Although you are still a minor, the Law on Persons and Families gives you the right to sign contracts with the consent of your parents or guardians/trustees, as well as to conclude ordinary small transactions to meet your current needs and to dispose of what you acquire with your labor.

 

• Entrepreneurial initiatives

At your age, you already have various skills that you can use for entrepreneurial activities from which you can receive income. Your peers earn money by babysitting or giving private lessons in foreign languages, mathematics, and other subjects, helping with homework for younger students, walking dogs, or performing small tasks for neighbors.

The important thing is to have ideas and the desire to be proactive, responsible and disciplined. Creative thinking will help you create new things, and if you are interested in programming, social networks, or online commerce, you will have many opportunities to earn income.

For example, if you have skills in creating text or video content, try offering such services online. If you are good at graphic design or programming, you can develop applications, games, or websites on demand. Bloggers, vloggers and influencers generate income from advertising and sponsorships. Some platforms also give talented young people the opportunity to sell their handmade items or works of art.

Since you are not yet an adult, under the Commercial Act you are not considered a freelancer or a trader, and therefore cannot register as such. But keep in mind that this is also related to certain obligations to the state - such as paying taxes and mandatory insurance (link to article "Taxes and social security contributions"), which you must comply with in order for your activity to meet the requirements of the tax and insurance regulations. Otherwise, you risk, if a deviation from the taxation rules is established, having to pay the entire amount due at once, along with the interest due.

Much more significant than these incomes, however, is the knowledge and skills in the field of sales, finance, and marketing that you will build with your entrepreneurial activity. Regardless of what it will be, there are some basic questions that every business venture must find answers to. Ask yourself first what your interests, skills, and resources are. Look into the needs of the people around you. Can you satisfy some of them with your skills? What can you offer them and what will its value (tangible and intangible) be for them? All of this will help you find your business idea.

Back up your idea with research on your target customer group, market size, and competitors to make sure it is feasible and can be profitable. Assess what resources you will need and how you will provide them, how you will reach your customers, and what revenues you can expect. This will outline your business model and take the first steps towards your business plan. State your goals and describe how you plan to achieve them.

As you run your business, promote your product or service to your target customer group and regularly monitor your income and expenses.

There are many sources of information and advice for starting a business, but don’t miss the opportunity to consult experienced professionals – for example, people with businesses in your close family and friends, from your teachers who can be your mentors. They can help you, for example, by orienting you in the legal regulations so that your activity is legal.

 

Some advice

Declare your income and pay taxes and mandatory social security contributions regularly (link to article "Taxes and social security contributions").

Be reasonable! Do not look for “easy” and “fast money”, such as winnings from gambling games, which abound in the online space. Although the law does not allow persons under the age of 18 to gamble, unfortunately, some young people do it and even develop an addiction. In addition to the negative financial, psychological, and social consequences, the money earned in this way is not real income, because it does not come from work or investments that create value, but is due only to chance.

Also, be careful with investments in high-risk assets (e.g. crypto assets). Speculating with such assets can bring you easy and large profits, but it is also likely that you will quickly lose all your money. Investments that offer unrealistically high returns (e.g. several percent per month) are usually scams (so-called “Ponzi” schemes or pyramids).

If you are invited to join a “great opportunity” – a distributor of a direct sales company, such as cosmetics, supplements, household chemicals which requires you to first pay for the product (buy a starter pack) and then attract new distributors, these are clear signals that it is a so-called Multilevel Marketing (MLM) scheme. These schemes use real products, but the profit, as in pyramid schemes, comes from attracting new distributors, not from selling the products themselves. As a result, the people at the top of the pyramid earn the most. Do not take promises of “easy money” and “quick return on investment” at face value – it is very likely that you will not even be able to sell the products from the starter pack.

Focus on activities that will help you develop skills, and if you carefully and correctly combine study and work, they will undoubtedly be useful to you in the future, both in your personal and professional life. By working hard, saving, investing, and managing your money wisely, you will be able to achieve real financial independence.