What Jobs You Can Get at 14?

Getting a job at 14, and building up valuable work experience while still at school, is a fantastic way to impress future employers, and increase your chances of getting into university.

There are many jobs you can get at 14, although you may need to use extra initiative, as well as standard job applications, to secure them. The explosion of social media and digital marketing means that there are more work opportunities for teenagers than ever, especially in the creative sectors.

If you’re getting a job at 14, you need to be very careful to obey child labour laws. In the UK, you can only work a maximum of 12 hours a week during term-time (2 hours on school days and Sundays, and 5 hours on Saturday), and 25 hours a week during school holidays (5 hours on weekdays and Saturdays, and 2 hours on Sundays).

In this article, we’re going to explore what jobs you can get at 14, how much you should get paid at 14, and how to get the jobs you want.

What jobs can you get at 14?

The jobs you can get at 14 include tutoring, paper rounds, babysitting, dog walking and grooming, working on farms and in stables, starting your own business, becoming a social media influencer, retail, hairdressing, cafe work, office jobs, cleaning, photography, doing affiliate marketing, selling print on demand designs, acting, gardening, content writing, and volunteering.

Let’s dive right in, and explore exactly what these jobs for 14 year olds involve, how much money you should expect, and how to get the jobs you want.

Paper round

14 year olds have been doing paper rounds as a job since time immemorial, so there’s no reason why you shouldn’t either. Paper rounds are jobs delivering newspapers and magazines on behalf of newsagents, or the publications themselves.

There are often lots of paper round jobs for 14 year olds, especially as, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, fewer people are going to the shops to purchase their newspapers and magazines.

The best way to get a paper round at 14, is to check whether local newsagents in your area need someone to do a paper round. Even if they don’t advertise it, go in and ask (just make sure you’re dressed smartly, speak clearly and make eye contact!).

If newsagents don’t have a paper round available at the moment, leave your details and make sure you call back to check every couple of weeks, as this shows initiative and they will remember you. You can also make flyers or business cards and leave them at newsagents, so that they know you are available for a paper round.

There should be several different timings for paper round routes, so you can fit them around your school work. If your parents don’t want you to do an evening paper round, you could apply for a morning or midday one.

The minimum wage for a 14-year old is currently £4.35 an hour, so make sure the newsagent is paying you at least this for the paper round (if they don’t pay you this, they are breaking the law).

As well as newsagents, local newspapers also advertise for paper rounds, so check the websites of local publications to see if you can secure one through them. For example, the Local Guardian (which has publications in several places, including Croydon, Wandsworth and Epsom) and the Basildon, Canvey and Southend Echo advertises paper rounds for those 13 and older.

Delivering leaflets and flyers

Similarly, you can also deliver leaflets and flyers for businesses as a 14 year old, if you can find someone to hire you.

Use your initiative and pick through any leaflets advertising local services that come through your door. Call the numbers on them, to see if the businesses need any help delivering leaflets.

Whether its a local taxi company, new Thai restaurant or pizza delivery service, you can help them raise their profile in the local community, by pushing their flyers through people’s doors.

Another killer way to secure a gig with a local business, is to identify which local businesses don’t seem to be advertising through flyers or business cards.

You could put your design skills to work, create a mock up of an advertising leaflet for the business, and go and show it to, for example, a new restaurant or DIY store that’s opened up. You can offer to print and distribute the leaflets for free, which is an impressive way to build up your business and negotiation skills at a young age.

Tutoring

Tutoring is a great job to get at 14, especially as there are such a variety of ways in which you can do it. At the age of 14, word of mouth is probably the best – and safest – way to get tutoring jobs. For example, if your relative has a younger child who is struggling with algebra at school, you could offer to tutor them, so that they can improve.

If you’ve never tutored before, you may have to do a couple of sessions for free at first, but once you start building up experience and recommendations, you can start charging. Parents may well offer to pay you from the start, especially if you’re particularly adept at certain subjects.

You can also build up your tutoring business by offering to tutor kids in your class, who need a bit of extra help with certain subjects. If they struggle with Biology but are great at English Literature, and you need help with the latter, you could support each other to improve. Again, this is likely to be unpaid at first, but you’ll get valuable experience from this that will help you get paid tutoring jobs in the future.

