Advertisement
» 2009 » November
-
Young Entrepreneurs!
Entrepreneurs
How To Make A Million Before You Graduate
Melanie Lindner, 03.03.09, 01:00 PM EST
Learn how these wunderkinds bagged a bundle before their 20th birthday.How To Make A Million Before You Turn 20
In trying times, we tend to look to grizzled veterans for wisdom, perspective and, above all, hope. But few things fortify an entrepreneurial spirit more than preternatural success.
We found six whiz kids–four from the U.S. and two from the U.K.–who managed to build million-dollar enterprises before the age of 20.
Some partnered with friends, siblings and mentors; others did the work on their own. All started their entrepreneurial careers by age 15, and one before he broke double digits. Their common thread: scary financial savvy and demon drive to transform ideas into reality.
Read It, Learn It, Live It
Ephren Taylor II couldn’t afford a library of games for his Super Nintendo. So in 1994, Taylor, then age 12, decided to make his own. Everyday after school, he trekked to the local Borders in Overland Park, Kan., to read How To Make A Video Game In 21 Days, by Andre LaMothe. A few months later, he had coded his first game (the premise was to shoot bad guys who were trying to kidnap the president). He sold about 30 copies to his friends for $10 a pop.
In Pictures: Businesses Of The (Really) Young And Successful
Six Teen Millionaire Entrepreneurs: Ephren Taylor, Fraser Doherty, Ashley Qualls, Catherine Cook, Cameron Johnson, Adam Hildreth
Comment On This Story
In Pictures: Nine Ways To Make Money Online
That was just the beginning. At the seasoned age of 13, self-taught Taylor started designing Web sites. He hyped his services, under the banner Flame Software, on Internet chat boards. Tech brokers never questioned his age because he had the proper certifications and a rather deep phone voice.
Taylor initially charged just $200 per site, but he quickly upped the ante when he realized competitors were getting thousands for the same service. The contracts were typically handled by tech brokers, and customers sent Taylor checks in the mail. “When I got a $3,800 check [from an online retailer of vitamins and legal supplements], my parents thought I must be selling drugs,” he recalls.
Taylor crossed into seven-figure territory at age 16 by teaming up with friend Michael Stahl to build a job-posting Web site for high school and college kids called GoFerretGo.com. The duo didn’t have much to spare on advertising, so they spammed local and regional reporters with a press release announcing their new business. Word got out, and soon the site had attracted 30,000 visitors.
Again Taylor sold himself short, charging a paltry $38 per job posting, until he realized that Sprint (nyse: S – news – people ), Citigroup (nyse: C – news – people ) and Pizza Hut were willing to pay nearly 100 times that amount to find young talent. The youngsters eventually rented office space and even hired their former history teacher. The company eventually dissolved in the 2001 tech bust but at its height was valued at $3.5 million.
Now a hoary 26, Taylor runs an eponymous holding company that invests in socially responsible businesses, such as low-cost housing in urban Cleveland and Kansas City. He also serves as chief executive of City Capital (otcbb: CCCN.OB – news – people ), which invests in urban revitalization projects and oil wells. (His touch has been less than golden there: For the trailing 12 months ended last September, the company lost $2.9 million on sales of $305,000.) On top of all that, he delivers as many as 70 speeches a year, at $8,000 a pop. His rather ironic advice to entrepreneurs now: “Patience pays.”
Go With the Flow
While his fellow kid-preneurs were making a mint on the Internet, Fraser Doherty was doing things the old-fashioned way. In 2002, at the age of 14, Doherty started making jams from his grandmother’s recipes in his parents’ kitchen in Edinburgh, Scotland. Neighbors and church friends loved them. As word spread, Doherty started receiving orders faster than he could produce them at home, so he rented time at a 200-person food-processing factory several days a month.
By age 16, Doherty left school (with his parents’ blessing) to work on his jams full time. In early 2007, Waitrose, a high-end supermarket in the U.K., approached Doherty, hoping to sell his SuperJam products in their stores. Within months, there were SuperJam jars on the shelves of 184 Waitrose stores, hoisting Doherty and his business to new heights.
