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Oaktonite/Fairlaker (and now under yet another name, VendorDude). My old friend and fellow elite. I hope you have not been relegated to working on vending machines now. As elites, we are supposed to pay people $1 a day to do this as part of running multiple restaurants, nonprofits, and posting multiple times with our expert wisdom on this forum. I hope your economic lectures are going as well as mine are. Cheers!
Poor Oaktonite, perhaps he overspent on Chateau Margaux and at quarter-end his restaurant profit margins took a nose dive. Perhaps he's now a food truck vendor selling greasy empanadas to street tourists and moonlighting as an educational policy lecturer at Holiday Inn Express... Good luck Food VendorDude - food trucks can be profitable too!
There are signifcant barriers to entry in all those jobs. Simple facts of 21st century life.
Yes, there are significant barriers to entry for "babysitting, pet-sitting, house-sitting, lawn mowing, and tutoring jobs." Very significant barriers. Only the very best, the cream of the crop, with major resources and education and networks and start-up capital, can even dream of securing jobs like these...
Yes, there are significant barriers to entry for "babysitting, pet-sitting, house-sitting, lawn mowing, and tutoring jobs." Very significant barriers. Only the very best, the cream of the crop, with major resources and education and networks and start-up capital, can even dream of securing jobs like these...
In those particular fields, it's not so much a entry barrier as it is a supply/demand barrier. Let's assume mom and dad go out on a friday or saturday for a long night out. That's maybe 4 hours. If they pay $10 an hour, that's good, you'll make $80 a week. During the rest of the nights, you may have one or two weeknights with 1-2 hour shifts a month. Most parents don't go out on week nights because the kids have school and the parents have work. You're looking at $350 a month if you're lucky in exchange for the peak of your social life.
Pet sitting? There's no way you could consider that even remotely a part time job. Who really needs a pet "sitter" anyway. You need someone to let the dog out twice a day and put out food for any other pet on the rare occasion that someone nearby is going out of town and doesn't have a niece/nephew nearby. If you make $50 a month, that would be impressive.
Lawn mowing could be viable, and we'll even combine that with snow shoveling. Except they both fall subject to the fact that you're now talking about a luxury unless people are paying you practically nothing. If you live in a wealthy neighborhood, sure, you can make money. If your neighbors work minimum wage, you can be sure they'll mow their own lawn long before they hire you to do it.
These are all "charity" jobs that people hire kids to do not because they need them to, but because the adults have enough money that they can afford to toss some to the neighborhood kid. So yeah, if you're around rich people, you can easily do it. Live in an inner city, and there's no way you'll find anyone giving out jobs like this.
Think about it this way. If someone was on here talking about credit card debt, how long do you think it would be after they mentioned paying a kid $20 a week before people told them to mow their own lawn? The jobs you describe are the table scraps of the rich/upper middle class, which is great if you live near them, but useless otherwise.
In those particular fields, it's not so much a entry barrier as it is a supply/demand barrier. Let's assume mom and dad go out on a friday or saturday for a long night out. That's maybe 4 hours. If they pay $10 an hour, that's good, you'll make $80 a week. During the rest of the nights, you may have one or two weeknights with 1-2 hour shifts a month. Most parents don't go out on week nights because the kids have school and the parents have work. You're looking at $350 a month if you're lucky in exchange for the peak of your social life.
Pet sitting? There's no way you could consider that even remotely a part time job. Who really needs a pet "sitter" anyway. You need someone to let the dog out twice a day and put out food for any other pet on the rare occasion that someone nearby is going out of town and doesn't have a niece/nephew nearby. If you make $50 a month, that would be impressive.
Lawn mowing could be viable, and we'll even combine that with snow shoveling. Except they both fall subject to the fact that you're now talking about a luxury unless people are paying you practically nothing. If you live in a wealthy neighborhood, sure, you can make money. If your neighbors work minimum wage, you can be sure they'll mow their own lawn long before they hire you to do it.
In my location, there is a high demand/low supply for many of these jobs... Families are looking for these services.
Babysitting - I live in a family community where there is a high demand for reliable babysitters. $10/hour is low. I think $15-$20/hr cash is the going rate.
Pet sitting - EXTREMELY in-demand and surprisingly lucrative. One of my friends (college educated, late 30's) is now a full-time pet-sitter. I believe she gets from $30 to $50/per day PER PET watching/walking/boarding pets in her home AND she often has to turn away customers because she is overbooked.
Lawn mowing/landscaping/yard work/snow shoveling - $30/hr? - A cash business where I see plenty of demand in both middle and upper middle class areas, especially in senior areas.
In my location, there is a high demand/low supply for many of these jobs... Families are looking for these services.
Babysitting - I live in a family community where there is a high demand for reliable babysitters. $10/hour is low. I think $15-$20/hr cash is the going rate.
Pet sitting - EXTREMELY in-demand and surprisingly lucrative. One of my friends (college educated, late 30's) is now a full-time pet-sitter. I believe she gets from $30 to $50/per day PER PET watching/walking/boarding pets in her home AND she often has to turn away customers because she is overbooked.
