Great question, especially coming into the holiday time when kids have extra time and will be tempted to use it on social media and other consumption-based tasks.
You want them to be creative but you also need to be wary of telling them to follow their passion when it comes to business.
They need to find something that they are passionate about but they also need to find something they have skills in and something that people will pay them for.
My top tip: deep empathy and noticing.
These two traits are the building blocks of many great businesses. Let me give you an example. Your daughter works at a local cafe but really wants to start a little business. She’s been inspired by YouTube creators and lifestyle bloggers and the early suggestions are all around selling clothes and doing makeup reviews. Sounds like it might work but she’s missing a great opportunity right in front of her.
With her (growing) powers of empathy and noticing, she goes to her next shift on the lookout for anything that people are struggling with or anything that could be made better. What does she see with her new eyes?
She thinks about:
How her boss is always having a hard time with allocating shifts and having people wanting to change shifts
People with plastic bags from shopping at the local supermarket
Parents trying to get their children to sit still at the cafe
People buying their coffees once a week
Next step…what could these insights be used for? Some business ideas might be:
Learn how to use shift planning software like When I Work and then approach a few local businesses and offer to set up their staff scheduling for them for an upfront cost plus monthly support in case they need it
The alternative to plastic bags are often jute bags. Could your daughter look at Ali Express and find a manufacturer to sell custom jute bags? Perhaps get a designer to add your local town name in a stylish font and see if local stores would stock them
Busy parents with noisy kids, you’ve got to have compassion on them. What about selling cafes a pad & pencil kit so small kids can do something while they wait? Don’t go buying anything yet. Prepare a single page of the concept and ask 10 cafes if they’re interested
People buying their coffee once per week. Perhaps they don’t drink much or perhaps they drink it from home during the week. Maybe a monthly coffee subscription business that your daughter could set up for each local cafe. She could create a small website for each cafe using subscription management software and then the orders go directly to the cafe. Revenue could be upfront for the setup and then a percentage of each sale.
A few ideas based on empathy and noticing. What ideas have you noticed lately?
Additional details of question: I run a volume photography business, and I need a piece of software that will let me automate workflow. I need to start entries with a form, and take them through an editing, and then a QA workflow which requires I update the database through additional forms. I’d also like to …
In this series, we’ll look at how a Notion consultant would plan out the first month of work with a client based on their Notion job requirements. Job Requirements Job Description We’re a vacation rental company looking for someone familiar with the Notion web platform to create two working forms for guests to book our …
Question: I have a Typeform quiz with 10 questions and it has a calculation based on scoring. I need someone to do show me how to do the conditional calculation to deliver a different thank you screen depending on the score. Answer: The client asked for this to be answered privately. If you’ve got a …
What business should my teenage daughter start?
Great question, especially coming into the holiday time when kids have extra time and will be tempted to use it on social media and other consumption-based tasks.
You want them to be creative but you also need to be wary of telling them to follow their passion when it comes to business.
They need to find something that they are passionate about but they also need to find something they have skills in and something that people will pay them for.
My top tip: deep empathy and noticing.
These two traits are the building blocks of many great businesses. Let me give you an example. Your daughter works at a local cafe but really wants to start a little business. She’s been inspired by YouTube creators and lifestyle bloggers and the early suggestions are all around selling clothes and doing makeup reviews. Sounds like it might work but she’s missing a great opportunity right in front of her.
With her (growing) powers of empathy and noticing, she goes to her next shift on the lookout for anything that people are struggling with or anything that could be made better. What does she see with her new eyes?
She thinks about:
Next step…what could these insights be used for? Some business ideas might be:
A few ideas based on empathy and noticing. What ideas have you noticed lately?
Related Posts
Automating workflow in a photography business
Additional details of question: I run a volume photography business, and I need a piece of software that will let me automate workflow. I need to start entries with a form, and take them through an editing, and then a QA workflow which requires I update the database through additional forms. I’d also like to …
Notion expert needed to create 2 working forms in Notion to send to vacation rental guests
In this series, we’ll look at how a Notion consultant would plan out the first month of work with a client based on their Notion job requirements. Job Requirements Job Description We’re a vacation rental company looking for someone familiar with the Notion web platform to create two working forms for guests to book our …
Help with Typeform quiz that includes conditional logic
Question: I have a Typeform quiz with 10 questions and it has a calculation based on scoring. I need someone to do show me how to do the conditional calculation to deliver a different thank you screen depending on the score. Answer: The client asked for this to be answered privately. If you’ve got a …