How Kids Who Love Animals Can Make Money
Many kids love animals. Here are a few ways kids who love animals can make money.
To see a full list of ways kids can make money see: How to Make Money as a Kid
At the young age of 4, Mikaila Ulmer was getting ready to enter a children’s business competition when two things happened: 1) she was stung by a bee twice and 2) her grandmother sent her an old recipe for flaxseed lemonade.
Even though Mikaila didn’t like the bee stings (who would?) she suddenly became fascinated by bees and learned how important they are for our ecosystem. Unfortunately, she also discovered that worldwide the bee population is in decline.
That’s when she had an idea to create a product that uses her grandmother’s lemonade recipe and helps honeybees. Mikaila entered her flaxseed lemonade into the business competition and Me & The Bees Lemonade was born.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9-DpD0jHVg
The lemonade, which now comes in four different flavors – mint, ginger, iced tea and prickly pear – is sweetened with honey and a percentage of the profits are given to local and international organizations fighting to save honeybees.
At first, Me & The Bees Lemonade was only sold at youth entrepreneurial events, but when Mikalia appeared on the TV show Shark Tank she won a $60,000 investment and soon thereafter signed an $11 million deal with Whole Foods to have her product placed in 55 locations across four states.
How Kids Who Love Animals Can Make Money
Mikalia’s story is certainly unique, and creating a product that supports non-profits isn’t the only way kids can both help animals and make money at the same time.
Here’s a list of a few ways kids can both help animals (and their owners!) and make some money:
A pet companion: Do you know of a family that has dogs but doesn’t have adequate time to walk or play with them? A great after-school service could be to spend time with these pets and tend to their needs while their owners are away. Families are especially in need of this service when they go on vacation.
Training dogs: If you’ve successfully trained your own dog or a friend’s dog, why not sell your skills to other pet owners. The key to a well-trained dog is repetition so this is a service that would be carried out over several weeks.
Poop scooping for dogs: While certainly not a glamorous job, families that let their dogs roam their yards freely are in need of a clean-up every now and then. You could set up a weekly schedule to come clean a family’s yard for a set price. The company Doody Calls focuses on this very service!
Cleaning litter boxes: Let’s face it – no one likes to deal with poop. That’s where you come in – offer to clean neighbors’ litter boxes on a daily basis for a set fee.
Wash dogs: Begin a service to wash dogs – a necessary challenge every dog owner faces.
Breeding hamsters and rats: Not all parents will welcome a business that results in multiple rodents in the house, but hamsters, in particular, are a popular pet. (Read about the laws governing this practice here).
Breeding mice: Again, this might not be popular with parents, but snake owners need mice to feed their snakes. Make sure there’s local demand for this “product” first!
Breeding worms: Both fishermen and gardeners are eager for more worms. Fishermen use them as bait and worms help a garden’s soil. This is also a situation where it would be good to do some up-front market research to see if there is local demand for these products before getting started. (Click here to read about how to breed worms)
Making cat toys: Most cat toys are fairly simple in design. Friskies, the cat food maker, has a series of videos that show how you can make do-it-yourself cat toys like a cat scratcher and a self-petting station. (Before jumping into this endeavor, read about the potential hazards of some cat toys here)
Baking dog treats:Â Dog owners love to spoil their pets! Creating homemade, healthy dog treats at a reasonable price is likely to be a popular product. Farmers markets and other fairs could be a good place to sell your treats.
Creating customized bowls for cats and dogs: If you have experience with ceramics, you could design and customize – by adding the pet’s name – to food and water bowls.
Designing unique dog and cat collars:Â Dog owners love to adorn their pups with fancy collars. There are lots of different designs and types of collars you can make. Here’s a tutorial on how to make a paracord collar.
Raising chickens to sell eggs: This is another one that might be difficult for parents to swallow. But if you can convince your folks to get a few chickens (remind them that chickens like to eat ticks and spiders) then selling fresh eggs could be a fairly easy way to make money. But beware – the upfront costs of building a chicken coop, buying chickens, and purchasing feed could cut into your bottom line. This site has everything you need to know about how to raise chickens for eggs.
Horse-sit: If you love horses and have experience with them, horse-sitting could be a great opportunity for you to not only make money but also spend more time with horses. Horse sitting could be as extensive as taking care of a horse while a family is on vacation, to mucking stables and feeding horses on an occasional or daily basis.
Horse groomer: Sell services such as pulling manes, polishing hooves or braiding manes to horse owners. If you’re a skilled braider, you can make as much as $100 per mane! Here’s how one woman made $1,000 a month braiding horse manes.
Help with horse barn chores: Keepers of horses usually have an endless list of daily chores. Offer to help with daily or odd chores for a fee.
Become a beekeeper: Keeping bees certainly isn’t for everyone. In addition to some steep up-front costs for hives and beekeeping classes, there’s the reality that you will be stung. That being said, bee-keeping can be fairly profitable, with some beekeepers reporting up to $1,000 per year in income with two hives. Honey isn’t the only product that can be produced from beehives – there’s also beeswax, lip balm, candles, soap, and pollen.
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