How to Make Money at 13: The Under-14 Rules, the 13+ Apps, and What Actually Works

To make money at 13 in the US, start a small service business for people you know, with a parent involved. That is not a motivational line, and it is not generic side hustle advice. It is what the law leaves open. Federal rules say children under 14 generally may not be employed in regular non-farm jobs, so the store, the café and the office are closed to you until 14 (the rules at 14 and 15 are different). Your own pet sitting, yard work, casual babysitting or tutoring business is not a job with an employer, and that is the door that stays open.

This guide is written for 13-year-olds and for the parents reading over their shoulder. Every legal rule on this page was checked against a primary source (the eCFR and the Department of Labor), and every platform age rule against the company’s own terms, on September 25, 2026. We also ran the numbers: across BigIdeasDB’s Stripe Index of 30,000+ companies, the local services a 13-year-old can offer are overwhelmingly run by people doing the work, not by software. That is good news for you, and it is the same pattern we see in adult service businesses.

Searches for “how to make money at 13” hit a five-year high in the week of April 26, 2026, according to Google Trends, and the page-one results are a first-person blog post, a Q&A site, thin listicles and a chores price list. None of the top results we read explain the law. If you are 14 or 15, read how to make money at 15 instead, because the rules change at 14.

How to make money at 13: the short answer

The rest of this page explains why that is the answer, what you can and cannot sign up for, which services have the most proof of demand, and what your parents need to do. Not sure what to offer yet? The free business idea generator gives you a starting list to react to.

Read this first: not legal advice, US only, and talk to a parent

This guide covers United States federal law. Your state may add its own rules, and other countries are completely different. We are not lawyers and this is not legal advice. It is a map of the primary sources, linked so you can read them yourself. Before you offer any service or sign up for anything, talk to a parent or guardian. Almost every legal route at 13 runs through them anyway.

If you are younger than 13, jump to the under-13 section. The short version: do not create accounts on your own, and ask a parent first.

Why making money at 13 is different from 14 or 15

Most “how to make money as a teen” advice assumes you can apply for a job. At 13 you mostly cannot, and that is the whole difference. At 14, federal law lets you work outside school hours in many retail, office and food service jobs, with hour caps. At 13, the same jobs are closed. Teens in these threads feel it:

Being 13 sucks, you can't buy that damn pc you wanted since there's no way to make money – r/teenagers

im searching too lol my country not have jobs to when u are 16+ 😭 – r/teenagers

The frustration is real, but “no way to make money” is wrong. The law closes employment, not earning. That distinction is the spine of this guide. At 15, the question is whether a business beats a capped part-time job. At 13, a small business is usually the only realistic lever you have, which is why the no-money business playbook applies to you more than any job board does.

What federal law says about working at 13

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and its youth employment regulations at 29 CFR Part 570 set the federal floor. The key lines, in plain English:

• 16 is the basic minimum age for employment covered by the Act outside agriculture, with exceptions (29 CFR 570.2).
• 14 and 15-year-olds may work outside school hours in non-manufacturing, non-hazardous jobs: no more than 3 hours on a school day, 18 hours in a school week, 8 hours on a non-school day, 40 hours in a non-school week, between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. (9 p.m. from June 1 through Labor Day), per 29 CFR 570.35.
• Under 14: “Children under 14 years of age may not be employed in non-agricultural occupations covered by the FLSA,” says the Department of Labor’s Fact Sheet #43.

The regulation is blunt about it. Employment of minors under 14 “is not permissible under any circumstances if the employment is covered by the child labor provisions and not specifically exempt” (29 CFR 570.119). So the useful question for a 13-year-old is not “which job can I get?” It is “what is exempt, and what is not employment at all?”

The exceptions that are open at 13

Fact Sheet #43 says permissible work for children under 14 is limited to work that is exempt from the FLSA, such as delivering newspapers to the consumer and acting, plus work not covered by the FLSA, “such as completing minor chores around private homes or casual baby-sitting.” The regulation’s list of specific exemptions (29 CFR 570.122) includes:

The parent exemption is narrower than it sounds. It “may apply only in those cases where the child is exclusively employed by his parent,” and it does not cover a child helping a parent do work for the parent’s employer (29 CFR 570.126). Fact Sheet #43 phrases it as work “for businesses entirely owned by their parents.”

