need ideas again

[sunshine]

Deana and Steve are both looking for ways to make money. Deana
hasn't have ANY luck with getting a job, even though she's applied at
over 40 places, in various towns. . and has work experience. Steve
can't drive yet, so he's limited to just Palmyra, which has NOTHING
for teens.

So-- any ideas of what they can do? Here's some of their ideas:

Birthday party organizers/hostess. . . plan, decorate, do the games,
and clean up. . parents are responsible for food.

Singing candy grams- nothing risque' of course. . but they both have
beautiful voices and Steve can play a good guitar. . . Deana could
provide the transportation.

Sewing cloth diapers for sale locally or on ebay. . these seem to be a
hot item currently.

Taking pictures of local areas and making notecards, checkbook covers,
calendars. . .


So what do you think? Any other ideas. . remember, we are pretty
remote, and the area has limited customer base.

[leezza]

Hmmm, this is a hard one......when I was a teen I did a few things for money.

Baby Sitting, (make your hourly wage known from the beginning, and stick with them and only watch kids from families that you know)

Yard Work

Wash Vehicles, (once made some money washing a companies semi truck, it was a lot of work, but money is money right...)

House cleaning, (back in the late 70s I made $10 a hour.....really good money and a lot of the time I was just spiffing up and not really having to do anything heavy duty).

Good Luck to them,
leezza

[PrairieRose]

I ditto the babysitting and housecleaning. I did a lot of those two when I was a teen. Also here in our small town there is a huge shortage of people to call to house/pet sit. Good luck to the kids on finding something to do to bring in some bucks.

*edited to add*
Also, doing errands for elderly or housebound people is always handy too.

[banana]

Where we live everyone is always looking for someone to do yard work. There are a lot of elderly people here who just cant do it anymore. My son cant wait till he is old enough to mow lawns. The going rate here is around $40-50!

Also I saw an ad in the newspaper that I thought was funny someone opened up a business to go pick up your dog's poop off your lawn. Going rate $15 per pick up!

[pkellyc]

An ad in the paper might be a good investment odd jobs and such. My dd's have done everything from feeding cats while people are on vacation, to lawn mowing and housecleaning. It's hard to find people to do temporary and small jobs.

[Katybird]

Could she run an ad in the local paper for "Girl Friday" services, which would be any kind of help such as but not limited to running errands, walking pets, housework ect... . For Steve if he has the equipment, how about a local lawn care service, he could contact the businesses in the area that have any kind of lawn to care for and offer to do the lawn care for them throughout the warm months, another good source of lawn care jobs is to contact local realtors and rental property owners and inquire about jobs taking care of the lawns of homes that they are responsible for.

[Mom23boys]

Something a friend of mine does is contact homeowners who are selling their home. She only contacts the ones who have already moved or are moving from the house they are selling. She offers to do upkeep the yard until it sells and she also offers to clean the inside so it will be presentable. She makes really good money at it.

My nieces feed horses for a neighbor.

How about delivering newspapers? I don't know exactly what would be involved in that though.

[Daisygirl]

When I was a teen I did a lot of different things, and I too was in a more remote area and could not get hired for a regular job. Basically it was a matter of creating my own jobs.

!.) Babysitting
2.) Housecleaning
3.) Wrote a column for the local weekly newspaper called "Senior Spotlight" - each week I wrote a little bio on one of the graduating seniors and it was published under my byline -- I was thrilled since at the time I planned to be the Great American Journalist. I also covered high school sports for the paper.
4.) Yardwork for some of the elderly neighbors
5.) Dogwalking

The best thing to do is make a list of their talents and skills, then put together a flyer and drop it in peoples mailboxes.

Good Luck!

[chatterweb]

What about Mystery Shopping?
If they can be objective and write the
reports, it pays decent money once
one gets signed up and on a roll.
I have been busy since June 2 doing this, and I have grossed close to 150.00.
Some shops require initial money to purchase items, I did have a shop where
All I had to do was try something on (apperall) and it paid 15.00. I had to observe and get names etc, but I was in the shop for 10 minutes. Not bad.
If you want to know how to get started,
I can give you the info, and it is free except for paper and printer ink.
just pm me.
I have not been around here much lately,
Since the shops take up time!
I am taking a break from it for a couple weeks, unless a really good one comes along!

[sunshine]

What about Mystery Shopping?

Really none here, unless you drive over an hour, and then it's slim pickings. . plus most of the companies I've applied to- require you to be over 18, some require over 21 due to needing to purchase alcoholic beverages.

[sunshine]

Here's what they've decided to do :

an ad will be placed in the newspaper. . . for any odd jobs, errands, yard work, baby sitting or housecleaning. . .

They are going to take pictures for an area calendar, and checkbook covers. . .to sell at craft fairs, and town picnics.

Deana is going to advertise for taking sports pictures- action pictures of kids in games. . . not the personal ones-- but those ones of the big home run, slide into home plate, winning basket, etc. . . She is really good with a camera, so this might work. Since we know most everyone in the area. . once she gets a good shot of someone, she'll contact the family to see if they are willing to purchase the picture. . .

They are currently riding bicycyles around the area and picking up alluminum cans for recycling. . not a lot of money, but something at least.

[dolphin]

Some things we did as kids besides babysitting was mowing cemetaries and picked up walnuts and sold them whole. We also picked blackberrys and gooseberries for elderly people and sold the extras they couldn't use. My nephew raises quail and sells them for a profit at the animal auction. He's now trying his hand at raising dairy calves and is only 14. He also mows yards for my sisters.

As an adult I mowed yards for FMHA, now HUD housing. They paid good. The city required the yards be mowed while the homes were vacant.

Sounds like they already have a good start on what they can do for now.