ENTERPRISING kids are earning their keep by helping with chores at home and launching their own side hustles.
Nearly half of all parents pay their children to do household jobs including tidying bedrooms, emptying the dishwasher, doing laundry, gardening and washing the car, according to pocket money app NatWest Rooster Money.
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Other kids and teens are striking out alone and finding clever ways to make cash from their talents.
Harriet Cooke speaks to young entrepreneurs and their parents about their money-making ventures.
The jewellers
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SISTERS Brooke and Texas Matthews have made nearly £500 this year from selling bracelets and anklets at local craft fairs and festivals.
The pair buy their beads from Amazon at £20 a pack, which is enough to make around 300 bracelets. These sell for £3.50 each or two for £5, and at a typical fair they will sell around 40. It usually costs around £10 or £20 for a stall at events near their home town of Coventry.
Brooke, 12, says: “It’s a therapeutic and relaxing activity to do after school and it’s great making our own money.”
Texas, ten, adds: “We’re really confident at the events. We ask people about their favourite colours, which charms they like best, and point them in the right direction.”
Their mum Holly Matthews, 38, a coach who runs a wellbeing group The Happy Me Project, says: “Most of their money has gone into a savings account but they’ve rewarded themselves with £30 each to spend.”
Holly helps them manage their Instagram account @itsthosebeadss where they sell name bracelets to order.
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The dog sitters
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FOR the animal-mad Simanovich siblings dog-sitting is the perfect job. It earned Alexandra, 11, Matthieu, eight, and Emilie Popon, six, £4,300 last year.
Customers who find them through the Rover and Pawshake apps pay up to £17 for walks, £35 for daycare and £45 to look after dogs overnight.
As kids under 13 can’t legally work, mum Darya, 38, supervises them and puts the cash aside for their future.
Darya, the founder of the Chelsea Swim Spa swimming school in South West London, says: “It’s a lovely way for the kids to learn about responsibility and earn money as well.”
The referee
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KEEN footballer Jack Beith earns £25 a match refereeing junior games at his local club, the Berkhamsted Raiders in Hertfordshire, at weekends.
Jack, 15, says: “I really enjoy it. You have to focus on the ball, but there’s lots of action around you. You have to make a decision and stick to it, even if players argue.”
Jack’s mum, Clare Swatman, 48, an author, says: “Refereeing is a brilliant job for teenagers as it gives them confidence and makes them more assertive.”
The booksellers
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AVID readers Kirsten and Aiyven Mbawa turned their passion for writing fiction into launching a children’s book subscription service during lockdown.
Happiereverychapter.com lets subscribers choose bundles of up to five books with a focus on diversity and inclusion starting from £14 a month.
Kirsten, 15, and Aiyven, 14, from Northampton have 80 subscribers and yearly profits are around £7,600.
Their parents, IT consultants, Ndah and Valentine, both 46, help run it.
Ndah says: “The girls have learned so much about running a business from this.”
The beekeeper
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NORFOLK’S youngest registered beekeeper Cullen Brown is 16 and already has two jobs.
From age 13, he stacked shelves at the local Post Office and did a paper round. Now he’s left school he tends cattle three days a week as a farmhand and also looks after his bees and harvests honey near his home in Martham.
He used £3,200 of his earnings to buy the hives, a safety suit and other equipment.
This year he has made nearly £1,000 selling honey to nearby Colmans Farm Shop.
Cullen says: “Everything I make from cattle farming goes back into my bee business as I want to expand from 16 to 200 hives.
“They are wild insects but you do grow attached and you want them to thrive.”
Follow Cullen’s beekeeping journey on his Facebook page CJBee Honey.
WHAT ARE THE RULES?
CHILDREN can work part-time from the age of 13 (or sometimes younger if acting or modelling, for instance, which might require a licence).
In term time, 13 and 14-year-olds can work a maximum of 12 hours a week, up to two hours a day on school days and Sundays, and up to five hours on Saturdays.
For those aged 15 and 16 the restrictions are the same but they can work eight hours on Saturdays.
You can leave school on the last Friday in June if you’ll be 16 by the end of the summer holidays. But if you’re not in full-time education or training, you must either do an apprenticeship or you can train part-time alongside working or volunteering for at least 20 hours a week until you are 18.
There is no minimum wage for school-aged workers, but they don’t have to pay National Insurance. Teens aged 16 to 17 must be paid at least £5.28 per hour and and can work a maximum of eight hours a day or 40 hours per week. From the age of 18, normal adult employment rules apply.