Newspaper delivery boy/girl. Dog walking. Cat walking. Babysitting. Gardening. Litter picking. – r/teenagers

Why your own small business is the main legal route

The federal youth employment provisions, Fact Sheet #43 says, do not “apply where no FLSA employment relationship exists.” When you walk your neighbor’s dog for $10, you are not their employee in the way a cashier is a store’s employee. You are a tiny business with one customer. That is why the ideas in this guide are services you run yourself, not jobs you apply for.

Two cautions. First, “it is my business” does not make dangerous work safe or legal, and your state can regulate things the federal law does not. Second, if a company “hires” 13-year-olds to sell things door to door, walk away. Fact Sheet #43 says even 14 and 15-year-olds may not be employed in youth peddling, sign waving or door-to-door sales. A real customer pays you for a service. A company that sends kids out with a box of candy and a quota is the thing the rules were written to stop.

The same logic is why starting a business with no money usually means starting a service. You sell time and effort, which you have, instead of inventory, which costs money.

State laws can be stricter than federal law

Federal law is the floor. Fact Sheet #43 is explicit: when both federal and state laws apply, “the law with the stricter standard must be obeyed.” It also notes the federal rules do not require “working papers” or work permits, “though many States do.” Before you take on anything regular, have a parent search your state labor department’s youth employment page.

This guide does not list state-by-state rules, because we could not verify all 50 from primary sources today. We would rather tell you to check than guess.

What you can and can’t sign up for at 13

Online, the rules come from each company’s terms, not the labor law. Here is what we found on September 25, 2026, reading each platform’s own document. The full marketplace reference lives in our side hustle age requirements guide.

Notice the pattern. Where a 13-year-old is allowed at all, it is through a parent. That is not a loophole to get around. It is the design, and it is why the parent section of this guide matters as much as the ideas. For payments specifically, our under-18 payments comparison goes deeper than this table.

Fiverr at 13: only through an account a parent owns

Fiverr’s Terms of Service say the site is for users at least 18. “If you are under 18 and at least 13 years of age, you are only permitted to use the Site through an account owned by a parent or legal guardian with their appropriate permission.” Under 13, you may not use it at all.

In practice that means the account, the payouts and the legal responsibility are your parent’s. You do the work. Before you go there, read what online buyers want: most gig buyers ask for experience you do not have yet, so local customers are the faster first step. Adults use Upwork postings to validate demand; you can use your street.

Etsy at 13: parent-owned and supervised

Etsy’s Terms of Use say you must be 18 or older. Minors aged 13 to 17 “are only permitted to use our Services through an account owned by a parent or legal guardian with their appropriate permission and under their direct supervision.” The parent is responsible for all activity on that account.

You could start a small business on Etsy and sell things. I crochet and I’m thinking about doing that with the plushies I made. – r/teenagers

Good instinct, right platform, but the shop is your parent’s. Before paying listing fees, sell your first ten items in person to see what people actually buy. Our side hustle validation guide shows how to test that in a weekend.

Roblox DevEx: 13+, but 30,000 Earned Robux first

Roblox is one of the few places a 13-year-old can cash out in their own right. The Developer Exchange (DevEx) requires you to be at least 13, hold at least 30,000 Earned Robux, have a Roblox-verified email, a DevEx portal account, and an IRS form W-9 (for US taxpayers) on file. At the standard rate of 0.0038 USD per Earned Robux, 30,000 Earned Robux is $114.

“Earned” is doing a lot of work. Roblox says Earned Robux excludes Robux you buy, trade, resell or receive as transfers. It comes from selling passes, developer products, avatar items or models you made. The DevEx Terms also note that “Income that Minors earn can impact their parents’ tax returns,” which is one more reason a parent needs to know.

Roblox building is also a real, if tiny, freelance market: we found 7 Upwork postings mentioning Roblox or Minecraft in 5,300+ (small sample), and Upwork itself is 18+. Treat Roblox as a long game you build skills in, not fast money, the same way older builders treat making money with vibe coding: the skill compounds, the payout comes later. And never buy or sell accounts or items off-platform: Roblox lists attempts to exchange Robux for real money outside DevEx as a reason to reject cash-outs.

YouTube and TikTok money at 13

You can post at 13, but the platform will not pay you directly. YouTube’s Terms of Service require you to be at least 13, and if you are under 18 you represent that you have a parent’s permission. Payouts from the YouTube Partner Program need an AdSense for YouTube account, plus 1,000 subscribers with 4,000 watch hours in 12 months or 10 million Shorts views in 90 days. AdSense only accepts applicants 18 or older; a parent can sign up with their own account and receives the payments.

