My teenager wants to start a business: a parent's guide for ages 13 to 17

What does starting a business look like at 13 to 17?

This guide uses a working definition of its own, not a legal one: the student makes or does something, and a person outside the family pays for it. At this age that is usually small, fitted around school, and not yet a registered business. The rules quoted here are India’s; a family abroad, in the Gulf for example, checks the rules where the student sells.

What changes is who judges the work. In a school project, a teacher sets the task and marks it; here a stranger decides, with money, whether it was worth paying for. So the early weeks are about listening more than building: who has the problem, what they do about it now, and what they would give up to have it solved.

For a parent, the useful question is not whether the first idea is good but whether the student is learning how to find out. A changed idea is the process working.

What can the student do without an adult’s signature?

Most of the early work, before any money needs an account. What follows is a suggested order, ours rather than a rule; the student can loop back whenever the idea changes.

A problem the student can reach

The start is a problem, not a product: something that bothers people the student can meet and talk to, such as classmates, neighbours or a club. The student’s own problem is a fair start, if others share it.

Conversations with people who have it

Before making anything, the student talks to people who have the problem and listens more than pitches. Questions about the past work better than questions about the future: “When did this last happen? What did you do about it? What did that cost?” People are polite about an idea; they are exact about their own week.

The smallest test

Next comes a test small enough to run soon, before anything is built; our guide to testing a product idea before building it sets out how. A test that could show the idea is wrong is worth more than a finished product nobody asked for.

The plainest version

If the test holds, the student makes the plainest version that does the job for a first real customer, by hand or with tools the family already has. It shows what customers actually use, and it keeps the money at risk small.

A first sale outside the family

Then the student sells it to someone outside the family, at a price stated before the work begins. A sale to a relative is kind, but it tests very little. Once sales repeat, where the money goes is the first question with official rules. For food, or a sale across State lines or through an online marketplace, the next section’s questions come first.

A written record

From the first conversation, the student keeps a written record: who was asked what, what was tried, what sold, for how much, and what it cost. A notebook will do. The record is the student’s, and the first thing to show a bank or a chartered accountant.

Where does a parent have to step in?

This is not legal or tax advice. It quotes the official pages we read on 13 November 2026 and says who to ask, without applying any of them to a particular student. Official rules start in three places: the account the money goes into, GST and food.

The account the money goes into

The RBI’s Responsible Business Conduct Directions, 2025, for commercial banks (RBI/2025-26/170, dated 28 November 2025, updated as on 1 October 2026) cover minors’ accounts in paragraphs 186 to 191. Paragraph 186, applicable from 1 July 2025, says minors of any age may be allowed to open and operate savings and term deposit accounts through their natural or legal guardian, and also to open them with the mother as guardian.

Paragraph 187 says minors above an age limit the bank fixes, not less than 10 years, may be allowed to open and operate savings or term deposit accounts on their own if they wish, up to the amount and on the terms the bank fixes under its risk management policy; the bank must tell the account holder those terms.

Under paragraph 189, a bank is free to offer minor account holders extra facilities such as internet banking, ATM or debit cards and a cheque book, according to its risk management policy, product suitability and customer appropriateness. Paragraph 190 says a minor’s account, whether the minor or a guardian operates it, may not be overdrawn and must always stay in credit.

At the age of majority, paragraph 188 says, the bank takes fresh operating instructions and the account holder’s specimen signature, and confirms the balance if a guardian operated the account. Under paragraph 191, the bank carries out customer due diligence, the “know your customer” checks, when it opens a minor’s deposit account, and ongoing due diligence after.

These directions are for commercial banks; the RBI’s circular of 21 April 2025 that revised the rules (RBI/2025-26/26) also went to primary (urban) co-operative banks and to state and district central co-operative banks. None of the paragraphs quoted here deals with money from sales. So the questions go to the bank: its age limit, the amount, the terms, the facilities and how it treats money from sales.

GST registration

Section 22(1) of the CGST Act, 2017, as CBIC prints it, says every supplier must register in the State or Union territory, other than special category States, from which it makes a taxable supply of goods or services, if its aggregate turnover in a financial year exceeds twenty lakh rupees.

Its provisos set ten lakh rupees for taxable supplies from a special category State, which the Government may raise to not more than twenty lakh rupees at such a State’s request and on the GST Council’s recommendation, subject to such conditions and limitations as may be notified.

At a State’s request and on the Council’s recommendation, the Government may also raise the twenty lakh limit to not more than forty lakh rupees for a supplier engaged only in supplying goods, subject to such conditions and limitations as may be notified.

Section 24, “Compulsory registration in certain cases”, applies whatever section 22(1) says. Its list includes persons making any inter-State taxable supply (clause (i)) and persons supplying goods or services, other than supplies specified under sub-section (5) of section 9, through an electronic commerce operator required to collect tax at source under section 52 (clause (ix)).

So turnover alone does not settle the question, and this guide read no notification issued under these sections. Before the student sells across State lines or through an online marketplace, a chartered accountant is the person to ask.

Selling food

FSSAI’s registration page says that under Section 31(1) and 31(2) of the FSS Act, 2006, every food business operator in the country is required to be licensed or registered with FSSAI. Registration is meant for petty food manufacturers with an annual turnover up to 12 lakh, including petty retailers, hawkers, itinerant vendors, temporary stall holders and small or cottage scale industry; businesses above that limit must take a licence.

Its FoSCoS FAQ (question 62) says petty food business operators, with an annual turnover up to 12 lakh among other limits, are required to obtain an FSSAI Registration Certificate by applying on the Food Safety Compliance System or the Food Safety Connect app. The certificate carries a 14-digit registration number starting with 2.