There are also online tutoring platforms that you can use to find paid work as a tutor. Some platforms, like Superprof, allow you to set yourself up as a tutor if you’re 14. However, you should always get your parents’ permission to do any online tutoring, and they should always be in the room or nearby if you are tutoring remotely, to ensure your safety.

Tutoring at 14 has some incredible benefits for your education and future career. You’ll learn skills at a young age that most adults are still learning, which will give you a flying head start against competitors for jobs and university courses. For example, you’ll learn how to interact professionally with clients (your students and their parents), as you deliver on objectives. For example, if your tutee’s parents want you to help their child pass their Maths 11+ or improve their marks at school, you’ll quickly learn strategies to make that happen, as you want to keep that job!

You’ll also gain invaluable communications skills, as you learn to translate a subject so that your student can understand it. You’ll develop a fantastic intuition for how others process and understand this, which will make you an excellent employee in any workplace. Teaching a subject to someone else can also really cement your own understanding, improving your own grades.

Babysitting

Babysitting is the quintessential job for a 14 year old, and with some professional flair, you could turn it into a decent business.

Babysitting is an extremely important job, especially if you’re looking after much younger children. It gives you valuable, transferrable skills for the workplace, including communication and implementing demands and expectations from the parents of the children you’re babysitting. If you’re 14 and have no babysitting experience yet, parents are only really likely to hire you if there is a family connection and they know you well.

To get regular babysitting gigs, you need experience. Start off by taking care of your siblings or cousins, or offering to watch a neighbour’s kid for half an hour. The parents of the children you care for can give you valuable recommendations (never underestimate the magic of word-of-mouth marketing) if you do a good job. You can add these recommendations to a website or CV once you start looking for paid babysitting work from parents you don’t necessarily know. Make sure you ask for recommendations or to use the parents as references, as they may not do this automatically.

While you’ll usually get most of your babysitting jobs through relatives and your parents’ friends, there are a few online childcare platforms that let you sign up. These platforms allow professional nannies and babysitters to advertise their services, and link parents up with babysitters within a convenient distance.

However, if you do sign up to one of these platforms, you’ll have to share an account with your parents if you’re under 18. For example, you can get a Care.com account as a 14 year old, but you need your parent or guardian to verify your account, and they will have access to it at all times.

You can also make flyers advertising yourself as a babysitter (include any experience you have with children, whether that’s volunteering at the church creche or an after school club, and babysitting courses you’ve taken, to enhance your credibility) and stick them to local community notice boards. Again, make sure your parents are involved, and that they meet anyone who is interested in hiring you as a babysitter.

To maximise your success (and chances of getting re-hired!) as a babysitter, turn up early, make a list of sensible questions for the parents (for example, does their child have a favourite toy or bedtime routine that helps them settle?), and bring a notebook and make notes of any instructions they give you.

Don’t sit around on your phone or staring at the TV all the time you’re with the kids, as this isn’t responsible (kids can easily get into accidents when you take your eyes off them for a minute). Also, you’re unlikely to get invited back if you don’t make at least some effort to play some entertaining games with them, and make it a memorable experience.

It’s a good idea to do some research on age-appropriate, fun and creative activities for the kids you’re babysitting, and bring some craft supplies along with you. The kids are guaranteed to remember, and beg their parents to have you round the next time they have a date night, or other event!

You can increase your credibility even more as a babysitter, by taking a course in infant or child CPR and first aid. Ask your parents if you can do a cheap first aid course with the Red Cross or St John’s Ambulance, to give your babysitting clients the extra reassurance that their children are in safe hands.

Dog walking and grooming

Becoming a dog walker or dog groomer is a great job to get at 14, especially as it’s a niche and interesting market. If you like animals and are comfortable around dogs or any shape and size, you can get some experience walking them. Like with most jobs at age 14, your first dog walking jobs will come from friends or family. If you don’t have a lot of experience, offer to walk their dogs for free at first, to help you build up your knowledge. You’ll probably find that, if you do it often enough, family or friends of family will start offering you some financial compensation. Even more importantly, you can use them as references as you start to grow your business.

