7 Best Business Ideas for Teens in 2022

If you’re in your teens and are looking to make some extra bucks, washing cars, mowing lawns or doing entry-level jobs at a big corporation that’s hiring everyone might not be your only option. The world is full of opportunities that are just waiting to be taken. It’s time to roll up your sleeves and do some real work that might pay off dividends in the future by possibly becoming your future career or a stable source of passive income. Here are the 7 best business ideas for teens in 2022.

Whether you want to be a designer, want to profit off of making sales or by just flipping things, the NFT market is definitely the hottest thing on the market.

NFT or Non-Fungible token is a digital good that’s unique and non-interchangeable. The data is stored on a digital ledger meaning that the original can’t be duplicated and the ownership rights can’t be stolen. Right now, the hottest way to use NFTs is to create unique digital artwork that people will buy for crypto or real-world cash.

Once you create something unique yourself (or hire someone from Fiverr to do it for you, cheaply), you can then upload it to sites like and sell them for a profit. The secondary market for NFTs is also very big. Take a look at the chart below.

It shows that each week around 7-12 thousand buyers purchase NFTs in the primary market and anywhere between 50 and 120% of that total go and buy them in a secondary market.

An example of what NFTs could look like.

So, you can just buy Non-Fungible tokens that you think are cool and could have great value and resell them to other people. You can also create your own, market them and sell them. There are many ways to make money from NFTs.

This isn’t all that new but it definitely has demand that’s growing. Especially amidst the COVID pandemic, when a lot of students are now forced to partly or mostly study from home, gaps in their education can appear more often and become more apparent, pushing the parents or the students themselves to seek private tutorship.

If you have good grades or have great knowledge of a particular subject, you can share that knowledge, for cash. Post a local ad on your Craigslist or share it through places like Facebook Marketplace. Have your friends or ask relatives to share recommendations and you should get a few gigs.

This part-time business might even become your next job or business. Look at the graphic below.

The industry is gigantic and people are always anxious about the schooling of their children, hence they’re willing to spend money just to get them a better education.

Also, if you’re knowledgeable in subjects outside of school, especially in something digital, you could explore the avenue of creating your own course on platforms like Skillshare or starting your own course with pre-recorded videos. Being a tutor is one of the more popular business ideas for teensaround the globe.

This category of business ideas is broad, but hear us out. It seems that in the US alone, a single person without any previous experience can make between $150 and $250 per day, easy, by just hanging up Christmas lights and/or taking them down. Of course, this is only a seasonal job but people tend to charge anywhere from $100 for hanging the lights on a smaller home and doing 2-3 homes per day, or take higher rates and hang lights on 1 or 2 houses tops, but the houses are much bigger.

For an all-year-round source of income, paint the curbs near people’s houses. Once again, this idea is mostly relevant to people in the US because elsewhere, you’ll rarely find any homes with this kind of marking. Once again, no experience is necessary, the painting takes only around 20-30 minutes, once you get good at it, and you can charge anywhere from $10 to $20 for a paint job.

The only downside of this job is that it’s probably best to go knocking door-to-door, so if you can’t handle like 20-30 “No, thank you” every day, this business might not be the right option. But, if you do want to earn that money, by painting curb signs you can also upsell services like lawn mowing, mailbox painting, etc.

This business will require the most effort to get running, but if you have some Instagram followers or just are interested in making money off of social media, you can definitely start your own clothing brand. By selling tees with witty or fun illustrations or captions, you can make a ton of money with the right marketing.

Thanks to the emergence of print-on-demand services, this might be one of the best small business ideas for teens. People spend more money on clothing online than they have been doing ever before.

Setting up your own e-shop and doing designs could take you under $500 if you know how to work with Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop. Launch your store on Shopify, or platforms like Printful, and don’t pay for any stock or inventory. Print test samples, hire up-and-coming models and offer them high-quality pics for their portfolio in-exchange for modelling with your clothes. You can also hire friends and do wacky or fun photoshoots if you want to position your brand that way.

Next, launch your social media campaigns and create cool promos so people feel great value when they make their first purchase.

You probably already know the names of StockX and Goat. These are the two largest platforms for high-end sneaker and fashion resale. But, there’s more. You can also sell collectables, electronics and so much more through these platforms. For a young teen who’s interested in trends & fashion, these platforms are like a goldmine. You can flip tens of products per month and earn at least a few hundred bucks in that period.

You might be wondering but where’s the passive side of this? It requires intense monitoring and calculating in order to make the best deals, right? Well, not necessarily. If you have some cash leftover, you can buy newly launched exclusive Jordan sneakers at retail or pretty much any limited edition sneaker (Off-White, Balenciaga, etc.). Keep it in the box for 1-2 years or monitor the market and sell for a profit as the opportunity arises. After launch, they sell out quickly and the resale market is very hot, allowing you to get a 130% return, easy.

Most Travis Scott x Jordans sell for $1,000 and only increase in price after day 1.

However, the best niche would be female handbags from high-street fashion houses like Prada, Chanel, etc. The doubling of value over 7-10 years is almost a rule of thumb. But, you do need some starting cash and lots of patience to profit.

The world of today offers arguably the easiest access to money - social media. If you like to post things or just enjoy the general vibe of social networks and the communities which they create, you should look into YouTube, Instagram or TikTok as your next business option. By working on your personal brand, you could potentially secure a lifetime of income by just becoming a recognizable internet personality and creating your own products then.

TikTok might be the easiest gateway to fame right now, but it’s also the most over-saturated market. There are a lot of young teens and younger people on the platform. They have much less purchasing power and you could have very misleading expectations for your business. If you want to make money from younger audiences, you should focus on Youtube, where views themselves are monetized. No matter who watches, you can get a stable income regardless.

And if you are producing content for people with purchasing power and a broader audience, you can focus on Instagram. It’s the main hub for influencers and has probably the best foundation for advertising goods and services as well as sharing visual content online.

If you live in at least a moderately big city, this idea can make you a lot of money. People usually charge around $20 per 30-minute walk and can walk up to 3-4 dogs at once. Longer walks tend to cost anywhere around $40-$50. And there’s sometimes the need to drop in and play with a dog, for overnight stays and/or outright pet training.

The catch here is to be friendly and familiar with animals, as well as your city. You have to know how to get around with pets, where to take them and how to interact with them to have their needs fulfilled. If you do training, you should be experienced and accredited in the field.

Owners who hire dog walking services are usually very active pet owners. What we mean by active is that they share no expense for the sake of their furry friends. Thus, you can also save some money and start your own pet care spot and not only walk dogs but also have some people wash them, grind or cut their nails or sell high-rated dog food to owners. By getting recommendations from a vet, you could suggest a better diet to their parents/owners and they might take your advice for it. This means that by doing two or three runs of dog walking per day, you could earn anywhere between $120 to $240 without any major difficulties or challenges. In the city, this might be one of the best business ideas for teens.

So, we’ve highlighted seven unique things that could be great small business ideas for teensin 2022. Remember that the digital age allows you to make money super fast and easier than ever before. You don’t need any education to start a side-hustle or begin your own business from home. Just make sure to be brave and to actively promote your brand, services or anything else on social media as well as dedicated platforms. Keep following the news and influential people in the field to expand your knowledge and become better. As your knowledge grows, so will your personal brand and business!