Teen Success Stories
Sitting in class at Atascadero High School earlier this year, student T.J.
Maghni felt his cell phone vibrate in his pocket. It wasn't a friend
calling to talk about weekend plans. It was a potential business client
that could bring in more than $1,000 for the 18-year-old.
Ben Cathers was just 12 when he started his
first business, a Web marketing and advertising firm geared towards
teenagers that eventually grew into two offices and 10 employees. Not ready
to stop there, Cathers also launched a nationally syndicated radio show,
again with teenagers as his target audience.
Pierce
Spencer may not quite be this year's version of the Internet millionaire,
but he's got the right instincts and he's still young enough. The
15-year-old just wrapped up his freshman year of high school at the
Woodward Academy in Atlanta and, during the past few weeks, has made almost
as much money as he expects to take in this summer working at a local
restaurant.
Log on to www.leftysauto.com, and
you'll automatically feel a need to fasten your seatbelt. A car revs its
engine and a pair of headlights moves toward you as Lefty's
high-performance slogan appears: "Welcome to Lefty's Auto, where it's your
parts at my cost."
American
teens believe in business. In fact, a Gallup survey reports that 70 percent
of American teens would like to own a business. What are they doing
about it? They're entering college programs on entrepreneurship by the
droves, for one thing. But a growing number of these entrepreneurial-minded
teens ('treps, as they call themselves) aren't willing to wait.
They're starting businesses now, while they're still in high school--or
even junior high.
Making
money. There's no way around it. If you want to buy that first car, pay
college tuition or just go to the movies, you gotta have some income.
Wouldn't it be great if you could find a job you'd do even if you weren't
getting paid?
Carlton
calvin knows from fads. in the mid 1990s, he hit on
the idea of putting preserved scorpions inside Slammers -- small acrylic
game pieces that players flick at their opponents' cardboard Pogs. Calvin
went on to sell close to 400,000 of the gruesome creations within six
months -- at which point the popular kids' game died the typical death of a
once-hot toy.
Local
entrepreneur Nat Turner hopes to cash in on the popularity of retail gift
cards with the recent launch of CertificateSwap.com, a Web site that allows
consumers to buy, sell or exchange gift certificates at a discounted rate.
|
