Starting your own business can feel appealing to high school students. From gaining financial independence to developing leadership skills, there are many different aspects of business owning that draw South students to this path, senior Ammar Khan said.
For Khan and senior Will Weinstock, co-founders of a car detailing business, A&W Detailing, one of their biggest challenges was building credibility, as many potential clients are skeptical at first due to their ages.
“It just started with getting our first job.” Khan said. “Once the first one was done, that creates a way for people to say [that they have] seen our work and trust us.”
One major challenge many entrepreneurial high school students face is figuring out how to best manage time between work and academics, Weinstock said.
“At the beginning of our experience, time management [was a challenge] because we’re dealing with jobs and school,” Weinstock said. “Having a time that works with us and the customers was hard at first.”
Time management was also a challenge at Code to Create, a student-founded company focused on designing and selling Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math kits to children and schools, co-founded by juniors Kendrick Lee and Nate Hjlemgren. Due to their manufacturing needs, finding time to communicate with their supplier was difficult, Lee said.
“The school day takes up so much valuable time and figuring out how to integrate the business operations side on top of that, [is] a big challenge,” Lee said.
One South-specific resource for Code to Create has been the Glenbrook Foundation, Lee said. The Glenbrook Foundation is a non-profit organization committed to funding education-enhancing experiences, the Glenbrook Foundation website explained.
Teen business owners can also face difficulties from a legal standpoint, Michael McFadden, CTE Teacher, explained. It can be difficult to acquire all the documents necessary to legally operate, McFadden said.
“There are just a lot of challenging logistical issues that are bureaucratic in nature that you have to navigate,” McFadden said. “When you’re forming a business that’s registered with the state of Illinois, you’re talking about involving attorneys, having operating agreements, filing papers, and [there are] tax implications.”
Although perseverance can be difficult, sticking with your goals and standing by your business can be very rewarding and pays off in the end, Lee said.
“Running a business has been an opportunity to learn professional skills, make connections, and blaze my own trail,” Lee said.
