You are too young for a real job. That is fine. There is a whole pile of work sitting on your street that nobody wants to do, and people will pay you for it. Here are 12 ways to earn, what to charge, and exactly what to say.
Pick a job and set your goal 👇
Here is something most kids never figure out: grown ups are not paying you for your skills. They are paying you so they do not have to do something they hate. Nobody enjoys raking wet leaves. Nobody wants to wash the minivan. Nobody wants to explain to Grandma for the fourth time where her photos went.
That is your whole business. You are not competing with adults who do this better than you. You are competing with the option of it just not getting done. That is why a neighbor will happily hand a 10 year old $15 for something that took 40 minutes.
Sorted roughly by how fast you can get your first dollar.
Start with the cars already in your driveway so you can practice. Wheels and windows are what people actually notice, so do those last and do them well.
Location beats recipe. A stand near a park, a game, or a garage sale will beat a better stand on a quiet street every time. Our full lemonade stand guide has the costs, the recipe, and the sign.
Raking, weeding, sweeping walkways, hauling branches to the curb. Ask to be paid by the job and not the hour, because you will get faster and an hourly rate punishes you for that.
Best repeat money on this list. One dog walked three times a week is steadier than any one time job. Start with a dog you already know and a parent walking with you.
Feeding a cat and scooping a litter box while neighbors travel takes ten minutes and pays for a full week. Write down the feeding instructions instead of trying to remember them.
Only worth it in states with deposit laws, so check first. Ask three families to save their cans for you and you get a slow, steady trickle for basically no work.
Setting up a phone, fixing a printer, showing someone how photos work. You already know this stuff, which is exactly why it feels like it should not count as work. It counts.
Friendship bracelets, painted rocks, stickers, keychains. Sell at family gatherings, school events, and sports games where there is already a crowd standing around.
Wheel the bins out on trash night and back in the next day. It is thirty seconds of work. Sign up four neighbors and it pays every single week without you thinking about it.
The highest paying job on this list, because people are desperate and it is miserable outside. Do driveways in the morning before people leave for work.
Vacation watering for neighbors. Low effort, high trust, and it usually turns into pet sitting and mail collecting for the same trip at the same house.
Cookies and brownies at a school or community event. Check the rules first, since some events do not allow homemade food. Package them individually so they look worth buying.
Asking is the part everyone gets stuck on. Here is the exact wording, so you do not have to invent it while standing on a porch.
"Hi, I am Sam from the blue house on the corner. I am doing yard jobs this fall to save up for a bike. I charge $15 to rake a yard and bag the leaves. Would that be helpful this weekend, or should I check back another time?"
Four things are doing the work in there. You said who you are and where you live, so you are a neighbor and not a stranger. You said what you are saving for, because people want to help a kid with a goal. You said your price up front, so nobody has to do the awkward part. And you gave them an easy way to say not now instead of no, which is what makes it possible to knock on the next door.
Practice it on a parent twice before you use it for real. It feels silly and it works. The first door is the only genuinely hard one.
Kids almost always charge too little. These are fair prices, not greedy ones.
| Job | Charge this | How long it takes |
|---|---|---|
| Wash one car | $15 | About 40 minutes |
| Rake and bag a yard | $15 to $25 | 1 to 2 hours |
| Walk a dog | $8 | 20 to 30 minutes |
| Feed a pet, one visit | $9 | 10 minutes |
| Shovel a driveway | $20 to $40 | 45 minutes to 2 hours |
| Trash cans, per week | $4 | 2 minutes |
| Water plants, one visit | $7 | 10 minutes |
| Tech help | $12 an hour | Usually about an hour |
When you get older and want the full version of this, our guide on how to price your services goes much deeper.
Read these with a parent before your first job. Every single one.
A parent knows the address, the person, and what time you will be back. Every time, no exceptions.
Work outside or in the yard. You do not go inside a house alone, even for a neighbor you know well.
Only work for people your family already knows. No flyers to strangers and no posting online.
No power tools, no ladders, no roofs, and nothing with a motor. Rakes and buckets only.
Cash goes straight to a parent or straight into your jar at home. Do not carry it around all day.
If something feels weird, leave. You never owe anyone an explanation, and you will not be in trouble.
This is where most of it goes wrong. You earn $15, it feels like a lot, and by Tuesday it has turned into snacks and a mobile game skin and you cannot point to a single thing you got for it.
So split it the moment you are handed it, before it becomes "just money in your pocket". The 3 jar system is the easy version: 60% into the save jar for your goal, 30% into spend, 10% into give. Do that every time and a $200 bike stops being a fantasy and becomes about 14 car washes.
Once your save jar gets past about $100, ask a parent about moving it somewhere safer than your room. When you are a bit older, opening a real bank account is the next step, and compound interest explains why getting money out of a jar and into an account eventually matters a lot.
There is no minimum age for odd jobs like raking a neighbor yard or running a lemonade stand, because you are not an employee. Real jobs with an employer are different and usually start at 14 to 16 depending on your state. Everything on this page is the odd job kind, which you can do at 9 or 10 with a parent involved.
Snow shoveling and yard raking, because people are desperate and will pay well right that day. A lemonade stand in a busy spot can also do $40 or more in one afternoon. If you need money by this weekend, knock on doors for a seasonal job rather than trying to make and sell something.
Almost certainly not. Small amounts of cash from odd jobs are far below the level where anyone files anything. If you ever get past a few hundred dollars in a year, ask a parent to check, since the rules are about totals and not about your age.
Take the jobs the pro does not want. Lawn services mow, but they usually do not weed flower beds, sweep walkways, pull trash cans in, or water plants during vacations. Those are your jobs and there is no competition for them.
Not yet. Etsy, Depop, and eBay all require an account holder who is 18 or older, and payment accounts need an adult too. Stick with in person selling at family events and school events until you are a teen, then read our guide to selling on Etsy and Depop.
Start with people you already talk to, like grandparents, your parents friends, and the neighbor you already wave at. Ask three of them. Once you have done it three times the fourth is easy, and by then you usually do not need to knock on doors at all because people tell each other.