Short on cash for the long summer ahead? Try turning simple odd jobs into your own whiz biz.
KidNews talked to three kids who earn extra bucks in common ways: by baby-sitting, doing yardwork and collecting an allowance. We then took their moneymaking experiences, which ranged from being pretty sophisticated to not earning a dime outside the home, to an expert for specific biz-building tips.
Read on to see if you, too, can cash in on the tips and put them to work for you.
Sobeida F. , 14 , of Chicago
Lots of kids baby-sit, but Sobeida has built a thriving business of it. Enthusiastic and well organized, Sobeida is chairman of Sobey’s Sitters, a baby-sitters club she runs with the help of seven friends. To drum up business, Sobeida has created fliers advertising the service and distributes them at grocery stores, schools and laundries.
“Anyplace I know where mothers are going to be, that’s where I post my fliers,” she said.
When a prospective client calls, Sobeida leafs through a three-ring binder and looks up the names of her friends to see who is available to baby-sit. Sobeida alone doles out the work, trying to do it evenly and fairly among her and her partners.
How does she determine what to charge? Sobeida acknowledged that her rates vary. “If they have two kids, I charge them $5 an hour. But sometimes people don’t have a lot of money so I’ll charge them really cheap.”
Even so, Sobeida said she can make $60 a week, and up to $100 a week during busy holiday seasons. She’s proud of her business but wonders what else she could be doing to build it.
Biz-building tips: Sobeida is off to good start, but she can improve her business, said Bonnie Drew, executive editor of Young Biz Media, an Atlanta-based company that provides business development information to young people. Her advice: (bull) Negotiate a cut. “[Sobeida] should look at the amount of time she’s spending and consider whether she should charge a commission for handling this because she’s actually the founder of the business,” Drew said. “She works like a broker–so she should get a little commission out of every job for handling all the phone calls and scheduling.”