In Pictures: Businesses Of The (Really) Young And Successful
Six Teen Millionaire Entrepreneurs: Ephren Taylor, Fraser Doherty, Ashley Qualls, Catherine Cook, Cameron Johnson, Adam Hildreth
In Pictures: Nine Ways To Make Money Online
Doherty borrowed 5,000 pounds (about $9,000) from a bank to cover general expenses and more factory time to produce three flavors: Blueberry & Blackcurrant, Rhubarb & Ginger and Cranberry & Raspberry. (He has since added an Orange & Passion Fruit flavor, too.) Tesco (other-otc: TSCDY – news – people ) followed, adding Doherty’s products to 300 stores across the U.K.
Last year, SuperJam hit $1.2 million in sales, a 60% jump from 2007. Doherty’s roster of retailers now includes Asda Wal-Mart in the U.K., Morrisons and Tesco in Ireland. Doherty also launched a charitable project 2008 called the SuperJam Tea Parties. Since the program’s inception, SuperJam has hosted over 100 tea parties–with live music, dancing and drinks–in Scotland, England and Wales for elderly people who live alone or in nursing homes. This year, Doherty says SuperJam will hit the shelves of Sainsbury, one of the largest food retailers in the U.K. Based on a reasonable valuation multiple of one times revenue–jelly-maker J.M. Smucker trades between 1.0 and 1.4 times sales–Doherty’s 100% stake (now debt-free) is worth in the neighborhood of $1 million to $2 million.
Not bad for a 20-year-old. Doherty’s recommendation to other young entrepreneurs: “Have an attitude of adventure, and enjoy the journey.”
Reader Comments
It is so inspirational to read about these kids who really have that entrepreneurial mindset to see opportunity and have the drive to go for it. If you have kids, the program TREP$ (trepsed.com) is [Read More]Questions! Put these Questions in your Google Docs.. answers in Blue!
Title it… Young Entrepreneurs!
1. How much did Ephren Taylor II make in his first ventures?
2. Who is your favorite entrepreneur?
3. What did the parents of Ephren Taylor think he was up to when he received a check for over three thousand dollars? -
Fight for your paycheck!
UFC fighter was down on his luck eating nothing but ketchup and rice the week of his fight!
If anyone needed a huge postfight bonus at UFC 104, it was Pat Barry. The heavyweight out of New Orleans, scored Knockout of the Night and Fight of the Night for his victory over Antoni Hardonk. That was good enough for $120,000. Good thing, Barry needed the infusion of cash in the worst way. He confirmed to MMAScrapsRadio that he was completely down on his luck before the fight, agreeing that he had little to eat in Los Angeles the week of the fight.
“I still had my apartment but if something would’ve happened and the fight had been canceled, I would’ve been evicted six days later.”
Barry, 30, said he didn’t even tell his trainer Duke Roufus for fear that he would think the fighter had the wrong motivation going into the fight. Barry said he didn’t ask anyone for money including his mother:
“I could ask someone but then at the same time, how hard are you going to work for something if everytime you get in trouble somebody catches you? I did something to put myself in this position I have to work my way out of it.”
Listen to Barry talk about his troubles before the fight:Barry got his $120,000 bonus check last Tuesday. He couldn’t believe it. When he went to deposit the check, his truck wouldn’t start. Barry got a jump and hit the bank sporting a black eye and pink striped shorts.
“I go to the bank, I’m sweaty, I’ve got the black eye, I haven’t shaven in two days, I’m strung out because I haven’t slept, I have green circles under my eyes so I’m like ‘Can I have a deposit slip mam?’. She gives it to me, I fill it out hand it to her. She looks at the deposit slip, then the check, then looks at me and says ‘Excuse me I’ll be right back.’ Then a manager comes out, a guy in a suit and says ‘What seems to be the problem?’ I was like ‘Well I have a black eye, that’s the only problem I know this looks really ridiculous.’ So he asks me for my ID, I hand him my license an he’s like ‘Your license says Pat Barry, but this check was written to Patrick Barry.’ So I decided to be funny and tell him Pat Barry is in my trunk right now. He didnt laugh. So I told him take your time man do whatever you need to do because I have no where to go and my truck probably wont start when I go outside so you can just do whatever you need to do. An hour later he came back and everything was fine, the check was in my bank account.”
