Hatchable

Business Ideas for Kids and Teens in Canada

Every idea on this page can be started by a 12 to 16 year old in Canada. Most need nothing you do not already own or cannot borrow; a few need real money up front, and every page says how much before it says anything else. None of them needs a website, a company or a bank loan.

None of them is about buying something cheap and selling it dearer without touching it either. Every one asks you to do something first: turn up on time, learn a repair, bake the thing, work out what a neighbour actually needs.

Each page tells you what it costs to start, how to find your first customer, which rules matter in your province, and what Aisha, Jacob or Jenny from the Hatchable course would do with it. Pick one that sounds like a Saturday you would enjoy.

If you plan to let AI do any of the work, read the ground rules for using AI safely first. There are things you must never type into it, and an age rule to check with a parent before you sign up to anything.

How to use these pages

  1. Read two or three. The right idea is the one where you already know a person who would pay for it.
  2. Go and find one customer. Every page has a section for it, and the timing is the idea’s own: a lawn this weekend, plant starts in March, snow shovelling before the first storm.
  3. Show a parent the rules section. It is short, and it is the part they will ask about.
  4. Start the course. Module 1 is 16 lessons and explains what you are actually doing when you sell something.
Start Module 1Create a student account