How Much Should Your Kid Charge?

Two things are happening when a kid refuses to name a number, and only one of them is nerves.

The obvious one is fear. Saying a price out loud invites a no, and the no feels personal at that age. Deferring to the customer avoids the whole moment.

The less obvious one is that they genuinely do not know. They have never bought this service, never paid anyone for anything like it, and have no reference point for what an hour of work is worth. Whatever you think is fair is an honest answer to a question they cannot answer.

So the fix is two parts, in order. Give them a reference point, then make them practice saying it.

Skipping the first part is why encouragement does not work here. Telling a nervous kid to be confident about a number they invented does not help. Telling them the guy down the street charges forty and asking what they want to charge is a different conversation entirely.

The number matters less than the delivery, and this is the part you can actually coach.

Have your kid say the price and then stop talking. That is the whole skill. Most kids, and most adults, say a number and then immediately fill the silence with a discount, an apology, or a justification. Forty dollars, but I could do thirty if that is too much. The customer had not even reacted yet.

Practice it at the kitchen table. You ask how much. They answer. Then both of you count to five in silence. Run it ten times. It feels ridiculous and it works, because the silence is the thing they are afraid of and the only fix is familiarity.

Two other habits worth building.

Say the price as a fact, not a question. Forty dollars, not is forty okay?

Name what it includes right after the number. Forty dollars, and that is the front and the walkway. Specificity makes a price feel reasoned rather than invented.

Teaching a fourteen year old to say a number and wait is worth more than the money. Plenty of adults never learn it, which is a large part of why I have a job.

Your kid will want to cut the price to land the first customer. It feels like the safe move and it quietly costs them twice.

First, they have now proved that somebody will pay half. They have not proved anybody will pay full, which was the entire point of asking. Those are two different businesses and only one of them is worth running.

Second, the discount travels. The customer tells a neighbor what they paid, so the low number becomes the going rate on that street before your kid has finished the first job.

If they do discount, one rule. Write the full price on the receipt and put the discount underneath it. Fifty dollars, twenty percent off, forty dollars.

Now the customer knows what it costs next time, and so does whoever they tell. The discount stays a one-time thing instead of becoming the price.

There is a better move than discounting, and it is worth teaching early. Take something out instead of taking money off. Forty dollars for the driveway and the walkway, or thirty for just the driveway. Same reduction, and the price per unit of work never drops.

My son and I had a conversation that changed how he saw his business.

He was charging per driveway. Good money for a Saturday. But every Monday he started at zero and had to go find somebody new.

So I asked what would happen if ten people paid him a smaller amount every month instead. Same work, arranged differently, and a completely different business. One is a job that pays well. The other keeps paying while he is at school.

The part that took longer to sort out. Not every job can be packaged that way, and it comes down to whether the work naturally comes back.

A driveway needs washing maybe twice a year, so a monthly plan is a hard sell. A lawn needs cutting every week in season, so it practically is a subscription already and nobody had thought to sell it that way. Dog walking, trash cans, and pet care are the same, and those are the ones where a kid can build something steady.

So the question for your kid is not whether to do subscriptions. It is how often the problem comes back, and whether the pricing matches.

If the answer is that it comes back weekly, have them quote the month instead of the visit. Same money, far less selling, and a customer who does not have to decide again every week.

Almost every kid starts too low. That is fine, and it is fixable, but only if they raise it deliberately rather than hoping to grow into it.

When to raise. When they are consistently busy, when nobody has questioned the price in a while, or when the work turns out to take longer than they assumed. Being fully booked at a low price is the clearest signal there is.

How to raise it with new customers. Just quote the new number. No explanation required.

How to raise it with existing customers. This is the part kids dread and it is simpler than they think. Tell them before it happens, in one sentence, with a reason and a date. Starting in September I am going to forty dollars, since it takes longer than I thought.

Most customers say fine. Some will not, and losing one is usually the right trade. A kid who keeps four customers at forty is making more than a kid keeping five at thirty, and doing less work for it.

Worth telling your kid directly: nobody is going to raise it for them. Waiting to be offered more money is not a plan at fourteen and it is not a plan at forty either.

Step one. Have your kid research one number. Ask two neighbors what they last paid someone for this work.

Step two. Pick a price. Write it down. Not a range, one number.

Step three. Practice at the kitchen table. You ask how much, they answer, then both of you stay quiet for five seconds. Do it until the flinch is gone.

Step four. Ask them what the customer actually gets. If the answer is the task restated, keep going until it is the result.

Step five. Decide whether this work comes back. If it does, price the monthly version before the first conversation, not after.

Then go say it to real people. The ten conversations plan is where the price gets tested.

The free parent guide covers the whole first thirty days.