7 People Who Became Entrepreneurs as Kids
Emmanuella is such a funny child. You must have laughed so hard at one of her comedy skits, if not more. She is one of the most popular child entertainers — and she is an entrepreneur. She started when she was a child and has used her skills to grow her personal brand as a comedienne. One thing she keeps teaching us is that nobody is too young to dream.
Do you know that some of the richest people today started entrepreneurship as kids? Let’s name some of them. Mark Cuban is the owner of Dallas Mavericks (a big basketball team in the NBA). He started by selling matches as a 12-year-old kid. Invar Kamprad, the founder of IKEA — the biggest furniture shop in the world — sold matches when he was 5.
If your kid is a dreamer, you have a special talent on your hands. Apart from giving them the necessary support and guidance they need, you can use other successful entrepreneurs who started as kids to challenge them. Here is a list of 7 such entrepreneurs.
Richard Branson
Richard Branson is a British billionaire and owns an empire, Virgin Group. The Group has more than 400 companies.
Like we always say, great things start small, and so did Richard Branson. At 11, Richard noticed that a lot of children loved to keep a Parakeet (a small, brightly coloured bird) as a pet. Instead of asking for one for himself, he decided to rear them and sell. His best friend helped him do so in his backyard during a holiday. He made himself quite some money doing so. Instead of seeing a pet, Branson saw an opportunity to earn money legitimately.
Maya Penn
Age: 22
Maya Penn was only 8 years old when she picked up a used piece of cloth and turned it into a fashion accessory. But she didn’t stop there. She continued to find used and discarded pieces of clothes and refurbish them to fashion accessories. Soon, people began to admire them and ask where they could buy them. That made her realize that she could sell them, and she founded her company named Maya’s Ideas. She recycled clothes and used her company to help environmental causes.
Today, Maya’s Ideas creates environmentally-friendly fashion items. She also does some charity alongside. 10-20% of her profits go to charities and environmental organizations.
Moziah Bridges
Age: 20
Children are happy people and they love to put smiles on people’s faces. Moziah wanted to make the world a happier place. And for him, making bow ties would do just that. At the age of 9, he learned to sew from his grandmother. He then began to design, make and sell his bow ties on Etsy (an eCommerce website). His bow ties are now sold in up to six states in the United States. But Moziah is still dreaming. He wants to start a children’s clothing company in the future.
Mikaila Ulmer
Age: 17
You know what they say you should do when life gives you lemons? Mikaila Ulmer took that proverb quite literally. She found her grandmother’s lemonade recipe and opened a lemonade stand at the age of 4. But she didn’t stop there. A few years later, she was able to refine her lemonade and sell them to some of the biggest supermarkets in her state. Isn’t that wonderful?
If your kid is excellent at making fruit drinks of any kind, there might be a lot of thirsty people around you who wouldn't mind spending a few coins for a refreshing drink.
Mark Cuban
The Dallas Mavericks is a top basketball team based in Dallas, United States. Mark Cuban bought and owned the team as an adult. However, as a child, he did something different but entrepreneurial.
One day, his father’s friends were drinking and playing poker, and 12-year-old Cuban, who had always loved basketball, went to ask for a new pair of sneakers from his father. His father turned down his request. “When you have a job, you can buy whatever you want,“ his father had told him.
But as he turned to leave, one of his father’s friends gave him an idea. “I got all these trash bags. You can sell them door to door,” the man had said. Mark agreed. He went from house to house, selling trash bags.
Mark would knock on a door and say, “Hi, My name is Mark. Do you use trash bags? Six dollars for a hundred of them.” He would pay off three dollars and keep the remaining three dollars for himself. This was how he could afford to buy the sneakers he wanted.
You may not necessarily have to buy all your kid’s favourite things. You can get them to work for the money and teach them entrepreneurship in the process.
Leanna Archer
Leanna had a great love for hair products. This love pushed her to create her own hair products. She made them from a combination of her parent's recipes and results from her own experiments. She was only 8. By the time she became 9, she started her business. She evolved to create her natural hair care and treatment products. A few years later, she was already earning up to $180,000 in revenue.
Anything can be a legitimate business opportunity. As long as your kid has an interest, you can encourage them to also look at the commercial side.
Cory Nieves
Age: 18
Mr Cory's Cookies is a business that was started by young Cory Nieves because he wanted to help his mum. At age 6, he was tired of taking the school bus and wanted to buy his mom a car. He began to sell cocoa. Seeing that his business was doing fine, his mum encouraged him to continue. Soon enough, he was adding lemonade and cookies to his product line.
Currently, Cory has worked with many companies to make his cookies. Cory said that his cookies are made with natural ingredients and lots of love. You can’t beat the enthusiasm of a child. Mr Cory’s cookies are now present in the whole food sections of prominent stores in the United States.
Final note
Children are clever and resourceful, and the best thing you can do is to channel these qualities into productivity. People like Emmanuella, Moziah Bridges and Cory Nieves would not have succeeded if they didn’t get support from their families. So encourage your kids to take the right path. Give them examples when they need one. Who knows, the next time we write this list, they might be included as motivation for other kids.
Are you a parent reading this? Do you want to learn more ways to groom your child in a tech-driven world? Do you want to position your child for the future? Then register for the DABA Kids Prelaunch Event with Parents coming up on Saturday, March 26, 2022. Visit www.dabakids.com to sign up now.
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