TikTok’s Creator Rewards Program says “You need to be at least 18 years old to participate,” with 10,000 followers and 100,000 video views in the last 30 days. So content at 13 is a portfolio and an audience, not a paycheck. One 13-year-old in our App Store data put the money problem well:

I am 13 yro girl and I wanted I basic editing app that was pretty much free to use for my small YouTube channel. – App Store review

If you like making videos, the faster money is editing for someone else. See online skills below.

Getting paid at 13: Stripe, PayPal and cash

For most first businesses at 13, cash or a payment into a parent’s account is simplest. If you want card payments, Stripe says you must be at least 13, and if you are under 18 “a legal guardian must assume the role of owner of your account before your account can accept charges and funds can be transferred to your bank account.” PayPal’s US user agreement requires you to be at least 18 or the age of majority in your state.

We compared every option (Stripe, PayPal, Gumroad, Square, the app stores) in how to accept payments under 18, including exactly what a guardian hands over. Read it before your first online sale.

Upwork and other 18+ marketplaces

Upwork requires individuals to be “at least 18 years old (or the age of majority in your country if the age of majority is over 18).” Many survey, gig and delivery apps are adult-only too. If a site says 18+, the honest answer is “not yet,” not a fake birthday. Some teens learn that the hard way:

i am 14 and it says your account has been temporarily locked until you are 16!!! – App Store review

Age gates get enforced, usually right when you try to withdraw money. That is the worst possible moment to find out.

The data: what people near you already pay for

Here is where our data helps. BigIdeasDB’s Stripe Index holds 30,000+ real companies from Stripe’s public directory, each classified by business model. We searched their descriptions for the services a 13-year-old can offer and asked one question: are these businesses people doing the work (operators) or software companies? The Stripe Index is the same dataset adults use to size markets.

Every kid-friendly service on the list is more operator-heavy than the index as a whole (72.3%). Lawn care, house cleaning, car washing and pet care all sit above 90%. These are businesses where customers pay a person, in person, and those businesses take real payments.

Why operator-heavy markets favor a 13-year-old

When a market is full of software, you compete with apps. When it is full of operators, you compete with other people on trust, reliability and convenience. A 13-year-old who lives two doors down and always shows up wins that contest more often than you would think. The category view agrees: Home Services and Trades has 960+ companies in the Stripe Index but only 0.4% are micro SaaS, against 6.6% across the index. We explain why that density metric matters in SaaS market saturation.

Most adults like to see a kid hustle and are more willing to help and give you ideas. – r/youngentrepreneur

offer to mow retired people’s lawns in the summer on hot days so they don’t have too, that would probably be highly valuable to them. – r/youngentrepreneur

The flip side: operator markets are local. Your whole market is the streets you can walk or bike to, which is exactly why a flyer and a parent’s group chat beat any app. Adults call this validating a side hustle; for you it is just asking. More on that in your first 3 customers.

12 ways to make money at 13, at a glance

Each idea below is open at 13 under federal law because you run it yourself (or it is a listed exception). Check your state. “Parent role” is the minimum, not the maximum.

Want more options beyond this list? Our service business ideas and unique side hustles go wider, though many of those assume you are 18. The teen section of business ideas for students is closer to your age.

Pet care: the most-recommended first business

Dog walking and pet sitting come up in almost every thread we read. It is easy to start, repeats weekly, and people will pay more for someone they trust with their animal. In the Stripe Index, 91.1% of the 45 pet care businesses we matched are operators.

If your under 16 and nobody is going to hire you, try walking dogs or something, that’s what I did when I was 12-14 – r/teenagers

i would say small things like mowing lawns, babysitting, pet sitting, cleaning for people, and other things of that nature. ive made a lot of money cleaning for people and pet sitting – r/teenagers

Start with one dog you already know. Do a free trial walk with the owner watching. Charge by the visit, not by the mile. Holiday pet sitting (feeding, water, litter, a text photo) is where families pay most, because their usual options are booked. Write down what owners complain about (late walkers, no updates): that is the same problem-spotting habit adult founders use.

