19 Profitable Business Ideas For Teens

The journey into entrepreneurship knows no age. And for today’s students and teens like you, the world is brimming with opportunities. You can choose the match for yourself and give a kickstart to your very own businesses. Whether you’re creative, tech-savvy, or simply looking to make some extra cash, there’s a business idea waiting for you.

Considering the options that are flooded out there in the market, it is surely not possible to filter out any one idea and start working on it. Numerous fancy ideas might sound very appealing, but in practice, they are impossible to implement without a lot of work, resources, and investment.

So, here are the 19 best business ideas for teens tailored to specifically cater to you, keeping in mind your load of studies, your time to enjoy, the small investment pocket, and other factors. 

So, whether you aim to earn some pocket money, save for college, embark on a journey towards financial independence, or set up a business, this guide is your gateway to unleashing your entrepreneurial potential. Let’s dive in and explore the world of teen entrepreneurship!

Drop Servicing

If you have a huge connection of professionals and a knack for connecting people, you can give it your time and also earn money in this process. 

Essentially, in drop servicing, you act as a middleman and coordinate the details between the client who’s seeking service from you and the freelancer you’ll hire to get the work done. 

To get started,  pick a niche that interests you and has demand. It could be anything from graphic design to content writing. Head to different platforms, like Upwork or Fiverr, to get the clients. 

Side by side, also build a network of talented freelancers who can deliver high-quality work in the relevant niche.

For example, if you are getting $100 from your client and getting it done in $65 from your freelancer, the margin of $35 is your earnings. 

Platform	How to Get a Gig?	Commission to Be Paid	Categories of Services	Visit
Upwork	Create a profile, apply for relevant gigs, and build a portfolio.	Varies by project	10k+ skills in categories
Fiverr	Create a seller profile, list your services, and promote your gigs.	Varies by project	500+ categories
Freelancer	Sign up as a freelancer, bid on projects, and showcase your skills.	Varies by project	1800+ categories

Dropshipping 

If you are inclined towards eCommerce and want to start your own business, dropshipping could be your entry into the world of online retail.

Dropshipping is a kind of eCommerce business model that allows you to sell products online without having to stock inventory. So, you partner with suppliers or manufacturers who handle inventory, packaging, and shipping, allowing you to focus on marketing and sales and manage your store. 

You can create an eCommerce store for any niche that interests you, for example, flowers and cake delivery, electronics, pottery, stationary, fashion items, or more. To create your eCommerce store, you can head to platforms like Spotify, Wix, Weebly, or even your own site. 

All you have to do is partner with reliable suppliers or wholesalers who offer to take care of the product’s inventory, packaging, and shipping. So, when there is a sale in your store, you can pass the order to the vendor so that they can process the order and ship it directly to the customer. 

So, for example, if you are selling gadgets, and you made a sale for a headphone which your vendor costs you 10k, and you sell it for 12k, the margin of 2k is your earnings. 

Platform	Ease of use	Pricing	Features	Visit
Shopify	Requires little technical expertise	Starts at $29/month	Wide range of features, including dropshipping integrations, payment processing, and shipping options
Wix	Easy	Starts at $14/month	Easy-to-use website builder with a variety of e-commerce features, including dropshipping integrations
Weebly	Beginer-friendly	Starts at $12/month	Website builder with a variety of e-commerce features, including dropshipping integrations

Tutoring   

If you excel at any skill or subject, for example, music, maths, physics, painting, or other, you can offer tutoring and earn a decent amount from this business. Besides, you can not just offer home tutoring or one-on-one classes. Instead, you can open it as a business by building a brick-and-mortar tutoring centre or start numerous online group classes. 

Eventually, you can also set up a complete system and hire other professionals to contribute to this tutoring centre. 

To get started, you need to identify the skill or subject you want to offer classes for, research the market rates, and you can start offering the classes. You can find the students in your neighbourhood or market yourself using flyers, social media, and creating ads to attract students. However, you can also register with renowned websites like Chegg, Wyzant, Smarthinking, and others to get more students. 

The earnings from tutoring can vary based on your location, subject, and level of expertise. On average, you can make anywhere from $10 to $100 per hour as a tutor. 

Platform	Support Subject	Tutoring Formats	Pricing
Chegg	Math, science, English, foreign languages, business, economics, history, social studies	One-on-one tutoring, group tutoring, test prep	You can earn approx $20 per hour, or a fixed salary as a tutor
Wyzant	All subjects, including math, science, English, foreign languages, business, economics, history, social studies, music, art, and more	One-on-one tutoring	You can set your own rates
Smarthinking	Math, science, English, foreign languages, writing, test prep	Live tutoring	You can earn anywhere between $12 – $21 per hour
Own Website	You can stick to the subjects you want to teach	You can decide	Depends on how many students you get in different sessions

Child Care

If you have a genuine passion for spending quality time with children and take delight in taking care of them, you have two options to explore. Either you can offer childcare services as a freelancer or establish a home-based daycare centre with the necessary permits.

