How To Start A Business As A Teen

They say it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become an expert at anything. I think that probably is when you do something very niche. Such as learning to code a language, or learning to speak one. When it comes to business, I am probably 30,000+ hours in and I’m still learning.

That said, by starting now, you get to learn from your mistakes sooner. I began in e-commerce about a decade ago. Properly anyway, I was 28.

I am 38 as I write this and I am still finding new ways to improve the odds. I have a chain of shops and a couple of online businesses. One of which did £100K+ in May and June each of 2020.

The biggest name in my sector started at the same time as us, but their team had already had a decade of online shopping experience when they began.

You can make money as a teen just as easily as you can an adult in the blogging world. It takes time to build a quality site that search engines love, and by starting your own thing now, you are going to learn so much.

So how can it make you money as a teen? Simple, I’m sure you have something your passionate about.

Maybe it’s games, maybe it’s a sport, anything – start reviewing those things.

Then start working out how to spot the rising trends and review those things. See which kinds of a topic you rank better for and do more of that.

If you write a review of the top 5 games releases of the year, you can attach affiliate links out from your site to Amazon where you can earn a commission on every purchase that then happens.

Maybe games are too congested, so go long. Start reviewing the Top 5 games cheat books on Amazon relating to gaming, or maybe another topic entirely.

Doing this will teach you the importance of a few key things:
– Keyword Research
– SEO – On and Off-page strategies
– Website development
– Human behaviour

If you find what you’re doing isn’t for you. Change it up, but think consciously about what you have learned and why you lost interest. If it’s because you just aren’t that fussed about how to start a business as a teen, at least you have learned some valuable skills for when you’re older.

You may want to check out our starting an online business guide.

In a similar way to e-commerce being able to earn you money online, so can personal blogging. What is it though?

Maybe you have a personal struggle, a story of something unique to you, or experience of being bullied, an illness, whatever it is, writing about it can be both cathartic and financially satisfying.

I know that sounds a little exploitative, but you will be exploiting your hardship for YOU.

While everyone is on Instagram trying to show off their best life, you will know how to make money as a teen from selling either ad-space on your blog or sponsored links.

What’s a sponsored link?

It is a grey area. But imagine you write about your struggles with weight gain and you do a diary of how you lose it. If I was a brand that made a sports supplement, I would love to give you my product in return for your positive review and a link back to my site, using a word or words I am trying to rank for.

So I have a protein powder (I don’t) that is organic and vegan. When you write your review, you might say:

“I have recently been using an organic and vegan protein powder….”

Those words in bold would, on your site, link back to the company. This means they now have a piece of relevant content written about them, about the words they are trying to rank on Google for, from an external source.

This is a backlink and companies pay lots of money to try to get these.

Your blog could be more than just your diary, it could be a nice side hustle too.

Essentially, you become an influencer, but on a blog instead.

How to start a business as a teen if you don’t want to run e-commerce or blogging doesn’t end there. In fact, while in the States I met a girl at Uni who tutors younger students by Zoom video.

From the comfort of her own home, she helps those families who want to give their kids a better shot at passing their exams. And she charged nearly a 100 dollars an hour!

Admittedly she majored in Biochemistry and was as sharp as a tack, but if you have an area of knowledge that is fresh in your mind, you can tailor what you do – to replicate that.

If my son came home with maths homework, I wouldn’t have a clue. Not because I’m not bright enough, it’s because I haven’t done it for decades.

Let’s say you’re 16, you are still studying these things. They are fresh in your mind. Do you reckon you could offer value to an 11-year-old struggling with high school work?

Of course, you could!

So how much value is that to a stressed parent, who worries their kid will get picked on or turn into a rogue bad-ass because they didn’t invest in a little extra education.

What you offer is perfect – it’s going to be a better price than a Master’s educated professor, and it will be delivered in a language from a person that their kid can get on board with.

And it doesn’t stop at teaching younger students

It wasn’t until 2014 that my then 67-year-old Dad worked out how to use the internet. He thought it was just a fad for years. Then came the point that I said:

“Dad, Google is a $100 billion company – I think they’re here to stay. Let me teach you how to use the internet.”

I wrote down an instructional – a complete idiot’s guide. I forgot I even did it until my mum told me Dad was loving the internet. I was blown away.

I’d taught someone something, but also, he probably wanted to learn it all this time but didn’t know how to ask.

Most of the world still shop offline, but there are millions of people in the US and UK alone who can’t use the internet and have done well for themselves in life. They want the help you could offer them.

Think: “How to use the Internet – The Friendly Guide for Retirees.”

There you have another way how to start a business as a teen, or even just how to make money as a teen.

As you can see, there are angles to everything. You have more skill and knowledge than you know, you just need to know how to leverage it.