Yard work: mowing, raking and weeding

Lawn care has 180+ businesses in the Stripe Index, 91.4% of them operators. It is also the idea with the clearest real example from a teen who did it from 13:

I have had my own lawn mowing business since I was 13 and have around 4-5 clients which is enough for me. – r/teenagers

My gross income was around 800 each summer and used all my own equipment to mow lawns. – r/teenagers

I just my lawn mower in the trunk of my dad's car and my dad drove me over. – r/teenagers

That poster is in Canada and charged 25 CAD an hour, so read the 800 as Canadian dollars. Note the dad in that story. Transport, equipment safety and one conversation with each customer are parent jobs at 13. On safety: federal rules bar 14 and 15-year-old employees from operating most power-driven machinery except office machines, per Fact Sheet #43. That rule is about employment, not your own business, but it tells you how regulators think about power tools at this age. Raking, weeding, watering and a push mower with a parent’s sign-off are the sensible start.

Casual babysitting and parent helper

Fact Sheet #43 names “casual baby-sitting” as work not covered by the FLSA, which is why it is open under 14. It is also the answer teens give most often:

Babysitting, dogsitting, and more babysitting. – r/teenagers

I babysat at 13 and pet sit but I just kinda had to go for it, jump in and not look back. Mowing lawns is good but you have to be willing to work and that 100% depends on where you live) – r/teenagers

At 13, the easiest version is “parent helper”: you watch the kids while a parent is home, working or cooking. It builds references for solo sitting later. Only sit for families your parents know, agree bedtime, food and screen rules in advance, and keep your phone charged with a parent on call.

Tutoring younger kids

Tutoring is the most “software-touched” idea on our list (18.2% of the 130+ tutoring businesses we matched are software), but 77.4% are still people teaching. Parents of a 9-year-old often prefer a patient 13-year-old who aced the same class two years ago over an app.

You can’t lol. Unless you tutor online or ask your parents to buy stocks under their names since you’re not old enogh – r/teenagers

Ignore the stocks part. The tutoring part is right, and in person beats online at your age. Offer reading practice, times tables or homework help at your kitchen table or the library, with a parent nearby. Bring a report card or a teacher’s note as proof. If you like teaching, the tutoring ideas in our student business ideas list scale up as you get older.

Bins, trash and cars: boring, recurring, reliable

The best idea we read in these threads was not glamorous. It was trash cans:

For trash take out. Ask your neighbors if they want someone to take out their trash weekly. – r/youngentrepreneur

If you get 10 houses to sign up that’s $2/wk x 4 weeks =$80 a month. – r/youngentrepreneur

You have to be professional and never miss one. – r/youngentrepreneur

That last line is the entire business. Weekly bin service, monthly bin cleaning and weekend car washes are recurring by nature. Car washing and detailing businesses in the Stripe Index are 99.0% operators (97 matched). Start with a bucket and your own driveway, and add the extras only after people keep saying yes. A quick ROI calculator check tells you whether a $60 pressure washer pays for itself.

Seasonal money: leaves, snow and holidays

Seasons sell for you. One reply in a September thread explained it better than any guide:

Leaves are about to drop everywhere. Yard cleanups run $40 to $80, and the people who want them are the ones who can't do it themselves anymore. – r/teenagers

The reason that works better than most stuff teens try is that the timing does the selling for you. – r/teenagers

Whoever pays you once in October will need the same thing in November, and again in December. – r/teenagers

All 11 snow removal businesses we matched in the Stripe Index are operators. Plan your year: yard work in spring and fall, car washes and pet sitting in summer (see our summer business ideas for teens), leaves in autumn, snow and holiday pet care in winter. When one season ends, use the brainstorming method to pick the next service.

Making and selling: crafts and baked goods

Crafts and handmade goods are the largest kid-friendly group we matched (230+ businesses, 96.7% operators). Bracelets, crochet, candles, art prints and baked goods all show up in these threads:

Mow lawn, sell some homemade knick knacks, babysit. – r/teenagers

Sell in person first: to family, at school events that allow it, at a craft fair with a parent. Online shops like Etsy require a parent-owned account at 13. Selling food can involve local rules, so a parent should check before you sell baked goods beyond friends and family. The startup cost calculator helps you price materials so you do not sell at a loss.

Fixing and reselling

Reselling your own things, or things you fix, is a common teen route:

i've been buying my own phones since i was 12 because i'd buy them broken then fix and sell them – r/teenagers

buy stuff at garage sales and resell it. – r/teenagers

Marketplace accounts usually need an adult, and meeting strangers to hand over an item is a parent job at 13. Always meet in a public place, with a parent, and never ship before you are paid. Curious which products people complain about most? Who complains about what shows how adults read reviews for gaps.

