Business for kids?
 

Give me some ideas for a 10 year old girl to start at home and earn a bit of cash.

Well this might sound a bit trite, but my 10 year old made about $50 this summer, running a lemonade stand for a total of about 6 hours.

He set up at the intersection of two of our county roads. Ten miles out of town, and 7 miles from pavement. This intersection sees a dozen cars most days.
However, he set up on two of the hottest days of the summer, right in the middle of Fair week as well as when some of the neighbors were moving cattle around.

He bought bottled water and those single-shot drink mix things. Threw them in the freezer until they were half-frozen and then hauled them out to the corner in a couple of coolers on his red wagon.
Both days, he completely sold out. lol


Now, this isn't exactly something he can do on-going, but my point is to just think outside the box a little and cater to a targeted customer base.

I had all kinds of ways of making money when I was a kid. But I wish I had had a hobby that made money that could have grown up with me. Something I could have had all through high school and college.

Is she artistic? Growing gourds and then adding value to them - bird houses, musical instruments, baskets, etc.

Gardening - grow stuff for market or to sell to neighbors, herb gardening might bring in money year around

County Fair - I used to make a ton of money competing at county fair because so few kids competed. At 10 years old, I was often the only one in my category for stamps, art work, fossils, vegetables, etc.

Any elderly neighbors that need some simple chores done on a regular basis?

my daughter makes 300-500.00 a summer selling sweet corn. recycling cans is a small money maker.

My 9 year old daughter made good money wrapping bundles of firewood
and selling them to campers. It was fun work that she enjoyed, especially on
pay day.

My 11 year old has been selling her art for years at bead shows. We've done shows since before she was born, so she's very comfortable around people and selling.

She makes small animal dolls out of felt and embroiders them, paints on envelopes and sells them for a quarter each, gathers flower seeds and sells them, gets in the spice drawer and makes seasoning blends to sell....pretty much anything that holds still is fair game.
Of course if people don't buy, she gives it away, so I do have to watch that!

A young man in our church (8th grade) has his own little flock of hens that he cares for, and then he sells the eggs. He takes very good care of his hens, and he does quite a business selling his fresh eggs to church members, and lots of teachers at his school buy their eggs from him.

She is intrigued by this one. All of these are great suggestion, our locale offers many challenges, however. Please, keep them coming.

Erin,

That is cool!!!!!!

Can you give us more specifics?

Are you located close to town?

Do you have a farmer's market?

Do you have a local flea market or trade days event?

Do you have a local auction barn?

When I was a kid I apparently was quite the little entrepeneur. I had weird interests that included animals and building things. There were several summers and Christmases that I made HUNDREDS of dollars doing two things:

Pet-Sitting for people going on vacation in the summer. Mostly small animals like hamsters, snakes, etc. but my mom let me take a dog or two in. No cats since she was allergic. If you've got the room and facilities, it's a great way to earn money and teach responsibility.

Gift Assembly I realized most adults really hate assembling things (bicycles, grills, toys, etc.) They'd drop off the item, I'd assemble it for a fee, and they'd pick them up ready to set out by the Christmas tree. I can't remember what I charged but I think at least a $10 minimum would be appropriate nowadays. That could go up considerably for more involved items. Is your daughter into stuff like that or good with instructions/assembly?

I started gardening for neighbors when I was 9. Raking leaves, watering, planting new plants, etc. My first job was at a neighbor's house. She was a realtor and wasn't home a lot during the day, but wanted to have the place look neat and tidy. This yard didn't have a lawn so it was not very strenuous work.

I kept gardening as I went through school and added other yards over the years. I think I had 6 yards that I did every week and a couple others would call me for help periodically. I really liked gardening. I never had to go into anyone's house and I could schedule my own time.