If you opt to open a daycare centre in your home as a business for regular income, you’ll have to take care of children during the hours their parents are away. You will have to take care of your well-being and offer nutritious meals as part of the service. 

However, on the other hand, if you choose to provide childcare as a freelancer, you’ll visit the children in their own homes and take care of them while their parents are occupied with their schedules or when they are out of the house for XYZ reasons.

Initially, as a freelance babysitter, you can typically earn around $20 per hour, while if you offer daycare with additional specialised child care services, you can charge higher rates.

Selling Handmade Goodies- cards, candles

Do you believe that your handmade creations have the power to infuse more love into someone’s living space or add an extra touch of charm to their special occasions? Or, do your handcrafted goodies radiate adorableness and bring a unique, creative flair to gifting?

So, if you think your handmade treasures have the ability to transcend mere objects and become tokens of affection, symbols of thoughtfulness, and carriers of cherished memories, they deserve to be gifted to many, bring smiles to their faces, and earn you profit.

To sell your handmade goodies, you can create a professional website or utilise platforms like Etsy to display and sell these stuff.

This Etsy store might take some time to take up, but after a certain time and after you post a lot of your pictures, a day will come when your products will get recognition and earn you as much.

Freelance Writer 

If you love to write, whether it’s stories, blogs, essays, or articles, freelance writing can be a creative and flexible way to earn money.

So, firstly, you have to identify the topics you’re passionate about or have expertise in, such as technology, travel, vehicles, or the health sector.

Create a portfolio of your writing samples to showcase our skills and expertise. 

To attract clients, you can create your profiles on Upwork or Fiverr to advertise your services. 

Now, you can reach out to the clients who posted for the requirements, including blogs, articles, writing jobs or magazines in your chosen niche with relevant pitches. And after you secure a project and complete their work, you can get paid by these clients. 

However, you can also start a blog to showcase your writing and monetise it by executing different marketing strategies, including affiliate marketing, running ads, guest posting and more. 

Social Media Management 

If you love scrolling through Instagram, tweeting, or posting TikToks, social media management could be your ticket to earning money while doing what you enjoy.

As a social media enthusiast, as you might have a strong grasp of social media trends, you can leverage this knowledge to help businesses and individuals enhance their online presence and earn money using this skill.

To get started with this field, determine which platforms you want to work more on, whether it’s Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, or Twitter. Then, you can help the businesses that lack the efficiency to manage social media. 

To go into social media management, you have to manage the entire social media, their messages, content creation, responding to the comments, adding stores and more. 

However, to get help in social media management, you can take the help of the tools. 

Platforms	Supported Social Media Platforms	Key Features	Pricing	Visit
Hootsuite	Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, TikTok, Foursquare, Tumblr, WordPress, Google My Business	Social media scheduling, monitoring, analytics, collaboration	Starts at $49/month
RADAAR	Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn	Social media scheduling, monitoring, analytics	Starts at $49/month
SocialBee	Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, WordPress, Tumblr	Social media scheduling, monitoring, analytics, collaboration	Starts at $19/month
Buffer	Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube	Social media scheduling, analytics, collaboration	Starts at $15/month
Social Pilot	Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Google My Business	Social media scheduling, monitoring, analytics, collaboration, white label reports	Starts at $25/month

Transcriptionist 

You can put your knack for listening to details, typing skills, and understanding English grammar usage to great use by giving a kickstart to your transcription business. 

To get started, you have to transcribe the spoken content into written content. You might receive audio files, videos, podcasts, meeting recordings or more from clients to convert them into documents. 

Even though there are AI transcription tools out there in the market, people still prefer having human transcriptionists as they are the only ones who do the work with accuracy and maintain the nuances of the content. 

You can find clients from Upwork, Fiverr, Freelance.com, or other relevant sites like Rev, TranscribeMe, GoTranscript, or others to find transcription opportunities. You can also transcribe the classroom notes and sell them to the students. 

Platform	Finding Work	Pay	Flexibility	Visit
Upwork	Freelance marketplace	Competitive	Flexible
Fiverr	Freelance marketplace	Competitive	Flexible
Freelance.com	Freelance marketplace	Comparatively lower than other freelance marketplaces	Flexible
Rev	Transcription service	Consistent	Less flexible
TranscribeMe	Transcription service	Consistent	Less flexible
GoTranscript	Transcription service	Consistent	Less flexible

Data Entry 

Data entry can be a straightforward and reliable way to earn money if you thrive on accuracy, organising stuff, and having efficient digital skills.  

