20 Best Side Hustles for Teens to Make Extra Cash

If you love children and don’t shy away from responsibility, starting your own babysitting business could be the perfect side hustle for you to do in your teens.

Before accepting a job, make sure to ask the family questions about your duties and their expectations, and come up with a solid plan for how you’ll get to and from their house and fit the job into your schedule.

Estimated rates/earnings: $12–$26 per hour

Tips for success: Getting first aid or CPR training is a must. To find work, start by asking family friends with children and then branch out by posting fliers on local bulletin boards or advertising online.

If you’re not afraid of a bit of manual labor, you can make big bucks doing yardwork, regardless of your age. It’ll be easier to find this type of work if you live in the countryside or suburbs.

Here are a few examples of yardwork and maintenance jobs you can do:

• Mowing lawns
• Raking leaves
• Trimming hedges
• Gardening
• Cleaning pools
• Shoveling snow

If you live in an urban area, not all hope is lost. You can ask your neighbors if they have any plants you can water or if they want their porch swept.

Estimated rates/earnings: $10–$30 per hour

Tips for success: If you have a car, then it’s worth your time to drive out to target richer neighborhoods and suburbs with larger and more elaborate yards.

Do you love animals? Do you have your own pets you take care of and find it a breeze? Pet care is a broad field with many opportunities to earn easy cash, and it’s a great side hustle for teens who love animals.

Here are some pet and animal care job ideas to consider:

• Dog walking
• Dog washing
• Pet sitting
• Dog training
• Horse exercising
• Equestrian care
• Feeding farm animals

If you’re not afraid to get your hands dirty, you can also make plenty of money scooping dog poop. We spoke to Stephanie C., a professional pooper scooper, who told us she’s made $500 in one month from just 10 customers. Her advice is to advertise on social media—all her customers are from Facebook, Instagram, and Yelp.

If you have other skills or experience that you think you can market, you can also use those. Just be careful not to take on jobs beyond your skill level. For example, pet grooming and nail trimming are jobs that are best left to trained professionals because of the risk of injury for the pet.

Estimated rates/earnings: $8–$35 per hour

Tips for success: If possible, get formal training or a certification in the type of animal care you want to do. When it comes to finding jobs, there are several apps that facilitate dog-walking and pet-sitting arrangements, including Wag! Other good places to advertise your business include dog parks and veterinary clinics, but you can also search for jobs online or just ask around.

One of the easiest ways to make money online as a teenager is to take online surveys. You won’t be able to make a living off of this, but it’s a good way to earn extra cash in your downtime.

When filling out surveys online, take steps to protect your privacy and personal information, and carefully inspect any site you plan on using to make sure it’s safe.

Estimated rates/earnings: $1–$3 per survey

Tips for success: Search online for paid surveys for teens so you know you meet the age requirements and sign up for multiple websites. Check the survey length and pay rate to make the most of your time, and answer honestly to avoid getting disqualified.

Tutoring is a great way to earn money on the side as a teen and solidify your own knowledge and skills—not to mention it’s an impressive job to put on your resume and college applications. You can tutor your peers, younger kids, or even older teens as long as you have a subject that you excel in.

Here are some popular subjects you can tutor:

• Academic subjects (e.g., math, science, English, or history)
• Music
• Arts (e.g., drawing, painting, photography, or graphic design)
• The SAT or AP exams
• Foreign languages (a great option if you grew up bilingual)
• College essay writing

Estimated rates/earnings: $15–$36 per hour

Tips for success: Build a resume that showcases your high grades and qualifications and research the curriculum for your subject at the grade level you want to teach in. Tell teachers and school counselors about your services so they can recommend them to students who need them, and advertise in your local community.

For most teens, cleaning is a chore to be avoided at all costs, but for others, it can be a lucrative side hustle. There’s no shortage of demand for decent house cleaners.

Before you grab your mop and broom and get to cleaning, read up on how and when to use different cleaning products (and which products shouldn’t be mixed) so you don’t cause any damage to yourself or your clients’ homes.

It’s also important to communicate upfront with your customers to make sure you’re on the same page. Make it really clear what you will and won’t do and what your rates are before you start.

Estimated rates/earnings: $12–$27 per hour

Tips for success: Make sure your customers are fully satisfied before you walk away. Word-of-mouth recommendations are incredibly valuable in this field, and they can really expand your customer base.

Blog writing may sound more like a creative outlet than a side hustle, but the truth is that there’s good money in it if you know what people want to read. This is one of the best ways for creative teenagers to make money online from home.

All you need is access to a working computer and an internet connection to get started. However, to actually generate an income, you’ll have two do one of two things:

• Partner with brands: Also known as affiliate marketing, this is where you use your blog to advertise certain products or services. For example, if you have a beauty blog, you could promote a particular lipstick brand. For a blog on mountain biking, you could promote a particular bike manufacturer.
• Host ads on your website: Use an advertising network like Google AdSense or ask companies directly if they want to purchase ad space on your blog.

