12 year old wants to earn some money

Becles

I am 12 years old and posting from my Mam's account. I have broken my mobile phone and my Mam said that I have to buy a new one as it was my fault for not looking after it properly.

I need to earn some money and would like people to share any ideas they might have. I have already thought of paper rounds and I am going to visit the local shop tomorrow to see if they need anybody.

Please can you help?

robin_banks

Not sure you can legally work.

shaz-ann

I work for a Ed Welfare for our local council. There are rules and regulations about child employment, which you can find if look up Child Employment regulations on Google. Here's a brief guideline that might help you...
http://www.calderdale.gov.uk/advice/parents/educational-welfare/employment.html

If you scroll down you will see that "No child under the age of 13 can be employed". Unfortunately you have to be 13 or older to work, and even a paper-round would be classed as work.

Sorry I haven't given you the answer you wanted. Have you thought about maybe washing people's cars, doing bits of gardening or doing extra chores and housework for a bit of extra money?

KaramelRose

My brothers were always on the look out to earn money - and a few things they tried that were quite successful...

1. Car washing
- They knocked on doors round the close we lived in and just offered to wash peoples cars for them. It's best if you can get any friends to help you and share any money that you make.

2. Gardening
- You may be a little too young for this, but my brothers also used to offer to mow peoples lawns for them! That went down quite well, and especially as it's the summer, it might be a good idea.

3. Car Boot
- Why not have a clear out of any toys or games you don't want anymore and ask your Mum to help you do a car boot sale? I did one of these when I was about 14 and managed to earn around £70!!!

4. Bouncy Balls!
- One little money making scheme of my brothers that sticks in my mind was that they used to buy bouncy balls from those little 20p vending machines and sell them at school for about 50p. Some kids were paying up to £3 for these bouncy balls although I think that's probably a bit hit and miss.

Good luck earning some extra money - you'll really appreciate the phone when you get it!

Evie82

Similar to a car boot, how about a mini sale outside your house? Stick a few posters up a couple of days before in your residential area then on the day set up a table with old books, clothes, shoes, games etc that you dont want. Make it more fun by asking if a mate wants to run a table next to yours.

Poppy9

Good idea sorting out your unwanted toys/clothes. You could ask one of your parents to help you ebay them if you have no access to carboot sales or a garage sale is not appropriate.

Also you could take over a task from your parents or grandparents in return for some money.
i.e.

Do the laundry (i.e. sort it whites/colours, load washing machine, peg out on line and bring in and fold from line and sort between stuff than can go away and clothes that need ironing). Has to be worth £2 per load.

If you have elderly neighbours maybe they would appreciate a few errands run like going to the shops, putting out rubbish, walking dogs etc. Take your mother's advice on this though don't just go and ask.

Errata

Becles Junior - your honesty and motivation is admirable. How about :

Not gardening, but weeding for any neighbours ? The blooming things are growing like crazy with all the rain and they'll be obviously different from flowering plants.

Anyone round your way need their dog being given extra walks ? I know you've got Bob (?) so you know how to be responsible with dogs.

Any chance of your mam and you coming to an arrangement where she advances you the money and you pay it back by doing extra jobs around the house ?

Alikay

My son wanted to earn some cash when he was about 12 too, and like the others have said it's a wee bit young. However, we did come down one Sunday morning to catch him photographing a few of his good but outgrown clothes which he then put on ebay and sold! He got a few ££ for his old Playmobile stuff and a few console games too.

Make sure you check with your mum first though, as my son was quick to sell a few bits I'd got earmarked as hand-me-downs for his younger brother :rotfl:

In fact my son got so good at listing stuff that he sold a few old bits and bobs we had around the house for me, and since I didn't know how to do it myself, I split the proceeds with him.

ciano125

Just because you might be too young to be legally employed doesnt mean that you are too young to MAKE money for yourself, somthing I wish someone had told me when I was your age.

There are only a few ways to make money. If you have a skill, you exchange your skill for cash. An example of this would be if you were an electrician and someone needed their house re-wiring. If they don't have the skills to do it themselves, they have to pay someone who has the skills. I imagine that you don't have many skills that you could sell just yet.

Another way is to sell your time. You don't need any skills to do this, but the things you can do, anyone can do. This is also known as unskilled labour. As people have suggested, walking dogs, washing cars, weeding etc. Jobs that people might not want to do themselves but you might be prepared to do. Unskilled labour doesnt pay very well.

The third way is to buy and sell things. This is harder than it sounds, and requires a basic understanding of economics, basically the concept of supply and demand. If there is a high demand for an item, it will sell well. If there is restricted supply, it will sell better, and for more money as people will be prepared to pay more just so they have it.

During an economic downturn (recession, credit crunch, call it what you will) people have less money to spend, so you need to sell something that is always in high demand (and preferably short supply). Ask yourself, what do people NEED as opposed to what do people WANT? In order to live, we NEED some basic items, food, shelter, clothes, warmth. That's about it really. I might WANT a big TV, a flashy car, designer clothes etc, but I dont need them to survive. People cut back on buying such things when they havent got as much money to spend. However, competing with the likes of Tesco etc is going to be tricky for anyone! Try and think about what things you and your friends maybe not necessarily need, but really want. I'm a lot older than you now, so I don't really know what's cool and what's not, but it might be something like trading cards or football stickers. As an example, if its football stickers, and you've got ten stickers of (insert favourite player here - John Terry, Rooney, Ronaldo even?!), and all your mates wanted that particular sticker, you could sell it for more than you bought it for. That's your profit.

The other way I can think of making money is by selling royalties. Very few people make a living this way, its very difficult but it can be a very good way of making lots of money. The best example is if you are a singer. You make a CD (lets say you only have to put one song on it for arguments sake). So, you sing one song, then release it onto the market. Every time someone buys your song, you get paid. You could be sitting on your sofa, playing on your playstation, and ten people buy your CD. If you get a pound each time, you're laughing. You do the job once, and get paid time and time again. Brilliant really isnt it! Like I say though, very difficult to do it and not many people get to make a good living like this.

So, if you've not got bored of reading that, personally, I reckon buying and selling things might be the best thing for you to do now to make some money. You'll need some money to start with in order to buy whatever it is you're going to sell, but sometimes you need to start off small and work your way up. You need to do your research too. It might be an idea to buy a box of Mars bars from a wholesaler if you can get them for 30p each (but buying a box of 24 will cost you £7.20) but if you can then sell all 24 for 50p each, you've made £4.80 (50p x 24 is £12, minus your cost to buy of £7.20). Get it wrong and you could make a loss, for example if you can't sell them for 50p each because the shop down the road is selling them for 25p each, you're stuffed. That's why you need to do your research before doing this.

I wish you well though, and I'm sure you'll manage to do it. I love making money, doing deals and buying and selling things, even though I'm a professional (selling my skills) I cant resist buying something if I know I can sell it on to make a profit, it's just good fun.

Hope that helps a bit anyway!

Ciano

Caroline73_2

My 11 year old is trying to raise £300 for some sort of games console. He has been doing jobs for me and his grandparents, sorting out old things to sell on ebay and when it stops raining he plans to go out on our street and wash cars.

brila

It occurred to me the other day that if some young thing I vaguely knew knocked on my door and offered to take my bottles to the bottle bank each week for a few quid I would be very enthusiastic. If your nearest bottle bank is not too far to walk and your mum was ok with it you could do several neighbours, especially if you had an old shopping trolley or pram to load up to cut down trips. Eventually you could "employ" several friends to work under you and maybe one day go national. When Beccles & Co goes global you can buy me lunch!