I tried getting jobs in stores when I was an older teen, but I was short and looked young so I didn't get hired. I opened a savings account when I started working, I saved a lot of my earnings and it helped me pay for college.
deb
in wi

Our closest town is pop. 650
There are a few "sort of" farmers markets
We do sell at a flea market (outdoor)
There are several auction places within a hours drive.

I started my children out going door to door in our complex (I knew everyone at that time) and they gave the potential clients a brochure that told them who they were and that they wanted to offer a service where they (kids) would give cust. two plastic bags and cust. would put plastic bottles in one and aluminam in the other. The kids would go out once a week with new bags and claim the old bags. people got excited cause the kids were working and they were helping the envirenment and the kids got excited cause they got some cash in their pockets after expenses were paid they had to pay for the bags and then ten cents each to go to the recyclers once a week.
Hope this helps.
Dave

Now that is genius, Dave.
We try to sort our recyclables but then we end up just burning or tossing them anyway because it's such a hassle to take them in the center.

PM sent, furholler.

Shop garage sales / flea markets for 'treasures' then clean them up and resell them on ebay.

Bake home made dog treats and sell them at a farmers market.

If you have access and ability to make soap, you could soap and sell.

Make beaded jewelry.

When my daughter gets into the mindset of wanting to earn money:

We are going to try selling cut flowers that we will grow.

We've already started growing perennials around the house, and have a great stand.

A local gal sells her flowers for 20 cents a stem, and sells out every week. I think this will be a great way for DD to make some great pocket change.

For the time being, three dollars in DD's pocket is all that she wants, so I'm going to let her be a little girl as long as she wants. I'm sure she'll be different very, very soon.

My 9 year old sells her art also.. she LOVES to paint and she loves the idea of other people hanging her pictures up in their houses! LOL It's very cute. We are a huge family of entrepreneurs so I love seeing her want a part of that. This may be silly but she cashed in her 'piggy bank' of coins yesterday at coinstar and got $107... so encouraging your kids to save any loose change they find REALLY adds up! It put a fresh perspective on saving for all of us. We pick up coins off the ground and save them too... but now we all start all over again! She was saving found coins for about a year so that's a LOT of money by the wayside for a 9 year old!

Doesn't coin star charge 10% of what you put in "to count it" for you?
It cost her 10.70, to have a machine count it?
I know the bank gives away coin wrappers for free, just ask for them!
I wait tables, and when my coin jars were full, I would spread out a white sheet on the floor, dump the change, hand the kids coin wrappers, and tell them to get ta wrappin!
There are times when they would roll 3-400.00. Which means I would have paid 30-40.00 for a machine to count! YIKES.

Wow. Lot's of good ideas here. We got a box of gourdes last week, she wants to try to make some bird houses, with daddy's help, of course. She and I wil take a good look at all of these suggestions as well.

LOL this gets me thinking of Olympia Sales Club when I was a kid, I made tons of cash off that. Pitty society has went down hill

Too true, and slipping faster all the time.

Bit late here, but here's a suggestion -- She'd need an adult to open the account for her, but *I* make a fair amount of pocket money by cleaning up Barbies and selling them on eBay. It's pretty easy -- get used Barbies in decent condition under the dirt from thrift stores, yard sales, etc. Scrub them clean. Restyle the hair. (Hint: Comb it with human hair conditioner in it. Never try to style dry Barbie hair.) Take good pictures. I sell them for between $2.49 and around $20 depending on the desirability of the doll.

(Artists buy certain face molds to make custom dolls, and those go for a good bit more, even for newer dolls.)

Clothes and shoes also sell fairly well -- I just sold $30 in Barbie clothes to somebody in Malta, Europe today.

I have a manual coin sorter that I can easily slip a paper wrapper into to get the coins into the wrapper. I just sort every day so that it doesn't become overwhelming.

Side note: you may want to save your nickels. See: http://www.survivalblog.com/nickels.html

CCM

I will share this one with her. She loves Barbies.

Gosh - I remember selling those cards when I was a kid! It was great! Is this club still around???