Whether a particular sale, such as a stall at school or baking for friends, counts as a food business is not something this guide decides. That question goes to FSSAI through the Food Safety Compliance System.

Agreements and income tax

What the student may sign, and anything a parent signs for the business, are questions for a lawyer. Tax on a minor’s income is a question for a chartered accountant.

How can a parent help without taking over?

These are our suggestions for sharing the work, not anyone’s rule: the student makes the decisions, and a parent helps keep the student safe and the money on the record.

Agree the money rules in writing

Before any money changes hands, the family writes down its rules: whose money starts the business, whether it is paid back, who holds the takings, and what the student may spend without asking. A page in the student’s record is enough, and it makes the money something the student manages.

Let the student do the talking

The student speaks to customers, states the price and handles a complaint, even when a parent could do it faster. A parent can rehearse a hard conversation beforehand, or wait nearby, and steps in only when safety needs it. Selling to a parent’s own friends and colleagues feels like help, but it mostly tests the parent’s friendships.

Keep it safe

Meeting strangers is part of selling, so the family agrees its rules for that too: meetings in public places, a parent who knows where and when, no home address on posters or posts, and no personal details online beyond what a sale needs. With the student’s agreement, a parent who can see the messages with buyers can spot trouble early.

Read the record together

At a regular time the family agrees, the student walks a parent through the record: what was tried, what sold, what it cost. A parent asks questions rather than giving verdicts, and when a test fails, the student decides what to change.

Put the boards first in Class 10 and Class 12

For a student in Class 10 or Class 12, our suggestion is to put the board examinations first and let the business pause or shrink in the months before them. Each board publishes its own date sheet for the year, and the family plans the business around it.

Where One Young India fits

We run programmes in this area, so weigh this section with that in mind.

The programme is Entrepreneurship in Action, which One Young India runs for students in Grades 8 to 12 who want to build with AI: a 16-hour online programme over four days on Zoom. It “Includes a year of Learnacy Essential”. Learnacy Essential pays for the tools, the courses and the feedback. It never buys acceptance.

Over the four days, the sessions are Idea and problem; Build with AI; Ship it, which includes deploying a live product and testing with real users; and Pitch and grow. No coding is needed: students use “vibe coding”, directing AI in plain language. The page says every participant builds and ships a working product and a founder’s pitch, a live product deployed on the internet.

The dates and fee are on the programme page.

Asked about scholarships, the page answers: “Yes. Scholarships are awarded on merit: use ‘Request a scholarship’ below, tick ‘Apply for a merit scholarship’, and write one white paper on our brief.” It adds: “We never ask about family finances.”

A parent who wants answers before paying can use “Questions first? Register your interest”; the form says “No payment is taken here, this just starts a conversation.”

Refunds follow our Refunds & Cancellations page.

One Young India also runs Early Entrepreneurs, a self-paced course of 26 chapters in four parts, about 12 hours. The student’s last piece is a venture memo on a problem in their school or neighbourhood. The course is included in Learnacy Essential: the welcome and chapter 1 are free, and Learnacy Essential opens every chapter.

Other questions from this guide are not answered on the programme page. Does testing with users come before anything is built? Does the student sell, take payments or use a bank account during the programme? Does it cover GST, food registration or what a minor may sign? What does a parent sign or attend? The page does not state this; ask before paying.

Common questions

Can a minor start a business in India?

The official pages read for this guide set no single age for “starting a business”; they set rules for steps along the way. A bank, for example, may allow a minor above an age limit it fixes, not less than 10 years, to operate a savings or term deposit account alone, within the amount and terms it fixes. What a minor may sign is a question for a lawyer.

Can a minor open a bank account in India?

The RBI’s directions for commercial banks say minors of any age may be allowed to open and operate savings and term deposit accounts through their natural or legal guardian. Above an age limit the bank fixes, not less than 10 years, a minor may be allowed to operate one alone, up to the amount and on the terms the bank fixes. The account may never be overdrawn.

Does a teenager’s business need GST registration?

Section 22(1) of the CGST Act, 2017 ties registration to an aggregate turnover above twenty lakh rupees in a financial year, with provisos for special category States and for suppliers of goods only. Section 24 lists cases that must register whatever section 22(1) says, including any inter-State taxable supply. A chartered accountant can say which applies to the student’s sales.

Can a teenager sell food made at home?

This guide does not answer that for any particular sale. FSSAI’s registration page says every food business operator in the country is required to be licensed or registered. Whether the student’s sales count is a question for FSSAI, through its Food Safety Compliance System.

Does a teenager need an entrepreneurship programme to start?

No. Every step in the suggested order above can be taken without one, and none of them needs a fee. A family weighing a programme anyway can ask it, in writing, what the student will make by the end. Our guide to entrepreneurship programmes for school students sets out the questions that separate one programme from another.

Sources

Each outside page was read on 13 November 2026.

1. Reserve Bank of India, Responsible Business Conduct Directions, 2025, for commercial banks (RBI/2025-26/170, 28 November 2025, updated as on 1 October 2026), paragraphs 186 to 191.
2. Reserve Bank of India, Opening of and operation in deposit accounts of minors (RBI/2025-26/26, 21 April 2025).
3. Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC), Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017: Section 22, Persons liable for registration and Section 24, Compulsory registration in certain cases.
4. Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, Registration, and FoSCoS, Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on FSSAI License and Registration, question 62.
5. One Young India, the programme’s page, the self-paced course’s page and Refunds & Cancellations.

Related

• Design thinking for students
• Entrepreneurship and new ventures, in our hub
• Business models, in our hub
• Personal finance and money skills, in our hub
• More on student programmes and admissions
• More for parents