Come to each dog walk armed with poop bags and doggy treats, and they’ll soon be eating out of your hand (the dog owners, as well as the dogs!). Always ask the dog owner for their preferences when it comes to walking their dog and for information about the dog’s temperament, including whether and when they should be walked off lead, any special commands they’ll listen to so that you can get them back on the lead, and generally how to handle them. This will emphasise that you are trustworthy and professional, and you’ll increase your chances of getting regular paid jobs.

While you don’t need an official certificate for dog walking, it can add credibility. Look online to see if there are any free or cheap courses in dog walking that you can get training and a certificate out of, as this is likely to help when you start advertising your services to more people in your community.

Dog grooming can also be an excellent job at get at 14, especially because most dog owners would love to be spared the stress of bathing their dog! (get ready for lots of splashing and soap). You’ll need lots of practice, though. If you have your own dog at home, start by becoming an expert in bathing and grooming them, and watch Youtube videos for extra tips. Try to get some work experience in a local dog grooming salon, and learn everything you can from the professional groomers. While this is likely to be unpaid at first, it’s extremely useful for building up your experience in dog grooming, so you can advertise your services with confidence. This may well lead to paid work helping to sweep up dog hair or do some simple grooming procedures on Saturdays, for example.

Once you’re confident that your dog walking and grooming experience is up to scratch, get some cheap business cards off somewhere like Vistaprint or Bananaprint (or make your own at home), add your contact details and a description of your dog walking or grooming services and start dropping them through doors in your local neighbourhood. To increase your credibility even more, free website using a platform like WordPress, where you include a description of your dog walking and / or grooming services, add pictures and testimonials from the owners of dogs you’ve groomed and walked. They should be more than happy to do this, especially if you’ve provided a reliable service for them. For your safety, make sure your parents always meet your potential client, and get clients to bring their dogs to you for grooming.

Working on a farm, or with horses

If you love animals and you can deal with hard, physical work, it’s a good idea to see if you could get a job at a local stable or farm.

While farms and stables would have to obey strict child labour laws in employing you, for example, not allowing you to drive a combine harvester or anything with a trailer, you could make a bit of money feeding chickens, goats and sheep, and mucking out stables and chicken coops.

You may have to do unpaid work experience at first (if it’s unpaid, make sure it doesn’t last longer than two weeks, unless it’s volunteering that you get genuine value from, for example, free rides and lessons at a stable, in exchange for helping out). However, once you have at least some experience under your belt, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be paid.

If you’re keen to get a job on a farm as a 14 year old, the best farming jobs won’t be on the internet. You’ll have to get in contact with local farmers in your community, and see if they have anything available.

If you’re passionate about working with horses in the future, one of the best ways to get the experience you need is to help out in a stable, even if it’s unpaid at first. Call up local stables and tack and saddle shops, to see if they need any help. Take your initiative up a notch, and produce flyers with a description of yourself, and why you’d be cut out to work in a stable (emphasise your reliability and any experience you have with animals).

Gain as much knowledge as you can keeping the horses clean and well fed, filling their hay nets, measuring their feed, and tacking them up (putting on their saddles), because you can get fantastic paid apprenticeships working with horses from age 16, and you’re more likely to be awarded one if you can demonstrate strong experience with horses.

For example, you can get an apprenticeship as a groom, making sure that horses are well cared for and ready for riding and competitions. You’ll do everything from brushing their coats to exercising them, You can build up enough experience with horses to open your own riding school or stable one day! You can also look out for young apprenticeships now (for teens aged 14-16), to see if there is anything involving horses.

Starting your own business

Starting your own business is one of the most exciting jobs you can do aged 14. While a lot of jobs are technically available for 14 year olds, it can be hard to convince people to hire you, especially on a formal basis. So, starting your own business, whether that’s through word-of-mouth or using an online marketplace like Etsy, helps you take matters into your own hands.

YouTuber and entrepreneur Gillian Cooper started her own business aged 14, entirely by word-of-mouth (as we said earlier, word-of-mouth is marketing magic). Gillian wanted to make money, but no one was hiring 14 year olds. However, she was in a local orchestra and a friend approached her wanting to learn the flute. 

Gillian gave lessons for free at first, but her friend found them so useful she started paying Gillian $10 an hour, and recommending her to other people. Soon, Gillian had a booming business which kept her comfortable well into her teens. She was her own boss and controlled every aspect of the business, so it didn’t matter if she was 14 or 40.

