Nowadays, entrepreneurship is starting earlier than ever, as many teenagers around the world are designing, creating, and selling their own unique products on several different platforms. Even here at LM, there are many impressive student run businesses.
Amanda Olin ‘22, creates homemade crocheted sweaters, shirts, hats, bags, dresses, and skirts, which she sells on Etsy and Depop. Olin started crocheting over the summer of 2020 during all the extra time she found in quarantine. She first opened her shop in February 2021 after deciding she wanted to try and make some money off of her hobby. Each customer has the ability to choose what item they want and customize the color and the size of the item.The products are sold to consumers all across the country. Olin’s biggest advice in starting a business is to realize that you will not be 100 percent most of the time. As a teenager in highschool, she has had to find a way to balance running her own business while managing school work, extracurricular activities, and prepping for the SAT. Another struggle she faced when starting her business was setting unrealistic deadlines for herself, that made it difficult to keep up with orders. “I found myself comparing my business to places like Urban Outfitters or other huge clothing stores,” said Olin,”It took me a while to realize that I was just a single high school student and not a multi-million corporation so it was okay if things took me longer than expected and I sometimes made minor mistakes with packaging. Once I realized this, the business became a lot more enjoyable and successful.”
Student-run businesses at LM vary from creating homemade clothes, to re-selling old clothes, to completely different concepts. Noa Richard ‘23, has her own baking business called “Noa’s Cups and Cakes” focused primarily on selling custom cakes and cupcakes to members of the LM community. At the beginning of the pandemic, Richard found a passion for baking and, like Olin, decided to turn her hobby into a profitable business. Her self-run business gave her the amazing opportunity to pursue a passion, and so far has been extremely successful. Richard’s business has been extremely successful—baking for an extensive number of events from children’s birthday parties to weddings. One of her favorite parts about running her own business is being able to provide so much joy to so many kids and their families along with just having fun while doing what she loves. She says, “The advice I have for people is if you love something and are passionate about something then don’t be afraid to pursue it more–I never thought I would start a baking business but here I am.” Through Instagram, Richard is able to advertise her incredible skills, and make it easy for consumers to reach out and buy her goods.
These are just two of many phenomenal student-run businesses that grew out of quarantine. Teenagers are using social media to advertise their remarkable talents and embark on the road to becoming full-blown entrepreneurs.
