A couple of things to think about. For the long range future having a college degree in a Science, Technology, Engineering or Math (STEM) area will be a big help. If you like computers, and it sounds like you do, this is a great Technology area to go into. Ultimately, at age 16 your first priority is to get a high school diploma or GED if you can't get the diploma. A GED is not as desirable but better than nothing. After you have that you can go to a Jr. College and get some additional computer training. At the same time as soon as you are of employable age you can start looking for work. Given your lack of educational credentials you will need to look for a mom and pop situation. There are many small computer repair stores and virus cleaning services that will hire people with your credentials. If you have not done that kind of stuff before I will tell you how to get started.
If you are good with computers here is my freebie business idea for you. If you want to do something at home involving computers just tell your friends and relatives that you are doing a PC and laptop virus cleaning service for $25-$35 and they must bring the computer to you. Go to the McAfee web site and download the Stinger.exe free tool and get a small thumb drive that you can copy that program to. When they bring the computer over you download the newest version of Stinger to the thumb drive and stick it in their computer and start the scan running. It may take a few minutes or a few hours depending on the computer's disk size and utilization. It requires no interaction so you just start it running and go do other things while it runs. After it is done it will list any stuff it found and you can report that to the user. Charge them an extra $5-$10 if they want to have an anti-virus program installed and you go out to Microsoft and install Microsoft Security Essentials (a free program). If they want an anti-malware program, charge them a few more dollars and download and install the free version of MalwareBytes for them. This cleanup is not technically hard and you can try it on your own computer to get the hang of it. Don't plan to fix the computer at their location as the Stinger scan can take 2-3 hours.
Also, you need to coordinate this business venture with your parents so you don't get yourself into any difficult situations where people won't pay you or where you have to deal with creepy people. Putting ads or flyers out can be good and bad news as it may get you business but it may get you the risk of dealing with strangers. Honestly once the word gets out that you are doing the service you may have family and friends enough to keep you busy.
Another thing to keep in mind is that sooner or later your customers will click on some link or go to some bad web site and pick up another virus that may bypass the free protection you installed. If you have done a good job they will be back for more help - and make you another $25 to fix it all over again. This is called repeat business!
Also, you can contact all the pawn shops or thrift stores in your area and tell them you can do these same virus cleanup services for them. A common issue they have is getting in any computers that the password has been lost on and you tell them that you can break into those for them. Sometimes people will pawn a computer and then not get it out in time. When the pawn shop gets ready to sell it they discover the computer is password protected and they don't have the password. To perform the break-in you will download the free Trinity Rescue Kit and create a CD that will let you boot the computer and change the password without you needing to know the old password. The pawn shop may pay you in cash or store credit. You can work out a trade deal with them for music CDs, DVD movies, electronics or other items they may have for sale.
These could be some baby steps for you to start into a career in computers!
Richard
17 years IT systems engineer in Fortune 50 company
Bachelors degree in CIS, Bachelors degree in Advertising
21 Microsoft certifications, MCSE and MCT
A+ Security+ CompTIA certifications
IT Published magazine author of 200+ magazine articles
IT book and magazine technical editor