I’m 12 and I’ve earned £200 in weeks selling handmade jewellery – I’m saving up to buy concert tickets
A SAVVY schoolgirl has made £200 in just weeks by selling handmade jewellery in the hopes it will be her ticket to see her favourite stars in concert.
Daisy Donaghy-Gibbons, 12, from the West Midlands, buys the beads to make bracelets and phone charms for £2-£3 from e-commerce site Temu, which is enough to make around 40 accessories.
She sells roughly six bracelets a week for for £4 each on her Instagram page, beads.byboo, while phone charms go for £10 each.
Daisy first started selling her jewellery in June last year as a way of filling her time during the school holidays, and was delighted when she earned £200 in just a few weeks.
Daisy is one of hundreds of thousands of children using side hustles as a way to top up their savings, new data shows.
A study of 300,000 children released by Natwest this week found 40% said they made extra money by getting paid to do jobs or by picking up a side hustle.
“I’ve always loved fashion and accessories, and I also wanted to earn some extra pocket money, so beaded bracelet business was an easy place for me to start,” Daisy said.
“I love being creative, so being able to earn some extra money as well as doing something I enjoy has been great.”
After trying a few methods of flogging her wares, Daisy quickly found social media is the best place to sell her accessories and has now employed some savvy tactics to get her business noticed.
She told The Sun: “Sales have become easier since my mum helped me to use social media like Instagram to advertise and attract new customers.
“I have even designed business cards with my social media tag on them and included those when I posted my orders.
“The next step is to set up an Etsy page, which is really exciting.”
Daisy has also enlisted the help of her friends and family to help with advertising, giving them free bracelets in exchange for them promoting her business on their social media accounts.
And her enterprising spirit has now encouraged some of her friends to considering embarking on their own money-making ventures.
“Some of my friends have also started to make their own bracelets, but they do it just for fun,” she said.
“I do have one friend who has sold some bracelets of her own, but just between friends and family.”
The cash Daisy makes goes straight into her GoHenry debit card account, which she opened with her mum Nathalie in June 2019.
GoHenry is a card provider aimed at children from six to 18 years old and is one of the most established pocket money apps.
Parents can get real-time notifications of where and when their child is spending, and can block the card at any time.
There are three paid membership options: Everyday (£3.99) Plus (£5.99) and Max (£9.99). Daisy currently has an everyday subscription.
Each membership allows parents to manage their child’s money and put on parental controls, but with a plus subscription, you can earn cashback and get 4.5% interest on savings, while the “max” account allows you to have more than one child on the account.
All accounts come with a one-month free trial.
Other apps to help children under money include NatWest Rooster Money, Nimbl and Revolut < 18.
Daisy said: “Having the GoHenry app has helped me to make sure I have a little bit of pocket money left over each week to spend money on things I like if I spot them.
“With the money I’ve earned, I can go shopping with my friends or go to the cinema. I don’t need to rely on my parents so much.”
GoHenry also has a pocket money chart, chore chart and other resources for helping teach your kids about money.
Do I need to pay tax on my side hustle income?
MANY people feeling strapped for cash are boosting their bank balance with a side hustle.
The good news is, there are plenty of simple ways to earn some additional income – but you need to know the rules.
When you’re employed the company you work for takes the tax from your earnings and pays HMRC so you don’t have to.
But anyone earning extra cash, for example from selling things online or dog walking, may have to do it themselves.
Stephen Moor, head of employment at law firm Ashfords, said: “Caution should be taken if you’re earning an additional income, as this is likely to be taxable.
“The side hustle could be treated as taxable trading income, which can include providing services or selling products.”
You can make a gross income of up to £1,000 a year tax-free via the trading allowance, but over this and you’ll usually need to pay tax.
Stephen added: “You need to register for a self-assessment at HMRC to ensure you are paying the correct amount of tax.
“The applicable tax bands and the amount of tax you need to pay will depend on your income.”
If you fail to file a tax return you could end up with a surprise bill from HMRC later on asking you to pay the tax you owe – plus extra fees on top.
In the long-term, Daisy hopes to use the money she’s made from selling her beads and bracelets to see some her favourite artists perform live.
“I’m saving up for tickets to see Dua Lipa and Ariana Grande,” she said.
“I also want to save up so I can get some more stock for my bead business. I also like buying things for my dog.”
The entrepreneur buys her beads on Temu to keep costs down, but if she needs emergency stock she uses Amazon or Hobbycraft.
Side hustlers can earn up to £1,000 in extra income without paying tax, thanks to the trading allowance.
This can include money made from selling items online, like Daisy, or from flogging secondhand items at car boot sales or auctions.
Once you earn more than £1,000 a year, you need to complete a self-assessment tax return and start paying tax on your extra earnings.
How much that is will depend on how much you already earn.
Are children allowed to work?
CHILDREN can work part-time from the age of 13 (or sometimes younger if acting or modelling, for instance, which might require a licence).
In term time, 13 and 14-year-olds can work a maximum of 12 hours a week, up to two hours a day on school days and Sundays, and up to five hours on Saturdays.
For those aged 15 and 16 the restrictions are the same but they can work eight hours on Saturdays.
You can leave school on the last Friday in June if you’ll be 16 by the end of the summer holidays. But if you’re not in full-time education or training, you must either do an apprenticeship or you can train part-time alongside working or volunteering for at least 20 hours a week until you are 18.
There is no minimum wage for school-aged workers, but they don’t have to pay National Insurance. Teens aged 16 to 17 must be paid at least £5.28 per hour and and can work a maximum of eight hours a day or 40 hours per week. From the age of 18, normal adult employment rules apply.
How to teach children about money
The cost of living crisis has made it harder for parents to gift children cash to help them on the property ladder or generally get ahead.
In fact, one in four parents surveyed by GoHenry said they don’t plan on saving money to help their children buy a home.
This makes it more important than ever for young generations to understand how money works and the benefits of saving.
Louise Hill, chief executive and co-founder of GoHenry, has the following tips for getting into a money mindset for your family:
Set challenges for kids
To help kids be more intentional with their spending, parents can challenge them to set a budget and save for an item, or wait for sales and discounts, rather than paying full price.
Alternatively, she recommends teaching kids the very valuable lesson of “needs” versus “wants” by encouraging them to wait a few days before they decide to make a purchase.
For example, help them understand that a new party dress or trainers aren’t a need, especially if they will struggle to pay for it later – it’s their future self that will suffer.
Limit luxuries and opt for budget-friendly alternatives
Setting a budget and getting creative with some fun alternatives can also help parents teach their kids to take pleasure in the simple things to keep costs in check.
Instead of costly outings like dinner and a movie, you could try an at-home movie night with some delicious homemade “fake-away” food.
Talk to your children about how much has been saved by opting for a cheaper option and how much that will save if you did it every week or every month.
Give tangible examples, for example if the amount saved is enough to pay for a new toy.
You could suggest alternative present ideas such as buying second-hand from charity shops or even making handmade gifts. Talk about price differences with children and when something is worth more money and when you can save.
It’s also a good opportunity to talk about cutting down on waste to protect the planet, too.
Introduce savings goals
It doesn’t matter how much pocket-money your child is saving – it could be a big or small amount.
But the act of saving money regularly helps open up conversations around money in the home and gets children thinking about the value of cash.
This is super important as we move to a cashless society and children don’t see physical money exchanging hands in the way we used to.
Do you have a money problem that needs sorting? Get in touch by emailing money-sm@news.co.uk.
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