14 year old brother looking to start a business

I guess the first question would be, what does he want to do? Does he have interest in mowing lawns, or when it comes to starting a deal book, does he want to go door to door being the salesman?

With window washing, you have very little expense to get going. What is the area that he's in like? Will there be enough business for him to walk around and do the jobs, or will they be spread out requiring transportation? Does he have transportation? I think that you might find some small places like a local barber shop to hire a kid to wash windows, but larger places like chain restaurants are going to want someone insured and of legal working age, one would imagine might be the case. Residential window washing isn't something that people do on a very frequent basis, in my experience. Maybe annually, or in the spring/fall. There's much more complication in doing residential windows.

Kids mowing lawns has been a staple for many. I can see people hiring him to cut their grass. I've lived in my house for 8-9 years and no kids ever asked to cut my lawn. I have someone that does it now, but you don't see many kids out hustling in my area. If I saw one, I'd love to put them to work and reward the hustle.

Just a few considerations. I cut a few lawns when I was a kid and made some spending money. I washed windows for a friend's business and had a few accounts of my own in my cleaning business over the past 14 years, here and there. There are lots of ways to make money, much depends on what he is inclined to do and what opportunities fit those inclinations and the circumstances that he's presented with.

"were having trouble on deciding what would be best for him"

Why is that? What trouble are you having deciding?

What is your brother interested in doing?

What skills does he possess?

What is his work history?

UMC said it... What does your brother want to do? What are his interests? What are his thoughts on these types of businesses?

Is he a gamer if so why not set up a gaming blog start writing with reviews and have affiliate links related to gaming ie. cheats etc. there's a few good gaming affiliate offers in affiliate sections of this forum.
Your ideas are good but I would bet at 14 those ideas wouldn't last with him or may get taken advantaged of by customers.

Hi I am newbie. I am surprised to know that he is only 14 & at this age want to start a business.I can only say that what type of work he can do best & also he has interested to. You can support him to do whatever he want to do.

First of all, I think it's great that he wants to get started in business! And good on you for helping him, he'll have a huge head-start over his peers.

I agree with many of the replies on this thread. He should definitely start off small and in an industry that 14 year old boys have pre-existing knowledge in (gaming, TV shows, sport).

Fantastic that your brother wants to start a business, especially as schools dont teach entrepreneurship. Obviously it must be something that he wants to do and finds interesting, however building apps has become drag and drop simple and lends itself to creative thought so perhaps that should be on the suite of options available to your brother.

Good point, Mike

I wasn't paying attention. Now that you mention it, I have seen other posts of this nature, with 0 posts indicated. Here's one from the Off Topic Forum

http://www.warriorforum.com/off-topi...st-my-job.html

So, where'd he go?!

It seems like a lot of "things" have been vanishing this past week.

I don't think it's too early but you have to be completely sure that he is interested in going into business. Some kids just want to work for a bit of extra money and there's nothing wrong with that. It teaches kids the value of money and an honest day's work.

But as a parent, I do worry on how a business would distract a 14 year old from his studies. As his older brother, just make sure that he doesn't go overboard and disregard everything else.

I will recommend that he follows his hobby that will really work than looking at something that is not his hobby as he might leave it on the way to his success.

Meaning you he can start a website where he will be sharing his hobby tips and monetize it with adsense.

Sorry everyone I was having serious login issues yesterday! To answer a few of the questions .. im in sales so I would essentially help him sell whatever he wants to do ... He is starting a business so he can afford a car when he is 16 years old this summer his goal is to make a minimum of a few thousand dollars ... so im like hey why not start a business and see how big can you get this thing in just a few months .. after talking these last few days i think we re going to start a coupon book business

I'm glad your brother has the ambition to start and operate a business, most 14 year olds do not. I wish my son who will be 14 in June had the ambition to do that.

If it were me I would stick to the service industry. He can still learn all about salesmanship while providing a needed service. here are a few:

Lawn mowing
Lawn clean up
Garage/Basement cleaning/organizing
Pet sitting
Dog walking
pooper scooper
Garden weeding
Babysitting
painting
flyer distribution
Car washing
Etc.