By following similar principles, you may well also become a successful entrepreneur aged 14. If you have a talent, for example, playing an instrument, teaching people football or creating personalised cushion covers, think about how it could become a business.

For example, if you’re a talented baker, start creating cookies or muffins for school fetes or bake sales or even just friends and relatives, and let the word get round that your cakes are available for purchase. Word-of-mouth is such amazing marketing, because it’s natural and full of trust. Focus on creating a wonderful, quality product that you know people will love. Then, ask them to recommend it to friends or family, if they genuinely think it’s great.

The wonderful thing about starting a business at 14, is that your overheads (costs of running the business) will be low. You won’t be paying rent on a building or studio to teach music classes, for example, and you’ll likely be doing nay work out of your parents’ or guardian’s home. Once you get a regular flow of income from the business and keep it ticking along while you focus on your education and getting the qualifications you need, you can easily expand when you become an adult.

The perfect way to start a successful business as a 14 year old, is also to have a strong, online platform for selling your product. There are dozens of online retail sites such as Etsy, Amazon and eBay that you can use to sell things and make a profit. However, in most cases you’ll need a parent or guardian to open the account with you. On sites like eBay, you’re only allowed to sell through a parent’s account if you’re under 18 and they will be responsible for everything that is done on that account (make sure you check the exact rules on 14 year olds opening shops on whichever online retail platform you choose).

Here’s a simple overview of how to start an online business:

• Brainstorm the products you want to sell (or make and sell). For example, if you’re going to make your own bath bombs, do a lot of research into how to safely produce bath bombs, as your customers will all have different types of skin, and what is OK for some customers may not be OK for others.
• Create a unique brand name
• Bulk buy your products or ingredients for products from vendors. For example, if you need gel food colouring for the slime business you’re starting, search ‘gel food colouring vendor’ on Instagram or Facebook, and you’ll find what you need. Bulk buying is cheaper, and allows you to then sell individual products for a profit. You don’t have to spend a lot to make your first sale, and could probably start from £70 or less, as long as you find a decent quality product that you can access cheaply. Bulk buy some fake eyelashes, check out how much your competitors are selling them for and you’re on your way.
• Make your own website. Even if you’re selling through a platform like Etsy or eBay, you’ll still need your own website to add authority to your brand and business, so that you can grow it in the future. A website makes your business look more professional, and reassures customers that they interacting with a real person, building trust.
• Make sure you’re making a profit! Create a budget which details how much you’ll spend on bulk buying (and any other overheads, including postage costs if you’re not including them in the overall price of your product), and calculate your sale so that the money that’s left over rolls into your bank account.

If you’re making your own cosmetics to sell, just be extra careful of safety and production laws for homemade cosmetics in the UK. If you don’t pay attention to product safety, your reputation will be harmed you’re unlikely to get repeat customers, and you could get in legal trouble.

Become a social media influencer

If you become successful enough on social media as a 14 year old, you can turn it into a well-paying job. Nearly three quarters of Gen Z and millennials in the US alone say they trust influencers more than their favourite celebrities when it comes to advice about brands and products, so if you can get enough followers on social media, brands will pay you to collaborate with them. You can do everything from posting affiliate links, to wearing or using brand products. The best thing is, you can choose products you genuinely like or would use yourself, to keep your content genuine.

To grow your social media account enough to become an influencer, make sure you:

• Choose a niche that you’re passionate about, whether it’s animals, fashion, exercise or crafts.
• Post consistent content
• Interact with your followers, and respond to their comments
• Interact with other brands and influencers – like, comment and respond so that people get to know you.
• Use relevant hashtags to get your content seen and grow your audience
• Use analytics (for example, Instagram analytics) to see which areas of your content perform well, and which don’t do as well. Then use this information to learn, improve and increase your reach.
• Record videos and stories. Videos generate 1200% more shares than images and text.

In the end, the most important thing is that you create genuine, quality content that resonates with people. That is what will attract followers, boost your content and get the attention of brands. To get brands to sponsor you on social media sites, make sure you tag them in your posts, as well as declare in your content that you’re open to brand collaborations (make sure the brand is something you yourself would genuinely endorse, or it won’t come across as natural).

