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The first decision you need to make is how you want to work. Do you want to work at home doing jobs for your parents or do you want to get a job away from home? There are advantages and disadvantages to both. Here are a few:

Work At Home	Work Outside Home
No special clothes are needed.	You may need special clothing or nicer clothes.
Parents don't usually don't pay minimum wage.	Pay is usually minimum wage to start but could rise higher.
Chores are not usually steady work (the same amount of hours each week).	You will get steadier hours per week.
Pay will depend on what your parents can afford to pay.	You will have a steadier pay and usually earn more money than at home.
You don't need to travel to get to work.	You may need to get a ride or transportation to work.
You will usually get jobs around the house that you are used to doing.	You may need training for the job or learn a job that you have never done before.

Work At Home	Work Outside Home
Babysitting	Babysitting
Gardening/Landscaping	Gardening/Landscaping
Mowing the lawn	Mowing lawns for other people
Shoveling snow	Shoveling snow for other people
Cleaning the house	Pet sitting (taking care of animals when the owner is away) Plant sitting, too
Painting	Tutoring kids in subjects you are good at

These are some examples of jobs. You can also work in department stores, home improvement stores, grocery stores, libraries, gas stations, fast food restaurants, and many more places. Look in your area newspaper at the Want Ads. Businesses advertise jobs there and it will give you an idea of what kinds of jobs are available.

At some point, you will want to work outside home because you usually earn more money that way. Depending on your age, you might need something called working papers or proof of age. Each state makes up its own laws about children working. Click here for your state information.

Most jobs are paid by the hour. How much money you make depends on how long you work. If you only worked an hour, you might get $5.00, but if you work longer, you might get $15.00. You might get paid more money if the job you are doing is harder, and doing your best always counts too!

To earn more money, do a GREAT job! This is important. If your boss sees that you are a ‘worker’, you will keep your job and maybe even get more money for doing it! That’s called a raise. Think about it this way: You walk into a store and there are two cashiers standing side by side. Neither one has a customer. The first cashier is straightening up a bunch of papers that were laying by the cash register, putting leftover hangers in a box, and scanning the clothes racks to see if anyone needs help. The second cashier is leaning against another cash register, filing her nails, and yawning in a bored way. Most people would check out with the first cashier because she was more business-like.

The person you work for is usually called your boss. This person hires you to do a job well. Your boss expects that you will come to work on time, be there every work day, dress for the job you have, work hard, and be nice to people you work with and customers you might have. Do a GREAT job and you will be a success!