It’s important to disclose your affiliate partnerships if you’re recommending products to your readers. You should also bear in mind that you’ll only be able to make money from your blog if it’s popular, and it will almost certainly take time to build up a decent following.

Estimated rates/earnings: $7–$30 per hour

Tips for success: Pick a niche to focus on. This will help you establish a target market and attract brands.

If you’ve got recording equipment and a message to share with the world, then creating your own YouTube series or podcast can be a good way to make money at home as a teen.

Similar to what you’d do with a blog, you can monetize your videos or podcasts by making affiliate deals or running ads. You can also make money by requesting donations from listeners or viewers or by charging people for memberships.

Estimated rates/earnings: $0.05 to $0.30 per view/listen

Tips for success: Consider selling products or merchandise to make full use of your platform.

With the big boom in the delivery service industry in recent years, there’s no shortage of delivery jobs. Delivering food and drinks, groceries, newspapers, or other products is a consistent side hustle that you can easily do to earn money in your teens.

Just bear in mind that popular food and grocery delivery companies like Instacart and DoorDash require you to be at least 18 years old. They also require you to have your own transportation and a smartphone.

If you’re trying to make money under 18 years old, your best bet may be good old-fashioned newspaper delivery. Delivering newspapers, magazines, and periodicals in your local community is something you can do even if you’re under 14 years old.

Estimated rates/earnings: $7–$27 per hour

Tips for success: If you’re over 18 years old, work for a big delivery company. You may be able to earn more money this way by taking on more hours when you have extra free time.

Freelancing is a good option if you already have a lot of time commitments, like lots of school work or extracurricular activities. You can choose to take on lots of new projects during school breaks and lighten your workload during exam periods. There’s also a huge array of different types of freelance work you can do.

Here are a few examples of freelance jobs you can do as a teen:

• Writing
• Graphic design
• Coding
• Proofreading
• Translation
• Social media management
• Audio editing
• Photography
• Music composition
• Transcription
• Photo editing
• Video production
• Event planning
• Email outreach

Bear in mind that some freelance websites set their own age requirements. For example, Upwork requires you to be at least 18 years old. Fiverr allows you to freelance at 13+ years old, but you can only do so through a parent’s account—you need to be at least 18 years old to have your own account.

Estimated rates/earnings: $8–$55 per hour

Tips for success: Take on a couple of low-paying gigs at first to build experience and beat the competition. Once you’ve done a few jobs, gradually start raising your rates.

Dreaming of a job that’ll pay you to browse the internet from the comfort of your own home? You’re in luck. You can sign up for a web testing platform like UserTesting, UserPeek, or Userfeel and get paid to visit websites and give feedback on your experience.

You’ll need to be at least 18 years old to use the platforms mentioned above, and you’ll need to have a PayPal account to get paid. You also won’t be guaranteed a certain number of tests, meaning your income from testing websites may not be consistent. Nevertheless, this is an easy and flexible side hustle for 18 and 19-year-olds.

Estimated rates/earnings: $30–$60 per hour

Tips for success: Sign up for multiple testing websites to increase your earning potential.

Yard sales may seem old-fashioned and unoriginal, but sometimes you can’t beat the classics. If you’ve got valuables you don’t mind parting with, then having a garage sale can be one of the quickest and easiest ways to earn lots of money.

In theory, you could earn hundreds of dollars over a single weekend. It really all depends on how much your belongings are worth.

Estimated rates/earnings: $50+ per day (dependent on what you’re able to sell)

Tips for success: Ask your friends and family members if they have any belongings they wouldn’t mind donating to your cause. This can allow you to net more money if you don’t have a lot of possessions to sell.

You’ve probably heard of house flipping and car flipping, but there’s a long list of other “flipping” projects you can do with much lower upfront costs and fairly high profit margins. If you’re a creative and resourceful teen with plenty of time to spare, consider starting your own flipping business.

Here are some ideas of items you can resell:

• Furniture
• Shoes
• Clothing
• Smartphones
• Bicycles
• Eyeglass frames
• Antiques

The key to flipping for a profit is choosing products with low material costs that can sell for a high price. For this reason, designer products are usually a good choice. All you need to do is post your new-and-improved products for sale online and you should see money start to come in.

Estimated rates/earnings: $10–$400 per sale

Tips for success: To save on the cost of materials, start by using those you already have on hand. You can also check out thrift shops, recycling stations, flea markets, or online groups posting free items.

If you have decent skills in a particular medium and know how to market yourself, you can make plenty of cash selling your artwork.

There are no age requirements for being an artist. Most importantly, selling art is a fun way to make money, and it’ll help you cultivate your skills and refine your style while you’re still young.

