To find your first clients, begin asking around your neighborhood and working for people you know. Once you starting showing off your skills, people will begin to see how good your work is and they’ll be willing to give you a try-and tell others about you as well.

A handyman service is great in tough economic times. People can’t afford to pay a licensed contractor for simple handy work. When you show them that you can do many of the same repairs for a lot less money, your jobs will start rolling in.

When you run a handyman service, you can offer a number of services, but you must remember there are certain things you can’t do without the proper training and a license, such as electrical work and certain types of plumbing.

But you can offer services such as the following:

* Repair or install a fence
* Paint walls
* Repair holes in walls
* Install a railing
* Hang pictures
* Put up shelves
* Install closet storage units
* Replace drawer handles
* Clean out gutters
* Install a new medicine cabinet
* Hang curtains
* Install towel racks
* Caulk windows
* Repair broken table legs

and much more!

A handyman does a little of this and a little of that; whatever needs to be done. That’s why they’re often called a “Jack of all trades.”

You will need certain tools and basic training to complete various projects. Get a small tool box and begin gather what you’ll need for your repairs. Your basic tools should include a hammer, drill, and various screwdrivers. Also include pliers, side cutters, various nails and screws, etc. Of course, once you find your ‘specialty’ you’ll add the tools you’ll need for that particular task.

If you plan to do any painting, you’ll need paintbrushes in various sizes, paint rollers, and pans if your customers don’t provide them. Sometimes a customer will want their handyman to pick up the paint for the job. If that’s the case, be sure you include the paint in the cost of the project if the customer doesn’t pay in advance. Also, be sure to charge your customer for an agreed amount for your travel.

Many homeowners find themselves are in the middle of a project and find they just can’t finish the job in the time they have available to them. When this happens, homeowners will often look for someone to help them finish their project. This is a nice place to pick up handy work – offering to help someone in the middle of a repair project. Watch your own neighborhood for these opportunities. Being in the right place at the right time is always helpful.

Post professional business flyers around town, hand out business cards, and even mail postcards to new people in the neighborhood to get the word out about your services. Create a simple flyer that lists the projects you can do and continue to add to it each time you learn a new task. This will help people decide what jobs you can do for them. Hand several flyers and business cards out to every client you have and ask them to share them with friends they know may need your services. Be sure to remind them to keep your business card so they know how to contact you when they need help again.

Do your best work every time and your customers will refer you to others and call you back for additional tasks. Be flexible in what you can do, and in your hours, and be dependable. Show up when you say you will. And work when you’re being paid to work. Building this type of business by word of mouth is the best form of advertising you can get, and it’s the least expensive as well. Good will is your best marketing tool.

There are so many types of handyman jobs a teenager can do. If working with your hands is something you enjoy, don’t let anyone deter you from starting a handyman business because you’re not an adult yet. A handyman service business can be perfect for a teen who is ambitious and handy!

** You can afford to assist a homeowner in household projects, too. Many homeowners appreciate a helping hand from a young, motivated, and enthusiastic teen!

Share this:

“How much is this water slide, anyway?” he asked. Cyclone Twist Pool

“$600,” she replies.

“I didn’t even know they made Water Slides that cost that much so I said
lets go take a look at this thing”. They hopped into the truck and drove to
the store to take a look.

On the way there she started telling him more about the slide.
He asked her why she wanted such a Big Water Slide and she said, “Well, I
was thinking that I could have friends over to play in it and when we’re
not playing with it we could rent it out to other people for Birthday parties
and we could make some money!

He thought that was a darn good ideal so they bought it!

They’ve now had it since last Friday and her and a few friends played in it
over the weekend.

Soon they received a call from one of granddaughter’s friend’s parents wanting to know if they could rent it for two days while they have a family get together.

He called her and asked her if that would be OK and she said “Yes, that’s why we got it”. She also asked which days they wanted it for? I told her this Thursday and Friday.

So for $100 a day for two days! Talk about going green!

Check out WSOGold.com for some special offers.

Share this:

In order to become a pet sitter and have people hire you they will want to make sure you know enough about animals to do a good job.  They love their pet and want their furry friend to have the best care possible.

