Marc Damon wrote:
It may help if we knew more about her!

Is she a geek? Tell her to build websites and offer her services as a social media marketing expert.

Is she athletic? Tell her to start her own fitness boot camp.

Is she 5'10" and rail thin? Shoot her and make her the next Gisele.

C'mon man. I was flipping pizzas at 17.

She's 5'5" and fairly thin. I shoot her every chance I get. She absolutely LOVES having pictures taken but her parents have said no to modeling. With me, she's "just taking pictures" and even then, they get upset if I shoot from the "wrong angle" (one that looks "too sexy", whatever the definition of that is). 

  She's not a geek but she has a business mind, always has. I flipped pizzas at 18. I'd do it again, too. She has a job, though. She works part time in an office. I wanted her to get "involved" in business, though. To me, this means both buying and selling.

  One can sell a service but it seems pretty hard to buy a service to sell.

RennsportPhotography wrote:
To be a success in your own business it helps to be passionate about it and if you have to rely on others to think of the idea for you I see a lack of passion.

IMO she should get a job and develop skills while looking for that idea.

It's not that she has no passion, she just doesn't have an idea. This idea isn't necessarily one that she'll retire from, but it's one that will help her for future reference. She has a job and is developing skills. This idea isn't even necessarily one that she'll ultimately go with, either. It may be an idea that sparks another idea that she can show more passion in working and developing.

I think of it this way ... when a person learns to drive, that's great. If they learn to drive with a manual transmission, it's better because they aren't limited in the cars they can drive. If, say 5-8 years down the road they want to try truck driving, they won't be totally clueless on how to drive it. Yes, they'll have to learn how to back up and other operations, but making the truck move forward won't be totally foreign to them.

The other problem with coming up with an idea is that it has to be something she can do, is allowed to do and won't cost billions of dollars to start doing. One can say "buy a Chevrolet dealership" but that's way too much money, especially for someone at her age who doesn't have independently wealthy parents (or uncles).

All I'm trying to do is help her get her feet wet, boost her confidence a little bit, show her that it is possible to have a successful business even if one has a job and hopefully, with her success, encourage her sisters and other young people everywhere to use their brain to make money. By helping her, I can probably help myself, too. Hopefully I can help others, too.

Looknsee Photography wrote:
If she wants to become a photographer, she needs to find her way to a beginning camera (borrow or buy), and she should practice by going to public events like street fairs, ball games, whatever.  When I was young, the local newspaper published (for no pay) some of my pictures, which indicated to me that I was getting good.  She could also document her life -- the parties she attends & such.  Maybe she could get good enough to set up a corner at her local school dance to photograph couples or she can photograph school sporting events (with appropriate school permissions, of course).

Good luck.

Ya know ... this gives me an idea. I'll sell her my camera. She already has a basic understanding of it as she asks me for it each time she comes here. I understand that it's not the world's greatest camera by any stretch, but it was a great beginner for me and I'll be able to tell her all sorts of things about it as I've been using it about 3 years now.

As you said, she can practice at school functions (dances, sports, assemblies and other things). She can also practice with her sisters, parents, stuffed animals, dog and friends. In 4 years, maybe she will have improved enough to shoot weddings for her friends who are or will be getting married but don't have a whole bunch of money to pay a "real" photographer. With the money, she can buy a new camera, new lenses, new ... all sorts of things that will make her photography better, easier, more impressionable or more comfortable. I'll see what she thinks of it.

Carle Photography wrote:
If she truly has a "business mind" she would have already owned several businesses at age 17. Ones she chose and designed/ran herself.

If YOU'RE a photographer I don't see why you can't teach her a few simple rules and hand her a back up camera to use.

Or buy her a used 20D or 30D or whatever the Nikon equivalent is.
One nifty 50 lens.
Free business cards from Vistaprint.
Facebook/Wordpress/Wix page.
Less than 500.00.

Some people are or seem to be born knowing how to do these these kinds of things and they get them done. Others spend years having to learn them and they do okay. Others never seem to learn at all. My niece, as with many other people I know, fall into the middle group. I did, too.  I still don't know everything but I work on it daily.

As for where I'd get $500 to give away from, if she'd accept it, if her parents would let her accept it and many other things are beyond me. Just for the record, I consider myself a photographer but I don't have a backup camera. I got the camera I have and use free of charge and have made exactly $500 with it. That was more than 3 years ago. I don't consider myself a professional photographer by any stretch (outside of acting professionally). There are far too many things I don't know and not equipped to handle.

It may well be easy for someone to do all the things you mentioned after shooting for 20 years and/or making a boatload of money but I haven't.