Have your kids start a side hustle while they are young.

I am a big believer of backing your kids up to start a business while they are young. Having them start something to gain confidence and skills is a serious win. We all know businesses don’t always make it, and so many fail, but you know what, if you never try, that fails too. I believe that teaching your kids to have confidence in starting something and developing something is a very good life skill.

In school, they learn how to start websites. I know from experience that my kids in junior high and in high school use very little paper. They learn to upload materials, edit photos, shoot an email, create social media accounts, and all of these things they can do at record speed. They have these digital tools that make it so easy for them to start a business.

I have talked before about how I am not the type of parent who just hands over cash easily. I believe in paying my kids their monthly paycheck so they can learn to budget their money. After that, if they need more, they need to get a J.O.B.

I know you’re gonna think, "well that’s hard because they are under age to get a working job." I’m talking about a side hustle. 

Here are the side hustles beyond just typical babysitting that my kids have done to earn money :

• Created a summer camp 

• Made a Chapstick company 

• Made a candy company 

• Made a sourdough bread company 

• Made a cotton candy and popcorn catering company 

Those are a few things that my kids have done to earn extra cash. I will briefly go through them....

Pacific Breeze Farm Summer Camp 

We have run a backyard summer camp for going on 10 years now. The advertising was done through social media and also spread by word of mouth. For this company, I do assist them for liability purposes. Children come to our home and learn how to make homemade food items such as bread, cinnamon rolls and pizza. They do tons of arts and crafts and they also learn about animals while having fun in a wholesome environment. Camp runs from 10 AM to 2:30 PM Monday through Thursday, and to get a glimpse of what that looks like, check out the photos below:

Sassy Sticks 

This company was started by my 10-year-old after learning of all of the terrible chemicals that are in Chapstick. By doing lots of research, we invested in clean and organic products as well as a Chapstick filling machine. Yes, that is actually a thing. I helped show our daughter how you can look on Etsy and hire a graphic designer for a logo for a minimal cost. Then a free Instagram page, securing the website domain name as well as email addresses and she was ready to rock ‘n’ roll. This was a very cute and fun endeavor as you can see by the photos below:

Freeze-dried Candy 

We do have a freeze-dry machine in our garage, as we produce lots of berries and other items from our garden that we like to freeze-dry. I will say that the second thing to go in our freeze dryer, however, was not organic from the backyard; instead, it was Candy.  Freeze dried candy at the time was all the rage, and therefore, my daughter’s packaged up the candy, made a logo on Canva and started selling it from their backpacks at school. Here are photos of what that process looked like:

RSF Sweets

Being that we have four children, many years ago, we invested in a used cotton candy machine off of Craigslist. A vendor was closing shop, and we were able to purchase the industrial-size cotton candy machine for $300.  After renting one for a party for $150 I figured it was worth the investment and man was it. Every birthday party, every Halloween party, and well as summer camps. We simply rolled out that machine,, and it was a hit. We added a popcorn machine and it was what they needed to bring the sweet fun to others. That’s when their next side hustle was born. My girls started an Instagram page and started advertising that they could work birthday parties as well as Little League games and the weekends started booking up. Again, they just made a free Instagram page as well as a logo on Canva, and with the machine, some matching hats and sweatshirts, a folding table, and some cute decor. They were in business. You can find those photos here:

The Sourdough Bread Company 

One of my daughters has a very large passion for making bread. Particularly, sourdough bread, the process, the beautiful designs that she can create on the top and perfecting that beautiful crust and soft inside, she has a knack for what she does. So, as a broke college student, she decided to start selling her bread from her apartment. She was doing what she loved as well as making money. Here's what that looks like:

So there are some ideas of what my kids have done to earn extra income and have the confidence to take an idea and bring it to life. I think it’s so important as a mom to encourage your children to start a business or a side hustle because no matter if it survives or doesn’t, along the way those skills that they learned in the process can be more valuable Then simply telling them what to do. Those hands-on skills in the process are where the magic happens. I may have been there, and I do know that.

Xo,

Mama