Did you know you can start your own business before you even leave school? Students across the country are running dog walking services, selling handmade jewellery, tutoring younger kids, and building online stores. No special permission required, no minimum age limit, just you and your idea – and maybe some adult help for the trickier steps.
The best part? You’ve got something many adult entrepreneurs don’t: time to experiment and learn without massive financial pressure. If you’ve been thinking about launching something, now’s the perfect moment to start.
In this blog we’ll cover the things you need to think about before you start, and then go over the steps to get your business up and running.
Step 1 – Find a problem worth solving
Every successful business starts with a customer who needs help with something. That’s all you need. You don’t have to have a revolutionary idea that changes the world, just a real problem you can solve for real people.
Perhaps they have rubbish bins that need cleaning, lawns that need mowing, children to babysit, or dogs that need walking. As long as you can identify a problem that someone will pay for you to solve, you could be in business. If there’s no problem (or no “demand”) then your business probably won’t be very successful.
Think about your own neighbourhood, school community, or friend group. What do people struggle with? What tasks do they avoid? What services would make their lives easier? Your business idea is hiding in those answers.
If you’re reading this you may already have identified your problem, but if not that’s OK – check out this article jam-packed with great high school business ideas.
Step 2 – Work out if it makes financial sense
This is the fun bit where we work out how much money you could make. Grab a calculator, Google, and get realistic about the numbers.
You need to know two things. First, what can you charge for the product or service you’re going to offer? Look at similar options in your area. If you’re offering lawn mowing, check what professional services charge, then adjust down a bit because you’re just starting out.
Second, what will it cost you to deliver? Include everything: materials, transport, your time, advertising and even the phone credit you’ll use to organise jobs.
Once you have both of these numbers you can then work out your likely profit margin – the amount you charge minus the amount it will cost.
Let’s say you’re selling handmade phone cases. You can sell them for $25 each and the materials cost $12. This means your profit is $13 per case. If it takes you 30 minutes to make each one, you’ll make $26 per hour. On the other hand, if you make $8 profit per case and they take you an hour to make, then you’ll only earn $8 per hour.
You’ll need to compare this amount with what you could earn in another job to decide if you think it’s worth it. Using the Fair Work Ombudsman’s Pay and Conditions Tool, we found that a casual employee under 16 years of age working in fast food can expect to take home around $13.90 per hour. Once you add in the time it takes you to travel to work and back and the fact that you have little control over your work hours, you may think $8 an hour is a good trade off.
Don’t worry about tax straight away. Most student businesses earn well under the tax-free threshold, but you can check the details on the Australian Government’s business website if you want to be thorough or your business takes off.
Step 3 – Test your idea quickly
Here’s where lots of business start-ups miss out: they spend months perfecting their product before showing it to anyone. Bad move. You need real feedback from real customers now, especially if you’ve already invested time and money.
Create the simplest version of your business that you can actually sell, called the minimum viable product (or MVP). If you’re starting a tutoring service, you don’t need a fancy website – just one student and a time to meet. If you’re selling baked goods, make one batch and sell it at the local markets instead of perfecting 20 different recipes first.
Say you want to start a tech repair service for students. Instead of buying expensive equipment, you post in your school’s Facebook group offering to fix cracked phone screens for $30 and get five customers in the first week. This tells you two important things: there was demand, and the price was right. Once you know what your product-market fit is, you’re almost ready to launch.
Try these quick tests: post in local community groups on social media, set up a table at school events or weekend markets, or do an old-school letterbox drop in your neighbourhood. Don’t rely on just your mates and family for feedback – you need to see if strangers will actually pay you before invest more time or money.
Step 4 – Create your business plan
Once you’ve tested your idea and know it works, it’s time to plan how you’ll grow. A business plan doesn’t need to be some massive formal document, just a map of where you’re going and how you’ll get there.
Write down your answers to these questions:
- What exactly are you selling and to who?
- How much will you charge?
- Where will you find customers?
- How much time can you realistically commit each week?
- What equipment or materials do you need?
- How much product/service do you think you can sell?
- What could go wrong, and how will you handle it?
Your plan will change as you go, and that’s normal. The point is to think through the basics before you’re dealing with ten customer orders and realising you forgot to factor in delivery costs.
Business plans can be a bit intense, so we won’t cover all the details here, but Youth Central have a great guide to writing your plan.
Start now
The gap between having an idea and actually starting is where most businesses die. You don’t need everything to be perfect. You don’t need a logo or business cards or a professional website. You just need to take the first step.
Pick one action you can do this week. Message five potential customers, source the best place buy any materials you need, or set up a simple Instagram account. The momentum from that first step will carry you into the second, then the third.
Starting a business teaches you lots of entrepreneurial skills, including basic accounting and money handling, marketing, communication, problem-solving, and resilience. These skills will stick with you for life, whether you end up running your own company or working for someone else.
Check out the website for more entrepreneurship and money management tips.