Lawn mowing/landscaping/yard work/snow shoveling - $30/hr? - A cash business where I see plenty of demand in both middle and upper middle class areas, especially in senior areas.
This is exactly what I said in my past post about localized demand that you and others looked as whining and complaining and glossed over. If you read the points, you would see that there are merit because not all suburbia is your town. Some have more younger and active people, others have busier people and others are old people who cannot do much. You would have to base your services around that entirely and see if it can be profitable. As I mentioned earlier, IF the town's family needs babysitters, it's a good potential "job" whether it is $10, $15 or $20 an hour or a set rate for the night. If there isn't a need because they have at least one old enough or responsible kid per household, YOU CANNOT DO IT! Pet sitting is the same story. If the family stays in rather than go on a vacation, you wont make $30 to $50 a day per pet so YOU CANNOT DO IT! Yard work, as I mentioned it falls into redundant work for active people. Most if not all my neighbors when I was growing on Long Island mowed grass. Maybe two or so on the block used a local landscaper. Snowshoveling was a bit different though and unless you had a snowblower, you let a neighbor kid do it unless you were super active. Out in Arizona, many people do use landscapers but it is a LOT different than what many people are use to. PLUS you have an HOA to deal with rather than you looking out and realizing the grass should get cut like in New York. In this case Junior's Landscaping isn't going to cut it (no pun intended) because of the HOA guidelines unless Junior knows about horticulture and what kills weeds out here.
As I said, any, all or none of the options in your suburbia will work in another person's. We can't use the bias of our own personal experience blind us to believe that it works. We need to put ourselves into the situation the poster puts out through the poster's own set of eyes than our own. Until then, you are only throwing out irrelevant stats because Westbury, NY's demographics are WAY different than Surprise, AZ's which are way different than say Rosemont, IL's.
This is exactly what I said in my past post about localized demand that you and others looked as whining and complaining and glossed over.
I can not relate because I would find/create something to sell wherever the market is. I have done this in multiple locations/countries, in good and bad economies. My great grandmother created a successful shoe company during the Depression - she made money making/selling shoes in a small, poor town during the Depression.
Babysitting, pet sitting, and lawn service are just 3 of, what, millions of possible ideas to make money. Creative people who can hustle do not need the complete blue print, and they certainly don't approach endeavors thinking about all the possible reasons why it won't work. They make it happen.
If you're in the AZ desert, sell water door-to-door or air conditioning filter service or snake traps - I don't know - but identify a need and provide the product/service. Sell something on the Internet. Find your market. Think creatively. There are plenty of examples on this thread of kids who have done just that.
I can not relate because I would find/create something to sell wherever the market is. I have done this in multiple locations/countries, in good and bad economies. My great grandmother created a successful shoe company during the Depression - she made money making/selling shoes in a small, poor town during the Depression.
Babysitting, pet sitting, and lawn service are just 3 of, what, millions of possible ideas to make money. Creative people who can hustle do not need the complete blue print, and they certainly don't approach endeavors thinking about all the possible reasons why it won't work. They make it happen.
If you're in the AZ desert, sell water door-to-door or air conditioning filter service or snake traps - I don't know - but identify a need and provide the product/service. Sell something on the Internet. Find your market. Think creatively. There are plenty of examples on this thread of kids who have done just that.
The main problem in the area are scorpions and most of the ones who find them have dogs. There isn't much of a watt besides pest control methods to stop them particularly in a build. Sling water, yeah why would I sell water when in my area EVERY BUILDING has running water. Those two examples are examples of the need already being fulfilled elsewhere in the market where it is cheap or DIY. I sometimes hear of rattlesnakes in the area but I have never heard a true story. I've seen coyotes though. The problem I see instead of shooting me down for being negative, read. You never know what points maybe brought up. You have experienced success but you had to goto the drawing board several times before you found something that clicked in your community.
As for using those three, that is only because those were brought up. I mentioned tons more and some are even skilled jobs that not just anyone can do like say painting a house.
It's not that I don't agree with what you say, it's just that not everyone has the ideal market in their backyards to do these odd jobs whether they are a kid or adult. Creative ones may find something but if there is no market demand for hand-woven baskets, it is foolish to start that as a business. There needs to be a big enough problem that isn't satisfied in the area that matches skills and abilities of one. But I am sure that his without saying.
It's not that I don't agree with what you say, it's just that not everyone has the ideal market in their backyards to do these odd jobs whether they are a kid or adult. Creative ones may find something but if there is no market demand for hand-woven baskets, it is foolish to start that as a business. There needs to be a big enough problem that isn't satisfied in the area that matches skills and abilities of one. But I am sure that his without saying.
Does your community have a post office and the Internet? Then your potential market is expanded.
Does your community have a post office and the Internet? Then your potential market is expanded.
Ah yes. Back to the early 2000's right? When anyone and everyone could set up their own online business and sell products to the world and become rich.
Oh wait. That ended with a lot of people realizing that when your potential market expands like that, so does your competition. When you go online, you're competing with the world. Amazon and Walmart become your competition and MOST teenagers won't be able to compete with that.
Yes, a small percentage will be able to compete. But is the fact that MOST people cannot compete a sign of laziness? Not at all.
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