30 Day Online Business Plan for Kids
One of the greatest things about the world of online marketing is that it has no boundaries when it comes to the age of who can begin building a business. In fact, many parents are registering their child’s names on social media accounts and domains as early as birth, to ensure they are always able to stake claim to their virtual real estate brand.
As your child grows up and is old enough to talk, you may want to get them involved in a business online – eithers one you do together, or something they can pretty much take over on their own with your overall supervision and approval.
The concept of raising a child entrepreneur is not only wonderful because it’s an endeavor that you can do together. But it also contributes to a healthy self-esteem, is a great educational project, and gives them something to grow into adulthood for financial stability.
If you question the ability of a child to earn major money from their online efforts, look no further than 10-year old Ryan Kaji, who started a YouTube channel called Ryan’s World featuring toy reviews that release once per day and earns anywhere from $11 million to $26 million per year.
That’s just one sensational story, but in households around the world, kids of all ages are working with their parents in their online home business and earning good money with niche websites, review channels and products.
Using the plan below, you can help your child navigate the ins and outs of building an online business that delivers for them in terms of personal satisfaction and profits. Some tasks will need your involvement more than others, but it’s good to have them involved in every step so they learn as you help them launch and grow their business.
Day 1: Pick Your Child’s Brain About Their Interests
Before you ever present the idea of owning their own business to your child, you want to casually find out what it is they enjoy being involved in. It might be a sport, arts and crafts, video gaming, cooking, fitness, pets, and more.
It’s important that you don’t insert yourself into their answers. You want a genuine response based on their interests, not what you think is best for them. Unless you want them to eventually get bored and leave you with the responsibilities, let them voice their interests with you alerting them to the fact you’re asking about a potential business opportunity, which could sway their replies.
Day 2: Test the Skills of Your Child to See What They Can Monetize
Without discussing the business yet, you want to see how easy it will be for them to monetize their niche options. For example, have them write an article about one of the topics.
Would it be viable as blog content? Would people pay money to read it and feel they got quality content? What about graphics – can they draw pictures for things like coloring books or printables?
To find out, just get them to draw something like a simple animal. You might even bring home a toy or other product and ask them to record a video of them unboxing it and using it, giving their opinion of it.
These should all be fun tasks – not for any reason other than you just want to see how well they do with it. Don’t guide them just yet. You need to see their raw talent to gauge how much revision or tweaking you’ll need to have done, if any.
Day 3: Take Time to Consider the Attention Span of Your Child
Not all kids have the same ability to focus on tasks for any length of time. Especially after a full day of school, with homework on the horizon, they may not have anything left to give for a business.
At the same time, teens often find after school jobs, or work on the weekends, so they might be old enough and focused enough to handle the responsibilities of running their own business.
If you have a child who is unable to sit still or finish projects, then this may not be a good option for them yet. You may need to wait until they reach a level of maturity that allows them to handle work.
Day 4: Present the Idea to Your Child Correctly
Now is the time to introduce the idea of a business to your child. You can either present it as something you’ll be doing with them – or as something you want to help them get started so they can operate as their own business.
Don’t start with astronomical earners like the child YouTuber earning tens of millions of dollars, because kids may assume everyone who does review videos can earn that. They may not have a concept of the time and effort it takes to grow the business.
Mention to them that you’ve seen their skill for writing, drawing or making videos and you know they have an interest in whatever topic they told you. You can tell them you’d be willing to help them make money off their interests if they want you to.
You don’t want to force this on your kids. It shouldn’t be a chore. They have to be enthusiastic about their business or it won’t convert into profits for them. If they decline, say okay and let it sit on the backburner for now.
You might be able to periodically show them examples of people earning with the same types of skills and interests, but don’t nag them. As they sit and think about it, their interest in the idea may grow, and they’ll come back to you whenever they’re ready.
Day 5: Spend Time Brainstorming Money Opportunities with Your Child
If your child is receptive to the idea, take some down time when they’re bored and invest it in brainstorming the money making opportunities they have. For example, if they love toys, they could do YouTube videos and/or a niche toy review blog.
If you have an older teen who loves fitness, they could do YouTube, a fitness blog, write fitness info products, promote fitness gear as an affiliate, etc. If the child loves to draw, they could sell graphics as PLR (private label rights), as a service, as Etsy printables, and more.