Online skills: video editing, thumbnails and slides

If you are good at editing, design or slides, there is real demand, but most of it is on platforms that need 18+. Here is what clients post on Upwork, from BigIdeasDB’s sample of 5,300+ job postings:

What clients complain about is time, not skill: the most frequent pain points in our Upwork data include “Time-Consuming Presentation Design Process” (12 mentions) and “Inefficient Video Editing Workflow” (9). People pay to get hours back, which is the core idea behind most side hustle SaaS ideas too. That is as true for a local coach who needs a highlight reel as for an Upwork client. More on reading this data in the state of freelance demand and our Upwork analysis guide.

Or if you have any skill people are willing to pay you for you can do that (like maybe drawing, video editing, programing ect) – r/teenagers

What online buyers want: proof you do not have yet

We checked the 460+ Upwork postings for these simple skills. 55.5% ask for experience in the description, 24.8% ask for a portfolio or samples, and only 5.2% mention beginners or students. Across all 5,300+ postings, the portfolio share is 16.7%, so simple creative skills actually ask for proof more often, not less.

That is the argument for going local first. Edit a highlight video for your cousin’s team, design the flyer for a neighbor’s garage sale, make slides for a family friend’s small business. Get paid a little, ask for a sentence of feedback, and you have a portfolio before you are old enough for the platforms. If you want to test a digital idea properly, our paid pilot guide shows how to get a real yes, and the value proposition generator helps you write the one-line pitch.

How to get your first 3 customers at 13

Your first customers are people who already know your family. Start there.

1. Make one flyer. Service, price, days you are free, and a parent’s phone number.
2. Ask your parent to post it in the neighborhood group chat or their social accounts.
3. Knock on 10 doors with a parent nearby. Say one sentence and leave the flyer.
4. Offer a first-time price and a weekly rate.
5. Ask every happy customer for one referral.

getting your parents to advertise you on Facebook or other social media can also help because all their adult friends will come running. – r/teenagers

When going around door knocking, introduce you (if you’re the parent or the 13 year old) show the poster/flyer of the services with contact information on it – r/teenagers

Adults do the same thing at larger scale. Our guide to getting your first customer and the help page on finding first customers are written for older founders, but the logic (start with people who already trust you) is identical.

How to price when you are 13

Do not compete on being cheapest. Compete on being reliable and close. A simple pricing ladder:

• Trial: one discounted or free first visit, so they can see you do it well.
• Regular: a weekly or per-visit price that feels fair next to what they pay now.
• Extras: charge more for bigger jobs (hills, extra dogs, dirty bins).

I'd usually do it the first time for free, and if you were a returning customer I didn't charge as much. – r/teenagers

That shoe cleaner charged a flat rate of about $9 and grew a loyal customer base. Repeat customers are worth more than a high price. Adults overthink this too; our help page on pricing makes the same point for software. If you want to see how many customers you need to cover a new tool or equipment, the free break-even calculator works for a lawn business too, and our help page on calculating break-even walks through it.

A 7-day plan to earn your first money at 13

1. Day 1: Pick one service with a parent. Agree on rules and where money goes.
2. Day 2: Check your state’s youth employment page together.
3. Day 3: Make a flyer. Set a trial price and a weekly price.
4. Day 4: Parent posts it online. You tell 5 family friends.
5. Day 5: Knock on 10 doors with a parent nearby.
6. Day 6: Do your first job. Take a before and after photo if it is yard or car work.
7. Day 7: Write down what you earned and spent. Ask for a referral.

Stuck on what to offer? Try the free niche finder or the target audience generator with a parent, and use the ideas as prompts, not answers. The idea generator guide explains how to get better suggestions out of it.

The scams aimed at 13-year-olds trying to make money

Kids looking for money are a target. These are real examples from the threads we read, lightly grouped:

• Pay to get paid. A stranger sends “money” then asks for a fee to release it.

acceptance payment of $25 is needed to get the money – r/teenagers

• Free work, then silence. A client promises a high price and never pays.

I spent a good few hours working on it, and adding changes over the next month while he 'sorted out a problem with paypal'. Eventually he just stops responding. – r/teenagers

• Giveaway channels. Telegram and Discord “giveaways” posted as replies to teens asking for money.

