The plain version: everything here is guidance, not instructions. A young person starting a business needs a grown-up alongside them, and some of what is described has real rules attached that vary by where you live.
Young Founder is a program from Founder's Best Friend that teaches young people how to start a small business. This site holds the free guides and questions, and it sells a physical kit. Using it means agreeing to what follows.
This material is written for young people, and it assumes a parent or guardian is reading it too. Deciding what a young person is ready for is a parent's call, not this site's.
Some ideas involve real equipment, real machinery, and real risk. Some involve going to strangers' houses. Some involve food. The age suggestions on each idea are a starting point for that conversation and nothing more, because a careful thirteen year old and a distracted sixteen year old are not the same person.
Nothing here is legal, tax, financial, or insurance advice. The prices suggested in the questions and answers are researched starting points, not quotes, and what a business can actually charge depends entirely on where it is.
Rules on selling food made at home, on permits, on what a young person can legally do for money, and on how earnings are taxed all vary by state, county, and city. Several guides say to check locally, and that is not boilerplate. Check locally.
No promise is made that any of this earns anybody any money. The prices given are what similar work sells for, not what a particular young person will be paid.
The safety notes on the ideas are the important ones, not fine print, and they were written because those particular jobs carry those particular risks. Following them is the family's responsibility, and so is the work itself.
Gear lists link to Amazon and some links are affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Nothing costs more because of it.
Every gear list is deliberately short and comes with a list of what to skip, because a young person spending less before their first sale is the entire point.
The book, the workbook, the guides, the artwork, and the words on this site belong to Founder's Best Friend. Print them, use them with your own family, use them in a homeschool or a co-op, and teach from them. That is what they are for.
Reselling them, republishing them, or using them in a paid program is a different thing, and that needs a conversation first.
Prices are in US dollars and can change. If something is listed at the wrong price by mistake, the order can be cancelled and refunded rather than honoured at the error.
If the kit arrives and it is not right for your family, say so and it will be sorted out.
This site links to other places. Those places run themselves and are not controlled from here.
These terms can change, and the date below moves when they do.
Questions: info@youngfounder.education
Last updated 16 August 2026.
A program from Founder's Best Friend. Built for kids 8 to 18 who want something of their own.