Basically, you want to consider what they can earn if they created an info product about it, if they created digital downloads like low content printables, if they promoted products as an affiliate, if they had a service for it, or even if they monetized a social media channel for the topic itself.
Day 6: Have Them Come Up with a Brand Name for Their Business
A brandable name is an important step in developing a real business online. This should have some thought put into it, not something they blurt out in seconds. Have them make a list of possible brand names for their business.
It might be something including their name, like the YouTubers do. Or it might include a keyword phrase, such as Instant Homeschool Printables, where they draw or write pages that homeschooling moms and dads can print out for their kids in a variety of subjects.
After they’ve brainstormed to the best of their ability, make a list of your own and sit down with them and have them ruminate on the list to pick whichever one stands out to them the most.
Day 7: Set the Business Up Legally and Financially
You don’t know ahead of time how much your child will be earning. Their channel or business could take off quickly and you want to be ready for that. Set up an LLC or S-Corp for them in your state.
It may be as simple as claiming a DBA (Doing Business As) moniker. You may need to legally be involved or at the helm of this business, so check to see how it works in your state or country.
Don’t forget to set up a bank account and payment processors for the earnings in the business. You don’t want this mixing with you or your child’s personal financial accounts. It all needs to be separate.
Day 8: Consider Investing Seed Money in Their Business If Needed
To get started, your child may need a little start up help. For example, registration of the business, any product creation tools they may need, outsourcing expenses, and even things like an email autoresponder account, domain and hosting will need to be paid for before the business is bringing in money.
You can keep track of the expenses you provide and have the business repay you for them, or simply do it as a gift to help your child get started with a business of their own. Make sure you look for free options, like Canva or CamStudio before you spend a lot of money on Photoshop or Camtasia.
Day 9: Have Them Register a Domain for Their Brand
You need to have them register a domain for whatever brand they devised a couple of days ago. Even if they’re doing a YouTube channel initially, you want them to own the domain for it as well.
If the channel takes off, someone else will go grab the URL and can siphon off your child’s customers easily by attracting them to their website, telling them the channel name has changed, etc.
Day 10: Help Them Sign Up for Hosting
If the plan is to launch a website or blog, then they’ll need a hosting plan. This shouldn’t be an expensive plan – just a basic one that allows for one site. Later, if they want to grow their online business, they can increase their hosting plan with ease.
Day 11: Teach Them to Install and Set Up a Blog
Installing WordPress for a blog is very easy. Once the hosting and domain are connected, they can use QuickInstall to place a blog on their site in seconds. Make sure you keep a copy of the site’s login details in case your child ever loses it.
Help them get the blog set up with a Contact page, an About page (but be careful about how much information is shared with strangers), and a Services or Products page, if applicable.
Day 12: Register for a List Building Account for Their Business
Depending on their business, list building may be an important tool for growth and profits. It’s not necessary for all niches, like toys. But if you have a niche like pet care, health, etc., then being able to contact subscribers is important for your child.
You may need to register this yourself and screen any and all messages being sent, since this is something that could be problematic if your child accidentally sent a spammy message to their list.
Day 13: Register the Social Media Accounts for Their Brand
Just as you need to claim the domain, you also want to claim the social media accounts for your child’s business. If they’re older, they can do this themselves. But if they’re younger, you’ll need to claim it as your own.
Be sure to grab accounts on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, SnapChat, Pinterest and anywhere else your child’s audience may lurk. Even if you aren’t having them use it right away, it’s a good idea to claim the brand name on it.
Day 14: Have Them Create or Order the Branding Graphics for Their Business
Graphics for the brand are important for conveying a professional business. Whether they’re selling info products or services, reviewing products or something else, a recognizable brand will be good to have across all platforms.
You can put it on the third party selling platforms they’re using, on their website or blog, and in all social networking profiles they’ll be using to promote their business. If they’re talented, let them take the reins and create something themselves, but if they’re not, simply outsource it on Fiverr and allow them to voice the kind of look they want for their brand.
Day 15: Get Them to Time Their Creation Process
Whether they’re creating products as a service for others or to sell to consumers, you need to know how long it takes them from start to completion. Even if they’re recording a video, the process has to be timed before you can price it and set a schedule.
Some kids might take hours to write one page, while others can do it in ten minutes. You have to make sure that their ability to create matches what you’re able to price the item for, or else they’ll lose money.