I even found a telegram Channel that is currently giveway $750 to there member. – r/teenagers

• Crypto coins. Hype coins take birthday money and do not give it back.

Guys it's been a couple days since the hawk tuah coin scam I invested all my birthday money in it please hawk tuah my money back – r/teenagers

Also skip “app tester” or “task” jobs that ask you to pay first or buy something, and anyone who asks for your parent’s bank or card details. Adults face the same traps; our oversaturated side hustles analysis covers the adult versions. Real work never asks you to pay to get paid.

There are predators out here bud dont talk to anyone on reddit. – r/youngentrepreneur

The “get paid to play” app data

Survey and “play to earn” apps are the first thing many teens find. One even showed up in our page-one check for this exact search. So we looked at BigIdeasDB’s App Store data: 26 reward, survey and “get paid” apps with 610+ reviews between them. 86.9% of those reviews are 1 or 2 stars, against 67.0% across all 136,000+ reviews we hold. Of the negative reviews, 19.5% are about cashing out or not being paid, 9.7% use the word “scam,” and 26 mention ID or verification.

You know that the people who use this app are mostly high schoolers or middle schoolers who need extra money so why would you require ID to cash out? – App Store review

Almost every survey you take will immediately screen you out after just a few questions, and you won’t get any points when that happens. – App Store review

it's fun and you earn money but then you have to reach an absurd level to be able to cash out. – App Store review

This App make it hard to cash out when you get close to $10😡 – App Store review

I was literally 1.50 away from my first cash out 😒 – App Store review

I got banned for no reason, and I was actually coming close to being able to cash out. – App Store review

it also wants your id information which is not normal for survey app to gain this personal info – App Store review

They take back 40% of what you earn, for processing! – App Store review

The pattern: a cash-out threshold set just out of reach, and an ID check a 13-year-old cannot pass. One review describes entering a fake age to get past the 13+ gate and having the account deactivated. Lying about age does not beat these apps. It just loses whatever you earned. Our App Store database guide explains how we pull these reviews, and we break down more app complaint patterns in the state of mobile app pain points.

What never to do when making money at 13

• Never use a parent’s ID or details to sign up for something yourself. If a platform needs an adult, the adult signs up, knowingly, in their own name.
• Never hide income from your parents or open accounts they do not know about.
• Never lie about your age. Accounts get locked at the worst time, with your money inside.
• No gambling, betting, crypto or trading. These are not ways to make money at 13.
• No adult content, and no “get rich quick” offers. Block and tell a parent.
• Do not help other kids hide purchases from their parents, even for a fee.

That last one comes straight from a thread, where one reply suggested charging classmates to buy games behind their parents’ backs:

you can make money off of the kids with strict parents. – r/teenagers

It is the kind of “business” that ends with angry parents and your account frozen. The same threads also include replies like “Sports gambling.” Filter hard. Most “easy money” ideas show up in our failed business ideas analysis for a reason. The how to make money with AI guide is useful later, but be wary of anyone selling a shortcut.

For parents: how to help a 13-year-old make money

If your 13-year-old wants to earn, the legal structure puts you in the middle, and that is a good thing. A practical division of labor:

• You own the adult parts: any account that requires 18+, contact with new customers, transport, and final say on safety.
• They own the work: showing up, doing the job well, tracking money, asking for referrals.
• You check the rules: your state labor department’s youth page, and anything local (food sales, permits).

Some legal ways a 13 year old can make money? Not selling foot pics. Not opening a lemonade stand. Not buying crypto or investing in stocks. – r/teenagers

That post title is a 13-year-old asking for exactly the guidance this section is for. Many also want to learn, not just earn:

I'm 13 years old and I want to start some kind of online business to earn money and learn business skills. – r/youngentrepreneur

Enjoy your youth; at least until your 16. – r/youngentrepreneur

Both can be true. A few hours a week of a real service teaches pricing, reliability and talking to adults, without eating their whole childhood. When they are ready for the next step, the at-15 guide covers the first legal jobs and how they compare with a business.

Co-owning accounts: the right way

Where a platform allows 13 to 17-year-olds only through a parent (Fiverr, Etsy) or needs an adult owner (Stripe for under 18s, AdSense, PayPal), the parent must be the real account holder, with real details, accepting the terms themselves. Stripe’s guardian route and the exact information it asks for are in our payments guide, and the marketplace-by-marketplace rules are in side hustle age requirements.

