Jim Treliving – Dragons Den

Have you ever watched Sharks Tank?  Or how about Dragons Den – both are great shows and give you a lot of insight into entrepreneurship.  I’m really fond of Dragons Den (mainly because it focuses on Canadian entrepreneurs) and the Dragons no-nonsense approach to the ideas.  I sometimes find them a little harsh and abrasive, but as someone told me – perhaps that is needed to set people straight.  In the business world you need to be a bit abrasive and tell it like it is.

Recently ordered Mr. Jim Trelivings book from Chapters/Indigo and am waiting eagerly for it to arrive.  Name of the book is Decisions: Making the Right Decisions, Righting the Wrong Ones.  Click on the links or the book to learn more.

If you have read it, would love to read your thoughts on it.

Online Jobs For Teenagers

Online Jobs For Teenagers – How It Starts…

We are a three-person family, our son has no older or younger sibling and because I have a comfortable career my wife decided to stay at home and has only recently gone back to work.  Having only one child means that you can splurge on stuff that you may not normally buy if there are two, three, four or more kids in the house.  As a result he usually gets what he wants.

But that came to a screeching halt one day when we realize we were spending upwards of $100.00 per month on toys (mostly action figures) and probably more on games for his Nintendo Wii, 3DS, DS or DSiXL – add on a iPod and games from iTunes, plus an iPad and his own laptop… well you get the picture that he’s spoiled.

So we got to thinking, what can we get him to do so that he understands the value of money?  He’s young (he is now 9 years old) so a “real job” is out of the question.  My next thought was to hit Yahoo Answers to look for jobs someone that young could do — there are none.  Finally we saw a post on our community mailbox for carriers.  BINGO.  He will deliver newspapers.

So we got him a smallish route of about 130 papers, that had to be delivered two times per week and would make him between $100.00 and $150.00 per month.

It was a challenge.  For him, and for us.  As the route is not close to home we would go with him - rain or shine.  But he did well and braved it for just a little over a year.  We only pulled him from this as he’s going into Grade 4 and we want him to focus on school and participate in extracurricular activities like soccer, floor hockey and whatever else he shows an interest in.

He definitely understands the value of money now and his requests for toys has dropped.  I’m sure some of it has to do with his age, but we’re not spending like crazy after him any longer.

This then got us thinking about what types of jobs could he do online at his age, and thinking into the future what kind of online jobs for teenagers are available?

This is a pretty long post but I have done some research and provided some ideal online jobs for teenagers.  Some of these can generate pocket money for teenagers and will be hard for them to “get rich quick” and some could generate some real money for them.  All these are legitimate opportunities!  I don’t believe in “get rich quick” schemes, nor would I condone anything illegal.

Popular Online Jobs for Teenagers

Survey Websites – Quick Cash for 20 Minutes of Work

There are dozens of survey websites out there that may appeal to your teenager.  Here are fourteen sites that I found:

• fusioncash.com
• memolink.com
• surveysavvy.com
• surveyspot.com
• opinionoutpost.com
• mysurvey.com (an international company offering opportunities)
• globaltestmarket.com
• ipsos i-say.com (ipsos is a heavy hitter, one of the largest survey companies)
• cada-cabeza.com (for those that can read and understand Spanish)
• valuedopinions.com
• myview.com
• epoll.com
• mindfieldonline.com
• myopinionnow.com

These are only a few – there are hundreds out there, just go over the site with your teen.  Most of these sites will accept teens 13 and over – a great first online jobs for teenagers!

Most of these sites will pay around $2.00 for each survey taken, and normally most surveys will only take about 20 minutes time.  Yes it’s not the most lucrative but if your teen can do two surveys per day or about 60 per month that will give them around $120.00 per month for completing surveys.

Many of the sites also pay start-up bonuses of $5.00 for just signing up with them.  Others also provide point bases system where points can be used to purchase food at places like 7-11, Taco Bell, Burger King, Arbys or a host of other merchants.

I’m sure over time they will get bored and this online jobs for teenagers will go by the wayside but until then they can get paid for surveys (and save YOU some cash).

Look at the companies, do your research because there are some scary stories out there (did a 100 page survey and got $5.00 for it).  If you have used any of these sites please leave some feedback in the comments.

Article Writing and Product Reviews

Do you have an especially talented teen that loves to write?  Why don’t they make use of that talent and write articles?  Article writers can make (at minimum) $5.00 for a 500 word article and the better they get the more that they can demand.

There is no age restriction when it comes to article writing – a person of any age can do it.