Make sure you time it when they’re free of disruptions and distractions. If they’re working while chatting with friends, it might drag out much longer than the true cost of time it takes them to handle the task.
Day 16: Help Them Set a Competitive Price Sheet for Their Products
Prices may be something your child needs a lot of help with. They can easily under or overprice their products and services without your guidance. This is an area even adult marketers struggle with.
You don’t want to undercut the competition to the point where it looks like your products are subpar. But you can’t price them too high – especially when you’re an unknown newbie.
Look at current prices for similar projects and talent and help them price things like printables, full eBooks, services, and more. If they sell something like single sheets, make sure you also help them price a bundle of items at a slight discount and explain why.
Day 17: Have Them Map Out Their Reviews or Products
In the upcoming days, your child will begin the process of creation – whether it’s text, images or videos. To help them get an idea of what they’re capable of, have them map out a list of things they plan to finish this coming week.
For example, if they’re creating homeschool printables, they might plan to create one sheet per day, for a total of five if they only work weekdays. Make sure they list what they’ll be working on exactly each day.
For example, they might do a second grade math sheet on Monday, reading sheet on Tuesday, science sheet on Wednesday, and so on. Or they might do a coloring sheet of a dolphin on Monday, a giraffe on Tuesday, a sloth on Wednesday, etc.
They may only be doing one item per week, which is fine. Just have them make a list of what will be coming up in terms of topics or types of projects they want to work on. These could be subtopics of one broad topic, too.
Day 18: Set Up a Workspace for Them
For some kids, merging the worlds of relaxation and work will be a problem. But for others, such as teens, it may be perfectly fine, depending on the type of topic and business model they’re involved in.
You want them to have a dedicated work space if needed. It needs to be a quiet area where they can think or record, and also one clear of clutter so that their creativity is not stifled by their surroundings.
Day 19: Brainstorm a Schedule for Them with a Week’s Worth of Tasks
Having a schedule for the types of projects or topics they’ll be covering is one part of the planning process, but they also need to have a schedule for other tasks involved, too. These include things like research, writing or recording, editing, blogging, sharing on social media, etc.
For example, if they plan to review products as an affiliate marketer, they need to plan the task they’ll be doing each day. That might include things like find a product to promote on Monday, research the pros and cons on Tuesday, write or record the review on Wednesday, edit and publish the work on Thursday, and share it on social networks on Friday.
Day 20: Have Them Create Their First Product and Give Feedback
On this day, let your child know that this is the real deal. They’ll be creating a product for sale or an official product review in an effort to make money. It’s important that you alleviate their fear of making sure it’s perfect.
There are editing tools they can use for both video and text that will clean up most problems or mistakes. Have them finish the work and then give it to you for honest, constructive criticism that will help them become better, if needed at all.
Day 21: Set Up Third Party Platform Accounts for Them to Sell on
Depending on what kind of products or services your child will be selling, go ahead and get their business account set up there. This may be places like Warrior Plus, JVZoo or ClickBank for info products or PLR.
Or, it might be Etsy for printables. You may even have them set up on sites like UpWork, Fiverr or Udemy, so make sure you research where it makes sense for them to have a listing.
Day 22: Help Them Learn How to Create and Publish a Listing
Most third party platforms have a knowledge bank that explains exactly how to create a listing. Help them take their first product creation and publish the listing on the platform where they’ll make sales.
Sometimes, this can be a big learning curve until the process has been done repeatedly. It might help to make a screencast video of you going through the procedure so they know how to do it themselves from that point on.
Day 23: Sign Them Up for Affiliate Marketing Programs
Even if they start off as product creators, becoming an affiliate can add more revenue to their online business. For most niches, you can have them make recommendations or even just link to products they’re discussing in a blog post or video that can result in commissions.
You can sign their business up on Amazon, Commission Junction, Share-a-Sale, JVZoo, ClickBank, Warrior Plus and many other vendors who have affiliate programs built in to their sites directly.
Show them how to grab their affiliate link whenever they’re writing a blog post or publishing a video on YouTube so they can link to it and earn money whenever someone buys through their link.
Day 24: Teach Them to Research New Ideas and Competition
Part of being a successful online entrepreneur will be their ability to come up with innovative ideas and to track trends so they can meet the needs of their customers. For example, if they wanted to get into creating coloring books, they’d want to see what trends are selling well on Amazon, such as mandala coloring books.