Affiliate Marketing

A huge plus of creating content for a Youtube channel, Instagram or Facebook account is the chance to do affiliate marketing. You don’t have to have millions of followers or engagements, as a video with even a few hundreds or thousands of views can make money from affiliate links. The most important thing is to focus on creating content for your followers which has genuine value and which they will find useful. For example, if you have a passion for making dolls or reupholstering chairs, create some fantastic, engaging content that will interest or instruct people.

This is the tough part, because you have to stick with it when it feels (at first) like no one is really paying attention. Put calls to action for affiliate links in your video descriptions and apply to affiliate platforms like Amazon Affiliates (make sure you don’t sign up to any services that charges you just to apply, as you shouldn’t have to pay upfront for anything). Then, if you get accepted, you can start earning commissions by recommending products and getting a cut of the sale every time someone buys it or click son it as a result of your recommendation.

Most big brands, for example Missguided, have their own affiliate programmes through affiliate platforms, so you can choose to market what you want.

Retail assistant

At just 14, you’re unlikely to find many paid opportunities in retail, but it doesn’t hurt to apply and ask. The best thing to do is approach your local, independent shops – newsagents or local businesses, for example – and ask if they need any help. If you find any retail work it’s likely to be cleaning up in the back or stacking shelves, but all these experiences are great learning opportunities, and will give you a huge edge over other candidates when you apply for jobs when you’re older. Print out flyers advertising your availability as a retail assistant and drop them round local shops, as you’re more likely to get noticed this way. It’s a good idea if you have any relatives or friends of your parents who run independent businesses, to ask them if they will let you work occasionally in their stores.

Cafe work

Similarly to retail work, it’s hard to find independent paid opportunities in cafes and restaurants if you’re just 14. However, you are allowed by law to work a few hours a week, so there is no reason why you can’t drop round some applications or a flyer advertising your availability. You won’t be allowed to work on the tills, but cafe managers may well need someone to help sweep up or pick up used utensils and take them back to the kitchen. If you have family members who run their own cafes or restaurants, you’ll likely have an easier time getting a few hours of work running odd errands outside of school hours.

Hairdressing

Any hairdressing work you manage to snag is unlikely to be paid at first, but getting some work experience in a salon is a great way to start out if you’re passionate about styling hair, or running your own business in the future. While you won’t be working on customers’ hair and will likely just be sweeping up hair, making teas and coffees for staff and generally cleaning up, take the opportunity to look around and learn everything you can about how the salon runs. If you impress the staff enough, you may well get asked back to do some hours of paid work, and you’ll be in with a much bigger chance of getting a permanent part time job there once you turn 16, if they’ve worked with you and know you’re reliable. If they’re an independent salon, take the initiative to look at their social media and see how they could revamp it to attract more customers. This is likely to impress them, and let them see what a useful asset you could be.

Office jobs

Offices always need staff to do the simple admin tasks that pile up and become seemingly endless. If you have good organisational skills, try dropping round notes to various businesses in the area, saying that you’re available for filing and scanning, admin tasks and even data entry, depending on how good your mathematics skills are. Again, 14 is a little young for most offices to want to hire you, but often who you know is just as important as what you know. If you have family who work in accountancy firms or any business, ask them if they need any extra help with office tasks. Offer to do a little work experience unpaid at first, so they can test out your skills.

Cleaning

Cleaning is a great job to get as a 14 year old, especially because it’s pretty easy to pick up experience. Most parents or guardians will pay their kids to do chores, so you could make this a regular opportunity with your family. Don’t slack off just because it’s your own home, because if you prove yourself to be reliable, you’ll have a steady trickle of income, no matter how small. Ask around friends and family to see if they need any odd cleaning jobs done, and if you do a good job and are reliable, you’ll probably find you get lots of offers. Once you have plenty of cleaning experience under your belt and you’ve worked out a housework routine, you can start advertising your cleaning business to neighbours that you and your parents know well.

Photography

The beauty of the smartphone means that everyone can be a star photographer, especially if you have an eye for an image and a creative flair. If you take good photographs, you can start uploading your photos to stock photo sites like Shutterstock, Unsplash and Pixabay. Every time someone downloads and buys on of your photographs, you’ll get some money in commission.