All you have to do is input the information from digital forms, paper forms, or other spread data into digital databases, spreadsheets, or systems to compile them in one data sheet in an organised way.

However, when you are in the data entry business, you have to be sure that you have an eye for detail, as most of the data entry work requires 99% assurance of accuracy. So, when you are taking up this work, ensure the filing work is in place to avoid making mistakes. 

To get the data entry jobs, you’ll have to find which companies are looking for specialists. You can directly search for these jobs on Google.  

The payouts for data entry jobs would depend completely on your skills, locations, qualifications and other factors.

Pet Sitting 

If you are one of those pet lovers who adore animals and enjoy spending time with them, pet sitting can be enjoyable and give you a decent income.

So, you can either be a dog walker or pet sitter or open a pet sitting centre to make it your business. 

Now, if you are freelancing as a pet sitter, you can offer a variety of services such as dog or pet walking, daycare, and overnight boarding. You can work with people in your neighbourhood or dog parents in your community to care for their pets when they are away.

However, if you want to make it entirely your business and offer this service on a bigger scale, you can pen a pet care centre with the required permits and insurance to protect yourself and your clients from financial liability.

Once everything is in place, you can start advertising your pet-sitting centre to potential clients. You can create a website, distribute flyers, and post on social media.

If you are considering starting a pet-sitting centre, be sure to do your research and ensure that you are prepared for the challenges and rewards of this type of business.

Affiliate Marketing

If you are a tech-savvy person with a strong online presence and a great deal of followers who trust and value your content and information, you can monetise this. Whether you run a website with decent traffic, are a social media influencer, or manage a YouTube channel with a substantial number of subscribers along with thousands of hours of views on your videos, you can delve into affiliate marketing.

Affiliate marketing involves prompting a product on your company’s behalf on your channel through your content. So, any action or sale that your referral generates will earn you an income as a commission. 

So, as there is a micro-influencer social media marketing trend, even if you have a small following, you can go for affiliate marketing. 

You can approach local small businesses in your area trying to build their presence in marketing. You can approach them, ask if they want to promote their business, and get started with affiliate marketing. 

Car Washing 

If you are a tech-savvy teenager curious about cars, exploring different cars, and keeping them spotless, you can start with a car washing business and earn an income.

As everyone wants their cars to look shiny but do not have all the time to bring out their sparks, you can do this job for them. This way, you can earn pocket money and spend more time with different cars that you might love in your neighbourhood. To get started, all you need is a bucket, a soft sponge, elbow grease for polishing and a window cleaner. 

However, if you want to set up a business out of it, you can open a car washing area and market it in the neighbourhood to offer basic or advanced car washing and cleaning services. 

To offer the car washing service, you can charge anywhere between $15 and $30 for a standard car wash. Moreover, you can offer additional services like waxing, interior cleaning, or tire shining to increase your earnings.

Videography and Photography 

Do you just crave to capture moments and wait until you get the best shots? If you have that flair, videography and photography are excellent side hustles you can take up while earning money.

So, you can start by offering freelancing photography services to businesses, advertisers, small creators, artists, and functions. 

You can look for businesses who want to conduct photoshoots for their products. Look out for local events that are taking place and partner to cover them. You can also find artists or social media creators who want professional photography and videography services and offer them relevant services. 

To get started with this business, you need to invest in the required essential instruments. However, to get started, you can also initially seek these instruments on rent. 

You can use social media to promote yourself, create your own website, approach event management companies, and try other methods to get videography and photography jobs. 

Podcasting

One of the highest-earning podcasts is the Joe Rogan Experience, which makes about $800,000 per episode.

So, even if you start small, you can make at least $300-$1000 for at least a podcast. 

It is much like starting a YouTube channel or creating social media content. However, if you just want it faceless and are good at speaking, storytelling, or debating, or if you are good at creating visualisation, you can just do great with podcasting. 

Anyone who shares their podcast, talks or discusses a particular topic or event. 

So, you can start with co-hosting or solo podcasting.

In solo hosting, you create and manage a podcast entirely on your own. In Co-hosting, on the other hand, you partner with one or more individuals to create content collaboratively. 

So, whether you choose co-hosting or solo hosting, podcasting offers a platform for sharing your insights, stories, and interests with the world. It’s a versatile and rewarding side hustle where you can carve your niche, connect with audiences, and potentially earn income while doing what you love.

Custom Cake Bakery 

If you have a passion for baking and enjoy creating delicious, visually stunning cakes, muffins, cookies, or other bakery items, you can start a custom cake bakery which can be a delightful and profitable side hustle or a full-time business for you.

