@benmic:
My opinion is that every novice player should start with 1.d4 d5 and play chess in the old-school way.
With black you are one tempo down and that no reason to go crazy due to that. Just play a careful game and wait for your chance to equalize and finally use some inaccuracies by white to take over the initiative.
I dont think that complicated opening systems like Nimzo or Ben-Oni or Gambits of all kinds are a good idea to play for novice players. They will fail to improve their chess-understanding if they do so. Many beginners like - for example - Kings-Indian-Defence but thats just a mess and I would never give the advice to an beginner to play such complicated hyper-modern stuff.
There is no serious way to win with black easily or without real affort and you just have to accept it. My score with black is better as with white although I play 1.d4 d5 and 1.e4 c6 in every single game.
And I think I am still not strong enough to try such stuff like 1...Nf6/g6 or 1...f5.
Good luck!
Best wishes
Nada