One of the best places for your teen to start their article writing career is using the website FIVERR (at fiverr.com).  Here service providers (your teen would be a service provider) would advertise their offer (writing articles, posts for blogs, product reviews etc.,) for $5.00.   FIVERR keeps $1.00 and your teen gets $4.00.  Through this method the more contract your teen gets, the more they make.  They get contracts by people purchasing articles from them on specific topics.

Once they get experience and a solid reputation behind them, they can start to market their services on other freelance websites.  I know of article writers that make a full-time career just doing this – we’re talking $30k per year or more simply by writing articles, blog posts and product reviews.

Online Programming

If your teenager is a computer whiz and is scoring 100% on their programming assignments and just coded a replacement to their schools student tracking systems then perhaps its time to put their skills to good use coding for others.  Congratulations – your son or daughter is now a consultant and can probably make real good money (a lot more than article writing and taking surveys).

A lot of online programming is done using PHP, MYSQL, JAVA, JAVASCRIPT and other such languages, I’m sure they probably know all about these (and then some) if they can run circles around instructors and teachers.  In the past I’ve spent hundreds of dollars on getting custom scripts made, primarily because I just didn’t want to do it myself.

Sites like elance.com can help your teen get started.

There are a lot of online jobs for teenagers out there, simply need to put your thinking cap on – or hit Google and start searching.  I will be adding more to this post (through follow-up posts) over the next few weeks and months that will give you more ideas, research information on jobs that would be ideal for your teen.

There are online jobs for teenagers out there!

The $100.00 Startup

So I never received a pre-release copy of the book entitled The $100 Startup – Reinvent The Way You Make A Living, Do What You Love, And Create A New Future by Chris Guillebeau.  It must have gotten lost in the mail; but that said, I did pre-order a copy from Amazon and picked it up the other day.

Having just thumbed through the book – it looks like a fantastic read.

Here is some information from the Amazon page for the book:

In The $100 Startup, Chris Guillebeau shows you how to lead of life of adventure, meaning and purpose – and earn a good living.

Still in his early thirties, Chris is on the verge of completing a tour of every country on earth – he’s already visited more than 175 nations – and yet he’s never held a “real job” or earned a regular paycheck.  Rather, he has a special genius for turning ideas into income, and he uses what he earns both to support his life of adventure and to give back.

There are many others like Chris – those who’ve found ways to opt out of traditional employment and create the time and income to pursue what they find meaningful.  Sometimes, achieving that perfect blend of passion and income doesn’t depend on shelving what you currently do.  You can start small with your venture, committing little time or money, and wait to take the real plunge when you’re sure it’s successful.   In preparing to write this book, Chris identified 1,500 individuals who have built businesses earning $50,000 or more from a modest investment (in many cases, $100 or less), and from that group he’s chosen to focus on the 50 most intriguing case studies.  In nearly all cases, people with no special skills discovered aspects of their personal passions that could be monetized, and were able to restructure their lives in ways that gave them greater freedom and fulfillment.

Here, finally, distilled into one easy-to-use guide, are the most valuable lessons from those who’ve learned how to turn what they do into a gateway to self-fulfillment.  It’s all about finding the intersection between your “expertise” – even if you don’t consider it such — and what other people will pay for.  You don’t need an MBA, a business plan or even employees.  All you need is a product or service that springs from what you love to do anyway, people willing to pay, and a way to get paid.

Not content to talk in generalities, Chris tells you exactly how many dollars his group of unexpected entrepreneurs required to get their projects up and running; what these individuals did in the first weeks and months to generate significant cash; some of the key mistakes they made along the way, and the crucial insights that made the business stick.  Among Chris’s key principles: if you’re good at one thing, you’re probably good at something else; never teach a man to fish – sell him the fish instead; and in the battle between planning and action, action wins.

In ancient times, people who were dissatisfied with their lives dreamed of finding magic lamps, buried treasure, or streets paved with gold.  Today, we know that it’s up to us to change our lives.  And the best part is, if we change our own life, we can help others change theirs.  This remarkable book will start you on your way.

I really like this last paragraph, the emphasis is mine.

There is a website associated with the book as well called, fittingly enough, The $100 Startup at http://www.100startup.com.  They will be heading to Vancouver, BC on June 211, 2012 at 7:00pm just not sure where right now.

Once I’ve gone through the book, I’ll share my thoughts with you.

If you have already received the book, or ordered  the Kindle version (which, by-the-way was MORE expensive than the actual book) share your thoughts with us.

 

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