You can teach them to look at the competition – not so they can copy them, but learn from them. You can also give them access to a paid or free keyword tool that can help them look for search trends.
These will be especially helpful in niches like video games, toys and other niches where trends change quickly compared to evergreen niches like pets or gardening. Even cooking has trends that they can capitalize on, such as when Instant Pots or Air Fryers take the cooking world by storm.
Day 25: Show Your Child How to Repurpose Their Creations
Many kids get burned out on work, as do adults. One great thing about online marketing is that you can help them take their existing for and repurpose it to help their business grow.
You might show them how to take a YouTube product review and turn it into a transcript for a text-based blog post with hyperlinks to affiliate products. Or vice versa – show them how to take their text blog post and use Canva presentation slides and a screen capture tool to make a video review.
If they’re creating things like journal pages or other simple printables, show them how to start working from a readymade template so they can tweak little elements along the way and have new products with very little work.
Day 26: Help Them Learn How to Use Private Label Rights and Public Domain Content
Some shortcuts can be a blessing when your child starts feeling the burden of their workload. Private label rights can help them with blog posts, emails, social networking posts, or even info products.
And public domain content can be a great foundation for them to use, whether they’re working with text, images, video or some other media format. Explain to them the rules of using these types of content, and how it can serve as a springboard or replacement for their work when they need a break.
Day 27: Filter and Sort Through Offers That Come Their Way
Kids are very adept at using social media – more so than most adults. It’s very possible they’ll grow a huge following, quickly. So you need to be onboard to help them sift through the incoming offers and messages.
Some may come directly through their website’s Contact page, while others might come to their social media inbox. The messages might be from people wanting to purchase something, from competitors who want to collaborate with them, from prospective joint venture partners, or even sponsors who want to pay them for an ad.
And unfortunately, if a child of any age is representing the business, you may find some horrible individuals who engage in unsavory or even illegal behaviors. You want to protect your child from these people as well as from any business agreement that’s not a good fit.
Screen the messages for your child’s account, or (if they’re older), have them send serious offers to you to vet, and report anything else that’s offensive and harmful on the platform.
Day 28: Have Them Analyze Their Stats to See What’s Working and What’s Not
Watching statistics is an important part of growing a business and keeping your child from making mistakes and losing money. Details in the statistics can show who is buying, where they’re from, what kind of content keeps them engaged, and so on.
They have analytics built into their cPanel in their hosting account. They also have some insight built in to certain platforms, like Warrior Plus or Etsy, for example. You can see what’s selling, what the conversion rate it, what the refund stats look like, etc.
If they have an Etsy printables shop, for example, and they see that elementary school printables are outselling high school printables, then they may want to focus on making more of those to increase their revenue and prevent wasted time on things that aren’t as lucrative.
Day 29: Consider Having Them Monetize the Story of Their Child Entrepreneurial Efforts
As they embark on this journey, there’s another avenue they can go with their talents. Starting a blog, podcast or YouTube channel strictly about their journey of making money online is a wise investment of time.
Not only can this result in many opportunities from reputable sources who want to interview your child about their business (since it’s something many have interest in, but most don’t know how to pursue), but it can be a profit puller, too.
For example, if your child is discussing how they started a blog, they can link to the domain registrar, the hosting company, the page builder, and more and earn commission off of every person who buys the same through their link.
They can also start putting out info products about making money online. These can sell to kids like them or adults who have struggled and are looking for inspiration from others who achieved success.
You don’t want to overburden them with too much, since they’re in school. But they might want to make a weekly vlog or podcast about being a child entrepreneur. The following they gain might also translate into opportunities in their other niche from potential partnerships, sponsors and more.
Day 30: Check in to See If They’re Satisfied with Their Business
If they business model they’ve been working on is not delivering for them in terms of happiness, don’t be afraid to let them switch gears. You might try something we’ve already discussed above, or something new, like allowing them to self-publish fiction books on Amazon.
From early readers to complex young adult fiction, they can write, edit and publish a fiction book at no cost upfront. This is a great way to help a child tap into their creativity and get rewarded from it at the same time.
Raising a child entrepreneur takes patience. You have to approach things in a way that lets them feel like they’re in control, not being forced. You have to motivate them and help them find their enthusiasm.