links on your blog, social media, or YouTube channel and earn commissions.
Sell handmade or vintage items, art, and crafts on Etsy.
Create and sell custom digital artwork or illustrations.
Offer remote tech support services for troubleshooting computer issues and software setup.
Provide video editing services for YouTubers, businesses, or personal projects.
Plan and coordinate virtual events like webinars, workshops, and online parties.
Offer transcription services for audio and video recordings.
Provide customer service support for businesses remotely.
Managing a business as a teen can be incredibly rewarding, but it requires a strategic approach to ensure success.
Using tools like planners or digital calendars can help balance schoolwork, business tasks, and personal time. Setting clear priorities and breaking down tasks into manageable steps can prevent overwhelm
Keeping track of income and expenses through apps or spreadsheets can help maintain financial health and ensure profits. Establishing a separate business bank account can also streamline finances.
Leveraging social media platforms to create engaging content and connect with your audience can significantly boost your visibility and customer base.
This can help refine your strategies and adapt to changing market trends.
Using tools like planners or digital calendars can help balance schoolwork, business tasks, and personal time. Setting clear priorities and breaking down tasks into manageable steps can prevent overwhelm
Keeping track of income and expenses through apps or spreadsheets can help maintain financial health and ensure profits. Establishing a separate business bank account can also streamline finances.
Leveraging social media platforms to create engaging content and connect with your audience can significantly boost your visibility and customer base.
This can help refine your strategies and adapt to changing market trends.
Parents and carers can play a crucial role in nurturing young entrepreneurs by providing initial investment and resources, which can include funding, access to technology, or workspace. Offering guidance and mentorship is equally important; sharing their own business experiences, helping to set realistic goals, and teaching essential skills like problem-solving and decision-making can significantly impact a teen’s growth.
Parents and carers can also facilitate valuable networking opportunities by introducing their teens to professionals in their industry, connecting them with local business groups, or supporting participation in entrepreneurial events and workshops. By being actively involved and encouraging their teens, parents and carers can help build confidence and resilience, empowering them to succeed in their entrepreneurial ventures.
Brisbane-born Jack was business savvy from a young age. He’d earn extra money by selling lolly bags at his parent’s tennis centre and mowing his neighbour’s lawns. He eventually saved enough to create his first app at just 12-years-old. By 15, he was embracing the world of eCommerce, setting up online stores that sold a variety of gimmicky items – remote controls, flashlights, money clips. Using the dropshipping method, he started to make serious money. After substantial media attention for being so successful so young, never one to miss an opportunity, Jack also sells online eCommerce courses via his website. Now, one third of Jack’s income is from his courses, while the rest is via his eCommerce stores.
As part of a school project in 1999, at just 14-years-old, Leeds-born Adam Hildreth and six friends came up with one of the first social media sites aimed at teenagers, called Dubit. Its core service was what we now call ‘user-generated content’ or ‘social media content’. Rather than just reading web pages, teenagers and young people uploaded their own content. (The way we consume media today, Dubit was one of the first versions of it.)
A huge challenge arose when the Dubit platform that was created for good, was being used for bad – with adults posing as kids coming onto the site. What we now refer to as online grooming, back in 2000-1, these laws didn’t exist. Dubit in fact ended up employing more people to police the site and keep advertisers and brands safe than anything else. Hildreth and his team worked closely with the UK government to develop the first online child protection laws.
The scale of this challenge facing online businesses provided a new business opportunity for Adam, who left Dubit to set up Crisp in 2005. His real-time risk intelligence company was designed to protect brands, assets and people from reputational damage, security threats and online harm. Back then, Hildreth was entering a new market, creating new services that didn’t exist. There was nothing to follow. Hildreth had no training, degree or MBA – but simply went on what he’d learnt in the past, what others had taught him and a belief in himself and his idea. This belief is what his investors, employees and partners invested in.
Fast forward to 2024, and Crisp’s pioneering risk intelligence services and solutions have been welcomed into the Resolver family under the Resolver brand.
In an interview with Capital Conversation in 2020, Hildreth shared his biggest business lesson:
“Find your target market and literally go knock on their door and sell to them. That means get a flight, that doesn’t mean sell to your next door neighbour just because they happen to be next door.”
In 2006, Maddie was only 8 when she came up with the idea of FishFlops® (flip flops that look like fish!). After being impressed by her sketch and catchy name, her father – who worked in the apparel industry – purchased the FishFlops.com domain that day.
After attending trade shows with samples in 2010, Maddie and her father secured more than 30 orders for FishFlops®, and also found an overseas manufacturer allowing them to begin shipping in May 2011.
Just one year later, business was booming, with Maddie making over 1 million dollars in retail sales. Her first big break came when she wrote a letter to a buyer at Nordstrom, who placed their first order and Maddie’s FishFlops® appeared in 64 Nordstrom stores in July 2012.
Maddie quickly became the ‘15-year-old entrepreneur who got her product in Nordstrom.’ This, plus being stocked in Macy’s, led to an ‘email avalanche’ of interested buyers, distributors and the general public. FishFlops® immediately sold out at Nordstrom and every other retailer who had purchased them.
Maddie continued to focus on her education growing up, receiving the Principles of Business, Marketing and Finance award in 2014 and is a recent graduate of Texas A&M University’s Mays Business School. A frequent speaker at Jr. Achievement events, her message is clear – be creative, work hard, give back, keep a positive attitude, and have fun with a smile!
Book publishers Nelson Education LTD. (National Geographic Learning), Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and Cambridge University are featuring Maddie’s story in thousands of middle schools, to help inspire and educate today’s youth.
Mark Zuckerberg, fuelled by his passion for programming, launched Facebook from his Harvard dormitory as a teenager in 2004. What began as a social networking site for college students quickly expanded worldwide, revolutionising how people connect and share online. Zuckerberg’s visionary leadership and relentless focus on user experience propelled Facebook’s growth, attracting millions of users and transforming it into a global powerhouse.
His ability to innovate and adapt to changing digital landscapes solidified his reputation as a tech entrepreneur, leading to unparalleled success and establishing Facebook as a cornerstone of modern social media. Now 40, Zuckerberg is the Founder, Chairman and CEO of Meta (originally founded as Facebook) and is responsible for setting the overall direction and product strategy for the company.
Before taking the leap – do your research and get advice on any training, certification, insurance etc. that you might need in place before starting your business, as this might impact your decision on what to start when.
As you can see, there are a number of ways you can start your own business from a young age. You never know, you might learn as part of the entrepreneurial process that running a business isn’t in fact for you, or that type of business or industry isn’t where your passion lies. It’s just as valuable learning what you don’t want from your career path, as much as what you do want. No matter what your experience is, the skills you learn as part of this self-discovery can set you up for success later in life.
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