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Help Your Teen’s Business Grow with Facebook

March 4, 2019 By MelissaB Leave a Comment

Often, teens want to make money without the commitment of a part-time job that may require them to work more hours than they can handle while also attending school and keeping up with homework.  Or, they may want to work for themselves, doing what they love or participating in sports, doing schoolwork, and searching for scholarships.  There are many reasons why a teen may not want a traditional part-time job as a cashier or a fast food employee.

Historically, these types of kids would rely on babysitting or lawn mowing jobs.  If they were particularly resourceful, they may try to start their own Etsy store.  However, the time to start an Etsy store, market it, create products, maintain customer relations, and ship out items can be intense.  Many teens don’t have time for that.

Luckily, teens can now use the power of social media to grow their own business and make money quickly on the timeline they set.

Selling What People Want on Facebook

Grow on Facebook
Grow Your Teen’s Business on Facebook

For instance, a young woman in our homeschool group needed to raise $2,000 for an upcoming mission trip she wanted to attend.  She offered to make cinnamon rolls ($20 for a 9×13 pan) and fudge ($8/lb.) for Valentine’s Day.  She shared on her own Facebook page, and her mom shared on her Facebook page.  Their family and friends quickly responded by placing orders over the next week.  Within two weeks, she had made the money that she needed, and she had happy customers who had homemade sweet treats for Valentine’s Day.

Another teen in our group makes balloon animals.  She offered to make balloon flamingos attached to a container of chocolate for Valentine’s Day for $8.  She got over 25 orders and made a nice profit.

Recently, her mom set up a Facebook business page for her daughter to promote her business.  This young lady, who is still not even in high school, routinely is hired to make balloons at children’s birthday parties.  Now she has a page to promote her work by showing the balloon styles she can make and showing examples of what she does at parties.  This job can grow into a nice part-time income, especially when she is in high school and college.

Business Can Jump From Facebook to Friends’ Friends

While Facebook may be a great way for teens to start their business, it also gives them much needed exposure.  For instance, when the young lady above is working at a birthday party for a friend her mom has on Facebook, other moms at the party will ask about her services.  These women have no connection to her or her mom, but the magic of word-of-mouth referrals has begun.  Between Facebook and word-of-mouth referrals, she will likely keep very busy.

We’ve all heard the stories of teens who become YouTube celebrities and make thousands of dollars.  That likely won’t happen with the majority of kids.

However, thanks to social media, your child can grow a nice part-time business, especially if they advertise a product or skill that people want to their and their parents’ Facebook page, where people already know and trust them.

Do you have an entrepreneurial teenager?  If so, how do you help support their endeavors?  How do they usually find their clients?

MelissaB
MelissaB

Melissa is a writer and virtual assistant. She earned her Master’s from Southern Illinois University, and her Bachelor’s in English from the University of Michigan. When she’s not working, you can find her homeschooling her kids, reading a good book, or cooking. She resides in New York, where she loves the natural beauty of the area.

www.momsplans.com/

Filed Under: Children, Married Money Tagged With: business, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, facebook, teen business

When Should You Hire Help?

June 7, 2017 By Shane Ede 2 Comments

Running your own business, whether that’s in the form of a blog, or consultancy, or any other form of business can be draining. As the owner, you’re the first employee.  You’re also the only employee in some cases. It’s stressful, hectic, and tiring. It’s not for the weak. As your hustle grows, however, you might begin to feel a little burnout. It’s not necessarily because you have lost the passion for the business, but just that the work is starting to overcome your ability to stay awake. Starting your business is the first hurdle you must overcome. Knowing when you should hire help is the second.

Should you Hire Help?

When Should You Hire Help?
When should you Hire Help?

The answer to this question will likely haunt you for a while until you come to a decision. If you hire too early, you might struggle to pay the help, or have to pay yourself less than you are.  Or you might find that you don’t have as much work as you thought you did, and lose the help due to lack of work. Hire them too late, and you end up playing catch up to try and keep the pace.

If it’s such a hard decision, how do you decide?  I think you have to seriously consider a few questions.

  1. Can you afford help? Seriously consider whether your company has the resources to pay for the help. If it doesn’t, it’s time to take a very serious look at the methods you’re using for your company, and if there are ways you can improve the business in order to fund this expansion. Don’t be afraid to look for someone to help part time, or to try out a virtual assistant to help with smaller tasks that you can offload.
  2. What sort of help do you need? Before you really get down to finding someone to help, you have to know what it is that you need help with. What are your strengths that you must keep doing for the business?  Keep doing those. If you’re the face of the company, you’ve got to keep doing the PR work. Find the things that you don’t like doing, or that take you away from the strong work of the company and hire help to do those things.

Where can you hire help?

If you’ve answered those questions, you’re well on your way to hiring help for your burgeoning empire. Now, it’s up to you to find the help. Where you look will depend on what it is that you need help doing. Depending on the area you live in, there might even be local help that you can find. Local can be a great place to look for an accountant, for example. Accountant help is probably something that you’d rather have local anyways.

But, if you’re just looking for a little part time help writing content or scheduling social media, there are plenty of places that you can look. Check out online exchanges like Upwork or TextBroker.  You can find any number of freelance workers there who will work in a very temporary manner but that can also be more long term if you desire. Fiverr can be a great source of help for simple one-off projects.  If you’re looking for design work, someplace like 99Designs might be a good place. If you’re lucky enough to just be looking for some help with managing growth, maybe all you need is a business consultant.

Find Referrals when you Hire Help

Another great place to look is in professional groups on Facebook. Look around for groups that are for entrepreneurs, business owners, or that are related to your trade. Join them, and participate, as they can be a great source of knowledge for you.  They can also be a great source of help. If you’re looking for something in particular, you can usually post and ask for referrals for someone who does what you want to have done.  It’s a great way to find someone who has done that work before and done it well enough to earn a referral from another business owner.  And there’s a pretty good chance that the person who you are referred to is a small business owner as well.

Yes, owning a business can be hectic. Yes, it can be stressful. And, yes, it can mean working more hours than you’ve ever worked before. But, it can also be immensely rewarding and freeing. You’re doing your work, your way. And people are paying you to do it.  What could be better?

Don’t be afraid to hire help for your business, but make sure that you’re doing it the right way. Don’t rush to hire someone, but, similarly, don’t wait too long either. It’s your company, run with it. Enjoy it.  And hire help when you decide it’s necessary.

Shane Ede

I started this blog to share what I know and what I was learning about personal finance. Along the way I’ve met and found many blogging friends. Please feel free to connect with me on the Beating Broke accounts: Twitter and Facebook.

You can also connect with me personally at Novelnaut, Thatedeguy, Shane Ede, and my personal Twitter.

www.beatingbroke.com

Filed Under: Business Finance Tagged With: business, enterprise, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, self-employed

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