Good habits: name the account for the business, keep your child’s login separate where the platform allows it, review payouts monthly together, and write down who owns what if a sibling or friend joins in. If your child wants to go further, the planning tools in our free tools roundup are a good next step at 15 or 16.

Where the money goes: bank, ledger and the $400 rule

Pay into an account a parent can see, usually a teen or custodial account at your bank. Keep a one-page ledger: date, customer, amount, and anything spent (gas money, supplies). It takes two minutes a week and matters for taxes.

The IRS says you must pay self-employment tax and file Schedule SE if net earnings from self-employment are $400 or more, and that “The self-employment tax rules apply no matter how old you are.” The rate is 15.3%. Income tax is a separate question. Most 13-year-olds running a dog walking business will not get near that (see how to calculate ROI if you want to track profit properly), but a busy summer of yard work can. Ask a parent or tax professional; the tax detail is in the FAQ.

Safety rules for in-person work at 13

• Only work for people your parents know or have met.
• A parent knows every address, start time and end time.
• Do not go inside a stranger’s home alone. Yard and driveway work first.
• No power tools without a parent’s sign-off. No ladders or roofs.
• Keep your phone charged and your location shared with a parent.
• If an adult makes you uncomfortable, leave and tell a parent. The job is not worth it.

If you are under 13

Please talk to a parent before signing up for anything online. Most platforms do not allow users under 13 at all (Fiverr and Etsy say so explicitly), and US privacy law defines a “child” as an individual under the age of 13 (16 CFR 312.2), whose data needs a parent’s consent. Offline options are still open: chores for family, helping a parent’s own business, and small services with a parent doing the talking. This guide is written for 13 and up.

Methodology

Legal rules. We read 29 CFR 570.2, 570.33, 570.35, 570.119 and 570.122 through 570.129 through the eCFR API (current as of September 24, 2026) and the Department of Labor’s Fact Sheet #43 (revised December 2016). dol.gov and youthrules.gov blocked automated access on September 25, 2026, so Fact Sheet #43 was read from a September 11, 2026 archive of the official page, and every claim from it was cross-checked against the regulation text where the regulation covers it.

Platform rules. Each age rule was read from the company’s own terms or help page on September 25, 2026 (Fiverr, Etsy, Roblox, YouTube, Google AdSense, TikTok, Stripe, PayPal, Upwork).

Business data. Read-only SQL over BigIdeasDB tables: Stripe Index company descriptions matched by keyword for nine services and compared to the whole index by business model; Upwork job titles matched for 12 skills and descriptions scanned for experience, portfolio and beginner language; App Store reviews for 26 reward, survey and “get paid” apps compared to the full review corpus. Reddit: four searches (195 unique posts) and 10 threads read in full in r/teenagers and r/youngentrepreneur; quotes are verbatim and attributed to the subreddit only, following the method in our Reddit research guide. Upwork methods follow the Upwork analysis guide.

Data sources and limits

What we could not verify

• State rules. We did not verify all 50 states’ youth employment laws, so none are stated here.
• youthrules.gov. Unreachable for automated reading on September 25, 2026; not cited.
• Earnings by age. No dataset we hold records how much 13-year-olds earn. The dollar examples on this page are individual Reddit reports, not averages.
• Marketplace rules beyond the nine above (for example, pet-sitting and resale apps). See the age requirements guide for the full list as it is verified.
• Food sales rules for home baking are local; ask a parent to check.

Where BigIdeasDB fits

BigIdeasDB is a research tool built on 1M+ documented complaints plus real business data (the Stripe Index, Upwork demand, App Store reviews and Reddit). It is how we measured which services are run by people rather than software on this page. At 13 you do not need a paid tool. Use the free ones with a parent:

• Business idea generator for a starting list.
• Startup cost calculator to price your supplies.
• Value proposition generator for the one line on your flyer.
• User persona generator to picture who your best customer is.
• The help guide on using the pain points database once you are hooked.

When you are older and ready to build something bigger, the Stripe Index and the pain points database are where adults find demand. For now, the best research tool you have is ten conversations with your neighbors.

Frequently asked questions

Related reading: how to make money at 15, side hustle age requirements, accepting payments under 18, and starting a business with no money.

BigIdeasDB Research. (2026). How to Make Money at 13: The Under-14 Rules, the 13+ Apps, and What Actually Works. BigIdeasDB. Retrieved from https://bigideasdb.com/how-to-make-money-at-13