Selling print on demand designs

If you love producing your own designs, print on demand is a very useful way to make some cash. Essentially, you upload a logo or design that you create, and then outsource it to someone who manufactures goods like t-shirts, mugs, bags, pencil-cases – basically, anything you can get a personalised design on, which is most things in existence nowadays. Then, every time someone buys your product, you make a commission from it, after you’ve paid the producer to supply and sell it. So, for example, if you list a t-shirt for £20 on your shop or website, you pay £9 to a supplier to manufacture it, and you get £11 profit. The good thing is, you only have to pay anything to a supplier if you sell something. There are no costs if you don’t sell, which keeps the business risk-free. Good print on demand sites include Merch by Amazon (especially good because Amazon has such a huge reach), and Redbubble. Often, you will need to set up a joint account with your parents, however, as many print on demand sites require you to be 18 to join yourself.

Acting

There are dozens of acting jobs available for 14 year olds. Not all will involve a starring role (for example, you’ll often see dozens of teenagers, adults and children acting as extras or background actors in films, television or stage productions), but it can be a great way to make money. Look online with your parents to find local casting calls, and get yourself an agent who can help you find acting work. If you have a skill and passion for acting, and you are the right fit for a role, you may well find yourself booking a few jobs as a child actor. Just make sure you never meet anyone without your parents there, and make sure your parents accompany you to every meeting and audition, to ensure your safety.

Gardening and plant sitting

Simple gardening jobs such as weeding and taking care of people’s plants when they’re away on holiday can be great jobs for a 14 year old. Start off at home asking your parents if they need any help in the garden (hopefully they will pay you a few pounds to do some chores). Learn as much as you can, both from your parents and Youtube, how to do basic plant and lawn care, for example, how to weed without pulling out flowers that aren’t weeds, and how to make plants thrive. After you’ve gained enough experience, branch out to relatives, parents’ friends and neighbours, to see if they need any help.

Content writing and blogging

Content writing and blogging are very exciting jobs to do as a 14 year old, especially if you are creative and tech-savvy. If you manage to create a website that attracts enough traffic and you put your time and effort into creating content that ranks well on Google, and is high-quality and interesting, there are lots of ways that you can make money through content writing and blogging. Set up a website using a free site like WordPress, and read up on Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) to maximise your chances of getting traffic to your website. Use the right keywords and tags on sites like WordPress, and create the best quality content you can. Make sure your site and blog are in a niche that you find interesting, so that you’ll have the energy and interest to keep working on it. After your blog becomes popular you can get money through affiliate links and use Google Adsense to place paid adverts on your website, where you earn a commission every time someone engages with or clicks on the advert. You may even be invited to guest blog on other websites, and you can earn a fee through doing this.

Volunteering

Though unpaid, volunteering is one of the best jobs to do as a 14 year old, because it gives you the work experience to get paid work as soon as you turn 16, while most of your peers will still be starting out. Volunteer work is also useful for university applications, if you align it with the subject you want to study at university. For example, if you plan to study medicine, racking up work experience in a care home, clinic or pharmacy will give you the communication skills you need to work with patients. The good thing about volunteering is that there are a myriad of opportunities for 14 year olds. Think about where you want to volunteer (whether it’s a care home, youth group or local sports club), and just call them up to offer your availability.

How can I maximise my chances of getting a job at 14?

Any job you do at 14 will provide priceless experience, and give you the skills you need to get the university course or career of your dreams. To make sure you get that job:

• work hard on creating a CV and cover letter, if a job application requires one. Don’t just say what you have done in previous experience, state the results it had and how this qualifies you for the job you’re applying for. Use plenty of action verbs, for example, “launched and managed study group at school, to help students catch up with mathematics’.
• Prepare well for the interview. Dress smartly, make eye contact, shake hands and use the S.T.A.R (‘situation, task, action, result’) method to answer questions. Every time the interviewer asks you a question such as: demonstrate how you showed responsibility in a difficult situation, answer by citing a situation and task you had to do, the action you took and the outcome of the result, so you’re giving a truly practical example of how you took responsibility.

So, that’s it! 18 jobs that you can get at 14 years old. Remember that, at your age, any experience counts when trying to get a job: whether it’s volunteering in your local church youth group or taking the initiative to tutor a younger child in a subject they struggle with. Don’t be afraid to put this information (if it’s relevant) on any CVs or flyers you send advertising your availability for a job.