You can sell virtually any type of art. Here are just a few examples:

• Paintings
• Drawings
• Photos
• Digital art
• Music
• Poetry
• Sculptures
• Multimedia works

Bear in mind that how many sales you get may depend on the type of art you’re doing and how you go about selling your work. For example, personalized portraits may be more lucrative than fine art. Additionally, selling on the street or in markets may help you get more sales, but it’s a bigger time commitment than selling online.

Estimated rates/earnings: $9–$61 per hour

Tips for success: Open yourself up to commissions, and frame your art if you’re selling paintings, drawings, or photos. Lance W, one artist who sells his paintings at markets, told us that sometimes “people don’t want to go get a frame” or frame art themselves. This allows him to make higher profits by buying cheap frames from thrift stores and charging more for his framed pieces.

Car washes aren’t just a way to raise money for school clubs. They’re also a great side gig you can do at any age.

The best part of washing cars for money is the flexibility—you can hold a car wash anywhere, at any time, and as often as you need. All you need is cleaning equipment and a hose.

Estimated rates/earnings: $5–$10 per wash

Tips for success: Choose a busy time and location where lots of cars will pass by and make sure your signs are large and clearly visible from the road. To take in more business at one time, you could ask one or two friends to help out and split the profits.

Put your good looks to use by becoming a teen actor or model. It’ll take you a bit of time to build a portfolio, but once you start getting gigs, you could earn a lot of money just from a single photo or video shoot.

If you’re under 18 years old, you’ll probably need to get consent from your parents before you take on an acting or modeling gig.

Estimated rates/earnings: $9–$25 per hour

Tips for success: If you have a friend who’s an aspiring photographer, consider asking them to do a photo shoot so you can both get a bit of experience. Taking classes may also help you get jobs.

If you enjoy arts and crafts, then why not sell your creations? All you have to do is think of useful household items or cute gift ideas and then come up with a creative way to make them.

Here are a few ideas to get you started:

• Candles or diffusers
• Jewelry
• Customized phone cases
• Clothing accessories
• Knitted or crocheted clothing or blankets
• Bags and purses
• Games
• Beauty products (e.g., soaps, facial scrubs, conditioners, or lip balm)

You can easily sell crafts online using platforms like Etsy or Amazon, or you can take a more personal approach by selling your homemade trinkets at your local farmers’ market, holiday markets, or festivals.

Estimated rates/earnings: $10–$60 per hour

Tips for success: Do a little market research to ensure you’re making a product that people want to buy and choose items with a low production cost to increase your profit margins.

Personal shoppers and personal stylists have fundamentally different roles, but there is some overlap. Being a personal shopper is just what it sounds like—you buy items for someone who doesn’t have the time or desire to go shopping themselves. These items could be clothes, groceries, medications, or any other products.

Personal stylists specifically focus on appearance-related items, such as clothing, makeup, hair, shoes, and accessories. In this role, you’re responsible for advising clients on how to dress and giving them informed fashion advice.

A key part of both of these jobs is getting to know your client’s needs, tastes, and budget. You’ll need to have good research and budgeting skills to get them the most suitable products that fit within their budget. You’ll also need to be at least 18 years old in most cases.

Estimated rates/earnings: $10–$20 per hour

Tips for success: Choose a niche market, such as senior citizens or businesswomen. Consider getting a certification in personal shopping or accounting. If you’re interested in being a personal stylist, build a portfolio that showcases your fashion knowledge.

You don’t need much in the way of equipment to be a house painter, and you can start earning money in your own neighborhood. All you need is painting skills and the ability to market your services.

You don’t necessarily need formal training to paint houses for money, although taking a course would certainly help. There are plenty of resources available online that can give you the knowledge you need to get started.

Estimated rates/earnings: $13–$29 per hour

Tips for success: Advertise your painting services online, on local bulletin boards, or by going door to door. Posting fliers at real estate offices can also be a good way to get new clients.

There’s a reason that hosting bake sales and opening lemonade stands are classic money-making side hustles for kids and teens. Homemade foods and refreshments are wholesome products that never go out of style, and their low production costs paired with high sale prices make them especially profitable items to sell.

Whether you’re baking cookies or pies, making homemade candies, or squeezing lemons for good old-fashioned lemonade, you won’t need to look far to find potential buyers. You can set up a stand on a busy corner in your neighborhood, sell your goodies at large events, or take your business right to people’s doorsteps.

This is a good short-term gig to do over a weekend or two, and it’s one of the best side hustles for younger teens aged 13, 14, or 15 years old. Just remember to check your local laws to ensure you don’t need a permit.

Estimated rates/earnings: $20–$250 per day (widely varies depending on many factors)

Tips for success: Choose a busy location, like a park, community center, or street corner on a major road. Don’t underestimate the power of advertising—make big, beautiful signs to get the word out. Focus on one main product, but consider selling additional products and offering a discount for combo purchases.