Custom cakes are always in high demand for special occasions like weddings, birthdays, anniversaries, and other celebrations. Turning your baking skills into a business allows you to cater to those seeking unique, personalised cakes.

To get more business, you can upload pictures of your bakery items and unique cakes on social media, collaborate with different cake bakery stores, or spread the word in your neighbourhood to start with small orders. However, with time you can also create your website to get bigger and bulk orders and set up an entire bakery business. 

The earnings from a custom cake bakery can vary widely, depending on factors such as your location, reputation, and the complexity of your cake designs. 

Moreover, custom cakes are often priced per serving, ranging from $3 to $15 or more per slice. So you can decide the pricing for your cakes accordingly. 

Card And Stationery Designer

If you have a design flair and crafting skills, and you can do it manually or with different designing tools, you can start a card and stationary designing business to produce greeting cards, invitations, stationery, calendars, and other paper goods. 

Before you start with the design business, hone your design skills and get equipped with a few design tools, like Canva, Adobe, Visme, and others, that can help you in your design work.

So, to get started with the design business, you need to either source high-quality materials for printing, including paper, ink, and envelopes, or you can completely outsource the printing work.

To showcase and sell your designs, set up an online store or use platforms like Etsy. you can also create a professional website and use social media for marketing. 

Designing tool	Supported Features	Supported Platforms	Pricing
Canva	Graphic design, presentation design, video editing	Web, mobile	Free, paid plans start at $9.99/month
Adobe Creative Cloud	Graphic design, web design, video editing, motion graphics, photography, illustration	Desktop, mobile	Subscription plans start at $29.99/month
Visme	Infographic design, presentation design, video editing	Web, mobile	Free, paid plans start at $15/month

Print On Demand 

If you have the creative flair for creating illustrative designs that people like on their goodies and can relate to them, then Print On Demand (POD) is an ideal side hustle for you or a great way to set up a business.

To start a POD business, you must craft custom designs or unique images and apply them to a wide range of merchandise, from stylish T-shirts to eye-catching phone cases, key rings, cards, and beyond. You have to create designs that can add a personal touch to everyday items, making them highly marketable.

So, you can look at numerous websites like Printify, Printful, SPOD, Redbubble, and others that take care of the printing and shipping, while you are responsible for the designing work. 

Print-on-demand website	Products offered	Shipping options	Pricing
Printify	T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, posters, and more	Worldwide shipping	Varies depending on the product and shipping option
Printful	T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, posters, and more	Worldwide shipping	Varies depending on the product and shipping option
SPOD	T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, posters, and more	Worldwide shipping	Varies depending on the product and shipping option
Redbubble	T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, posters, stickers, and more	Worldwide shipping	Varies depending on the product and shipping option

Gift Hamper Creation 

If you have a pretty contrivance of selecting the right gifts and arranging them rightly in the perfect gift setting, and you enjoy curating thoughtful assortments, then opening a gift hamper creation will be a delightful and profitable business for you. 

Start by considering your target audience and the occasions you want to cater to. Whether it’s birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, or corporate events, there’s always a demand for beautifully crafted gift hampers. 

Select a few niches you would want to create gifts for, like corporate gifts, returns gifts for marriage parties, invitation cards and gift hampers, birthday hampers, or more. 

After you have these niches in mind, create different relevant kinds of hampers for all these types with different price ranges to make them accessible to everyone. 

To market these, you can create your own website, your online store, and market them on social media, in your WhatsApp groups, or by collaborating with nearby gift shops. 

Delivery Service 

If you do not want to dig deep into your creative side and are done with doing the work that takes more of your mental energy, and now you want to physically move out to earn extra income, consider starting a delivery service. 

You can start by delivering food, groceries, packages, or even errands. There is a growing demand for these services, which makes it a viable option for part-time work.

So, to get started with the delivery service, you can join popular delivery platforms like Uber Eats, Grubhub, DoorDash, Postmates, or Instacart, depending on your chosen niche. These platforms provide access to a customer base and a convenient way to find delivery requests.

However, you can establish an independent delivery service if you wish to set up a complete delivery business. For that, you must register your business, get the vehicles, and hire delivery partners. 

As an independent delivery business, you can set up your own pricing. Or if you join the platforms, you’ll have to work with their payout rates, and that will vary significantly based on factors like location, demand, and the frequency of deliveries. 

Wrapping Up

In a world where diverse opportunities fill the space and have immense space for business ideas for teens and students, you can explore a range of these ideas tailored to your unique circumstances and interests. From drop servicing and tutoring to custom cake baking and print-on-demand ventures, there are different roads for creativity, skill development, and income generation.

So, whether you want just to make some extra pocket money or start a journey toward becoming an entrepreneur, these business ideas can serve as a starting point to unleash your entrepreneurial potential and make the most of your talents and passions.