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 with money you already have, or could borrow from a parent for a week. 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 this weekend, 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.

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. Do the weekend test. Every page has one. It costs almost nothing and tells you in two days whether anyone wants this.
  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 takes about an hour and explains what you are actually doing when you sell something.
Start Module 1Create a student account