You’d think that with our kids spending so much time online that they could also earn an income that way, wouldn’t you?
When I grew up the first job many young people had was a paper run!
We learnt all about business, including:
- advertising by blowing the whistle,
- customer service by being polite and giving customers what they wanted (including magazines) and
- finances by having a float and money pouch and giving customers their correct change – and then reconciling at the end of the run!
Some kids would work in the local corner store after school where all the school kids went to buy their lollies, stationary and novelties like footy cards, yoyo’s or the latest fad.
These jobs don’t exist today 🙁
Working at Maccas, KFC, Woolworths and Coles
We’re lucky our kids can work for the large US fast food companies because they learn how to be disciplined and manage a system designed so that anyone can be plugged in to perform the work.
The flip side of this is that they often lose shifts when they turn 18 because they cost too much money.
Don’t get me wrong, Coles and Woolworths are Aussie owned and have fantastic systems setup to teach and support young employees, but it just feels a little sterile and there seems to be very little SPIRIT in the workers.
Digital Marketing for local employers
When you look for the working options available for your kids today it can seem like a hard road. Yes, there are jobs at your local Pizza shop or driving for Uber or Pizza Hut but when you see how some businesses struggle with digital marketing you might see the opportunity.
Digital marketing agencies seem to provide a lot of the services for small business owners and managers and to me that looks like a great opportunity for a young person to step in.
Young workers already know how to communicate using social media but with some structured training about how to create a website, make changes and get discovered by Google they might be in a strong position to find work locally.
Digital Marketing agencies charge a lot of money or tie their clients into “systems” that charge a fee per lead. If a local business could get the help from a young person they’d probably jump at the chance.
Barry’s website is not as boring as it was
In a previous post I shared the details about a very BORING website. Since then, Barry has completed some digital marketing courses that taught him how to use WordPress and WooCommerce to improve his website appearance and usefulness.
There is still a long way to go but if you want your own children to learn these skills and explore digital marketing work for local businesses this might be a good alternative.
Barry made a couple changes to his first website, including:
- Improved his menu for desktop visitors (but didn’t change it for mobile phone visitors)
- Created some product categories and descriptions (to get discovered by Google Search)
- Changed his web page content to look more interesting with the use of heading styles and aligning images
Make sure you subscribe to follow Barry’s progress or enrol into the affiliate marketing course to help your kids get a new start online.