That means you should have some experience caring for animals.  If you have your own dogs or cats that is a good head start.  If you’ve never had a pet you might want to visit a friend or family member who have one so you can see if pet care is something you are good at.  You might even volunteer to take care of your own pet without your family’s help for a couple of days, or volunteer to take care of your friend’s pet.

Taking care of a pet means:

• Feeding it on time
• Making sure it has enough water
• Taking it out to go to the bathroom
• Making sure it gets enough exercise
• Taking care of it when it gets sick
• Knowing what the pet likes and does not like
• Sticking with the pet’s routine

A friend, neighbor, family member, or client might hire you to do these things for their pet when they go away.  A lot of people would rather hire a pet sitter than send their pet off to a kennel.  You’ll usually go to their house to sit for the pet, which means the pet will get to stay in its home environment.  Sometimes the pet might stay with you in your house instead.

If you are too young to start your own business this might be something you can help another pet sitter do.  Sometimes pet sitters who have their own business like to have an assistant to help with things like going for walks or feeding.

If you are old enough to start your own business there are some things you need to do to protect yourself and get clients.

1. First, you need to learn all you can about taking care of pets.  There are several different books on the market that can help you.  “Pet Sitting for Profit” by Patti J. Moran is an excellent one to start with.

2. You or your parents need to think about protecting yourself in case something goes wrong while you are sitting.  Sometimes things do happen, and pets get sick.  A professional pet sitter with a business needs to be bonded and insured.  See this link for more details: Petsit.com.

3. You can also get accredited by joining at PSI.  This definitely encourages more people to hire you so you can grow your business.  You can find more information about becoming a professional pet sitter at this address: Petsit.com.

4. Since you want to provide the best service possible, it’s a good idea to find out what people consider to make up a good pet sitter.  This humane society article on choosing a pet sitter gives you a good idea of what people want: Choosing A Pet Sitter.

5.  National Association for Professional Pet Sitters (NAPPS) is another resource you can look at to become better in your business and get more credibility: Pet Sitters.

6. It can also help to read about how other people’s pet sitting businesses are going and how they handle the daily life of caring for pets.  A great example is: Pet Sitting Businesses.

Pet sitting can be a hobby that you do to help out friends and family members, and to make a little bit of extra money.  Or, you could make it a very profitable and long-term business by becoming accredited, getting insurance, and advertising for many customers.  It’s hard work, but it can be a lot of fun too!

Teaming up with an adult who can supervise and assist you is really important.  Animals can be unpredictable and having an adult available is essential.

Share this:

Many successful business owners will tell you that their business is a labor of love. They had a passion for something and turned their experiences, their knowledge into a money-making adventure. Providing a service or product that people truly want and need is one of the most rewarding experiences you can have.

Seventeen-year old Kimberly Rose did just that when she started Safesittings.com – a website devoted to connecting families of diabetic children with babysitters who have first-hand experience. She got the brainstorm when she overheard a couple complain that they could never go out because they didn’t have a babysitter they could trust to monitor and test their daughter’s blood sugar, and inject insulin if needed. A diabetic herself, Kimberly realized that she could help! She founded her business in order to help form a network of families and babysitters in the same situation. Congrats to Kimberly for her brilliant idea – and forming a service that is so desperately needed.

Do you have a niche? Is there something you know more about than most people your age do?

Share this:

Without formal training, it is still possible to create simple face painting designs that are also eye-catching and beautiful. Cheek art is the best way to accomplish simple face painting.

One of the biggest benefits of developing simple face painting designs (or cheek art) is saving time. In a fraction of the time, you can paint a small design or character on a child’s cheek or arm and generate the same kind of “wow” that you would if you spent ten minutes painting an elaborate full face design.

Versatility is a big advantage with simple face painting. These small designs can be adapted and painted on the face/cheek, neck, shoulder, legs and arms. A simple snake looks fantastic slithering up the arm. A rose or other flower looks beautiful on the shoulder.

Here are some things you can do to create simple face painting designs for your kids or kids at heart.

