How to make money for kids
It’s not easy being a kid, and it’s even harder to earn money as a kid. However here at “How to make money for kids” we aim to give you some ideas as to how you can overcome your ‘unfortunate’ position.
A lot of things are not in your favor when it comes to making money. The first and probably most difficult hurdle is quite possibly the law. As a child there are restrictions as to what you can do as far as employment goes. Obviously it is specific to your country, but as a rule you can not be gainfully employed much before the age of about 15. There are certain exceptions however and that is why we are here!
You see there are plenty of ways to gain a little extra cash and stay pretty much under the radar, one of my favorites being how to make money using your computer. In this day and age the computer is one of the most common household items and is perfect for making money – even while you lay in bed!
I mentioned your ‘Unfortunate’ position earlier and I’ll explain, you see I think that being a kid is the best thing in the world, I was one once you know. You have very little responsibility, you can go to school with all of the best friends that you will ever have, you don’t have to go to work and you have loads of time off to do what you want. Trouble is, most things these days take MONEY and that is something that you don’t have as a child. Your earning power as a kid is very limited and only a small handful of extremely determined children actually manage to make any money as a child. Well, anything worth talking about that is.
So how do kids make money? There are many ways for kids to earn money, but there are also a lot of variables involved. These include;
Your age. Making money as a five year old is a hell of a lot harder than if you are sixteen.
Where you live. If you live out in the sticks with little around you you may find it a lot more difficult to make money than if you live in a city or a busy neighbourhood.
Other responsibilities. You may have to care for your parents or another family member, this will impact on your time and give you lees opportunity to make money.
Parental Support. If your parents support you and give you a helping hand then it’s going to make life a lot easier. Most parents will encourage you to try and earn some pocket money and will do all they can to help you. They may even give you a little money to get started with.
Facilities. You may or may not have any room or materials to actually do a lot of these techniques. Hopefully though, if you read through you will find something that you can do.
I think your next stop should be our article ‘Ways for kids to earn money’ This will give you a breakdown of the different ideas and techniques you can use to generate some nice income.
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how kids can make money,
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ways to make money
In my previous article eBay for kids part 1 I looked at the things that you would need in place to start your own eBay business. These included the basics such as a computer, a camera, accounts and access to a post office or courier service. So once you’ve got all this ready what’s the next step?
So we’ve got the mechanics all set up and ready to go so the big question now is what are we going to sell? well like I said before, there is literally everything on sale from multimillion pound homes right down to rotten fruit so although on the surface it may seem that you have a lot of choice, in reality choosing something is probably the hardest yet most important part of this whole process. We need to find something that is going to sell well, we also need to find something that’s going to make to profit. Along with this it also helps if the item is easily post able and also robust as sending fragile goods through the posts can end in tears.
The most obvious place to start is to look round your own home and see what stuff you’ve got lying about that maybe you don’t want anymore. You may have records CDs, DVDs, tapes, video games, books… the list is endless and like I said in the previous article you will have the added bonus of clearing out the old junk and pleasing parents at the same time. For the most part, junk like this doesn’t really sell for much but the pennies add up and before you know it you can make a sizable chunk of cash.
Occasionally though you will stumble upon something that has real value. You may not even know this and it’s only when you see your auction bids flying in that this is this apparent. It’s always a good idea to do a little bit of research if you are even slightly unsure as to whether something is valuable not. An easy way to do this is to use eBay itself for your research. Just type the item into the eBay search bar and when you get your listings returned look on the left hand column and find where it says “show completed listings”. What this does is shows you the prices that similar items have sold for in the past and from this information you can get a good estimate of what people are willing to pay.
Selling all your unwanted items from your house is a good place to start and will give you some initial cash however it may not last that long and you’ll soon be looking for a fresh source to really start making a regular income. One of the most popular methods for finding stuff to sell on eBay is to go to boot sales, garage sales, yard sales what ever you want to call them. Here you can pick up items for next to nothing and if you know what sells on eBay you can make a killing.
To start with just buy some random stuff, just make sure you get it cheap. Barter with the seller and if they won’t sell it to you for next to nothing then walk away and try someone else. The sellers at these kind of places are usually just trying to clear their houses from stuff that they don’t want and are just glad to see the back of it. If they can get a little cash on top then that is just a bonus for them. I have done these markets myself to get rid of my junk and was shocked at the prices that people were willing to pay i.e. not very much. Things that were clearly worth several pounds going for pennies and it broke my heart but I soon realized that these people were ruthless and that they were taking these items and selling them straight on for a great profit.
Once you have established a popular item and you know what it sells for you can then decide what to pay for it and visit these markets with a clear plan as to what you’re looking for and how much you’re going to pay. These events usually take place every weekend and so for the sake of a couple of hours on a Sunday morning you can have a sack full of stuff ready to sell the next week.
Another great thing to sell on eBay are things that you can make yourself. I used to do this selling wooden mirror frames and fireplaces. One of my hobbies is woodwork and I had all the tools ready to make these items. I researched on eBay and found that people liked rustic looking furniture, furniture with the old nail holes and the color of old seasoned wood. This was great news as what I could do was scour the streets looking for rubbish skips outside houses that were being renovated. Quite often I would find old floor boards or roof rafters that were perfect for the market I was aiming for.
I would take it home and make my mirror frames. Okaythere’s a little bit of skill required and it was quite hard work but the profits were fantastic and best of all 100% mine as the materials didn’t cost me a penny. I also made fireplace surrounds from this wood and made them in kit form so that I could send them through the post. I had to include a sheet of instructions and some bolts and screws, but this worked and I got nothing but good feedback.
When looking for things to sell on eBay think of the skills that you might possess and think of what you can make that people might want to buy. Just test the market and your are sure to soon find a winner. If you can’t do this then look around your local area and see what you can find at a good price that will still make your profit. Look on eBay itself and see what people are selling and what people are buying, then see if you can find it at a good price too and jump on the bandwagon The most important thing is to test the market and keep on trying.
In the next article, we will look at how to present your items for sale in the best way to set up your auctions to make the most profit
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