1. If you’re at a loss as to what designs to start painting, look no further than the television or movie theatre. What is the hottest kids’ movie playing right now? What about the funniest animated show? Classic children’s television programming is also a great place to start. Particularly for preschoolers, the characters are very simple in nature and therefore fairly easy to replicate.

2. A clown face is a very simple face painting design. And since clowns can be happy, sad, silly or goofy, this one simple design with a few adjustments around the mouth is a great face painting design to have in your arsenal. A bright red nose, a larger than life red mouth (paint around the outside of the lips), large white area surrounding the red mouth, oversized eyebrows and some eye lines that extend from the outside of the eye toward the temples altogether make a simple clown face painting design that will get rave reviews.

3. Turning a little girl into a fairy princess is as simple as a few feathery lines around the eyes, starbursts at the end of each line and a bit of glitter.

4. Painting a pretend bracelet or necklace is a simple design yet very unique. Start by painting pearl sized dots around the wrist or neck and “dangle” a painted heart, peace sign or other “charm” from the painted “jewelry.”

5. Try a simple rainbow face painting…a classic, but always popular. Paint red, yellow, green and blue ‘horseshoe’ shapes and add two little white puffs for clouds at the end of each side of the rainbow. Voila! A happy kid!
The possibilities for simple face painting designs are endless. Don’t get caught up with the elaborate work that professional face painters do. For a single birthday party, volunteer event or just having fun with your kids, simple face painting designs can be just the thing to put a smile on a kids’ face.

Easy Face Painting is the guide that over 1,000 first-time face painters have used to guide them through their very first face painting event. Whether it’s a birthday party, charity fundraiser, school festival or community picnic, Face Painting is a popular activity with kids of all ages and Easy Face Painting makes it, well, Easy!

Share this:

Do you love animals? Dog walking may be the perfect business for you. Plenty of fresh, clean air, exercise with “man’s best friend”, and cash to boot!

Dog walking is a big business in large cities. Dog walkers are a fixture in the parks of New York City. People these days are too busy to walk their own dogs so they hire someone who has the time to do just that. You don’t have to live in a city – many pet owners are thrilled to have someone check in on their pets while they have long business days or plan to be out of the house for longer than normal. (If you’re staying home on Thanksgiving or Christmas, these are great days to offer some holiday service. Many families appreciate not having to rush home early to let a dog out.)

If you are interested in a dog walking business, you need do some homework. In our neighborhood, that’s easy to see who has a dog by just walking around the block.

Neighbors may not want to pay you just to walk their dog. Offering other services along with dog walking could boost the number of clients willing to take a chance on the service. Additional services you can offer include: pet grooming, pet feeding, and pet sitting.

Once you both have done the legwork, now it’s time to map out your business plan. Develop a price list. Still offer dog walking by itself, but also list prices if one of the additional services is added. Instead of writing down a set price, say something like, “We also offer dog grooming services with prices starting at $15.” Using a range gives you room to negotiate prices with different customers. If one customer has a bigger dog, the price will be higher than the starting rate. Drawing up a contract with the customer for the agreed upon prices is not a bad idea.

Once you have the price list, design a flyer. Go door to door again and hand them out. Include your name as owner of the business, the family telephone number, and address. Be prepared to have references available in case people want to find out if you are a reponsible kid.

Next, head to the store for supplies. With any business there is an initial outlay of money to get started. You will need to purchase grooming supplies, pooper scooper, extra leashes, and doggie treats. Start with the basics and add more items as your business grows. Most animal owners will supply everything you need, but having an extra leash is a great idea.

This summer, my daughter pet sat for two families for less than two weeks and earned enough to buy a Wii! They visited the pets so often that a neighbor reported to our vacationing customers how responsible and caring they were! The extra TLC earned them a nice bonus and I’m sure they’ll be called back the next time a vacation rolls around. Another added bonus – these same customers now call my girls for babysitting, too!

Edited to add – the day we posted this, the same two families called for both babysitting and dog-sitting for April vacation!

Share this:

There is another side to modeling that maybe you hadn’t thought about. Models for advertising come in all shapes and sizes, all ages, all body types, and all colors! You’ve seen them – the cute freckle-faced girl drinking grape juice, the chubby dad mowing the lawn, or the feisty grandma. You don’t need to be perfect looking to be a model.

Even if you are fashion-model beautiful, modeling can be a tough career to break into. Search for information on becoming a model and you’ll surely be overwhelmed by the thousands of websites you can choose to visit. Click Here to check out an informative ebook on breaking into Child Modeling.

Be careful – there are tons of scams out there. You may have seen ads in the paper looking for models – they announce a free open-call. Modeling agencies will claim “train you” and shady photo studios will convince you that you need to spend thousands of dollars on professional photos. Do NOT pay an agency anything. If you hook up with a reputable agency, they will take a cut or commission on photo shoots they book for you, but will not charge to represent you.

If you are a kid with an interest in modeling, the first thing you are going to need is a willing and supportive parent. Your parent is going to be the one scheduling and driving you to auditions. Your parent also needs to be able to get along well with other people and not overwhelm the people who might eventually hire you. You also need to have someone sign a permission form to use your photos. If you plan to get into modeling, you will eventually need a portfolio and professional photographs, but you can hire a photographer that meets your budget.

There is another option that is rarely talked about, but I’ll let you in on a secret. Commercial photographers often don’t have the budget to hire professional models. For photo shoots, they often rely on family and friends to step in. My daughters have been in ads, textbooks, and brochures because their dad is the photographer. They have also asked a number of friends to model as well. The budgets are not huge, but you can often make $25 to $100 for a few hours work.

Contact photographers in your area and let them know that you are available for work. Put a package together with some decent photos of yourself, and a business card or flyer with your contact information. Most photographers will not have anything the day that you call, but if they get that kind of work, they can keep you on file.

Call the photographer (or email) and introduce yourself.

“Hi, my name is Jennifer Smith and I’m interested in doing some modeling. I’m wondering if you ever use non-professional models in your studio. If so, I’d like to send you some information in case anything comes your way.” Chances are, if the photographer does occasionally use non-pros, he or she would be happy to keep you on file.

Keep in mind that modeling is hard work and can even be somewhat boring. You may have to do a lot of waiting around, and may be on a set for hours at a time.

Share this:

If you want to make your own cards, check out the software that you already have on your computer. Many home computers come with templates and free clip art that you can use. Microsoft has a free template section. HP has free templates that you can download and use with Word. Avery sells business card stock and has free software you can use right on their site to design your card. An even cheaper option would be to go to Vistaprint. They have free designs you can choose from but if you check out their premium options, the Childcare designs are adorable and is really about the same cost as printing your own. They have 27 designs to choose from and they’re really cute!

Have some fun creating your own designs. Don’t forget – this is about babysitting. A hand-drawn image is perfect for this kind of card. You can even scan in something you drew as a little kid for a whimsical look.

Speaking of free templates, Microsoft also has a Babysitters Checklist and Babysitters Instructions that you can download. If you show up with these, you’ll look impressive!

Share this:

Want to take your babysitting to the next level? Ask the families you work for to refer you to their friends. Don’t be afraid to tell them the kinds of kids you love to babysit for. If you love babies, say so! If you prefer to be out in the backyard hitting baseball, tell them that, too. Many moms don’t want to give out the name of their best babysitter – they keep you to themselves so you are available when they need you. You can certainly create flyers or hand out business cards in your neighborhood, but I prefer the word-of-mouth method for babysitting referrals. When you are in someone else’s home, watching someone else’s kids, it’s nice to have someone that is familiar with the family.

You can still be professional. Why not have some business cards printed up with your name and/or your email address on it. Printing cards will show that you are serious about wanting to work and makes it easy for people to refer you. Check out Vistaprint. They offer free business cards – you just have to pay shipping. You can also create your own. Office Supply stores like Staples have business card stock you can put through your home printer, but I think Vistaprint is probably easier and cheaper!  We were really happy with our first cards and just ordered more.  You can get 250 premium quality, color business cards FREE!  Click here.

Share this: