Note from Childpreneursclub.com - We have interviewed hundreds of successful entrepreneurs, and something they all speak about and have in common is that they all started their first business when they were children.
Below is excerpts from an article from Business Insider that tells the stories of the early business ventures of some of today's most successful entrepreneurs and some success stories from Rocket Club Academy in Hoboken NJ, the STEAM & Entrepreneurship after-school program for some of the brightest 7-14 year-olds in the world.
Daymond John wooed friends in his first grade class by customizing pencils for them.
"I never knew anything other than wanting to be an entrepreneur," John tells Business Insider. Before he made a fortune from launching the clothing line FUBU in the '90s, John learned the power of sales in first grade.
In a recent speech at Rutgers, John explained that he would scrape the paint off pencils and paint his customer's name on them for a fee — and his market was exclusively the prettiest girls in class. Sales were good until the principal shut down the operation after discovering John was stealing all of the pencils from boys he didn't like.
Steve Wozniak, Co-Founder of Apple, Started at Just 13-Years-Old
Woz built his first computer when he was 13 and took top prizes in a science fair. At 19 he met 14-year-old Steve jobs and the two built an electronic "blue box" enabling them to make free phone calls by seizing phone-company lines. The two entrepreneurs sold 200 boxes to fellow students at $80 each. Working at Hewlett-Packard Corporation and a member of the Homebrew Computer Club at the same time as Steve jobs, Woz's involvement resulted in the design of their first Apple microcomputer (
later called a personal computer). In 1976, the Byte Shop in Mountain View ordered 50 copies and the home computer business industry was founded. The following year Woz designed the Apple II and the incredible growth of the Apple started. After a near-fatal plane crash in 1981, Wozniak, using a pseudonym, entered the University of California at Berkeley to earn a degree in computer science. He gained notoriety by producing two rock festivals that lost $25 million and made generous donations of his Apple stock to employees.
Beyonce Got Her Start at Just 8-Years-Old
When Beyoncé was eight, she and childhood friend Kelly Rowland met LaTavia Roberson while at an audition for an all-girl entertainment group.[29] They were placed into a group called Girl's Tyme with three other girls, and rapped and danced on the talent show circuit in Houston. After seeing the group, R&B producer Arne Frager brought them to his Northern California studio and placed them in Star Search, the largest talent show on national TV at the time. Girl's Tyme failed to win, and Beyoncé later said the song they performed was not good. In 1995, Beyoncé's father resigned from his job to manage the group. The move reduced Beyoncé's family's income by half, and her parents were forced to move into separated apartments. Mathew cut the original line-up to four and the group continued performing as an opening act for other established R&B girl groups. The girls auditioned before record labels and were finally signed to Elektra Records, moving to Atlanta Records briefly to work on their first recording, only to be cut by the company. This put further strain on the family, and Beyoncé's parents separated. On October 5, 1995, Dwayne Wiggins's Grass Roots Entertainment signed the group. In 1996, the girls began recording their debut album under an agreement with Sony Music, the Knowles family reunited, and shortly after, the group got a contract with Columbia Records.
Learn About The After-School Program Rocket Club Academy
Rocket Club Academy in the Monroe Center in Hoboken, NJ have members who are following in these amazing entrepreneurs' footsteps by starting their own businesses between the ages of 7 to 14 years old. Below are a few of their stories:
Rocket Club members created what Forbes called, “the world’s first robotic lemonade stand.” The lemonade stand premiered at NJ Tech’s Venture Conference and our members were the talk of the convention. They donated all proceeds from their sales to Kode with Klossy and St. Judes Hospital.
Annabelle (8-years-old), Founded Stop and Love Animation. She has done work for cosmetics legend Bobbi Brown, Scandanavian luxury blanket company Gooselings, and Startup Squad.
Astronade, a lemonade company Co-Founded by 4 members aged 7–9, partnered with international BBQ chain Mighty Quinns to sell their lemonade at each of their locations. Astronade pitched their business to the Co-Founder of Netflix, and he was so blown away with their business he decided to personally invest in the business and come on as an advisor.
An 11-year-old Richard Branson bred parakeets and sold them as pets.
As the chairman of the Virgin Group, Branson has never done things conventionally. And that's as true today as it was when he was a kid.
At age 11, Branson noticed that there was a business opportunity amid the popularity of parakeets as children's pets. He and his best friend Nik Powell used one of their boarding school vacations to start breeding parakeets in Branson's backyard. By the end of the school break, the birds were multiplying faster than the boys could sell them.
"We went back off to boarding school and left my parents to look after all the birds. We lived in the countryside, and I think the rats got to some of them. As for the rest? My mum opened the cages and set them free!" he writes on LinkedIn.
When she was 16, Juliette Brindak made a site for young girls that went on to be worth $30 million.
As a 10-year-old, Brindak created a cast of characters to entertain her and her friends.
At 16, she had her mom, a graphic designer, help her design a website that brought the characters to life. The result was Miss O & Friends, a site exclusively for "tween" girls.
After three years, Procter and Gamble invested in the company and valued it at $15 million.
Today, Brindak is CEO of the company, which has also produced books, games, and other merchandise. Last year the company was valued at $30 million, according to the BBC.
Mark Cuban learned the basics of business as a 12-year-old selling trash bags.
The billionaire owner of the Dallas Mavericks and star "Shark Tank" investor started his career as an entrepreneur out of necessity.
When he was 12, he approached his dad one night to ask him for a pair of expensive sneakers. His dad was playing poker and drinking with some friends, which happened to work out in Cuban's favor.
"And one of his buddies popped up ... He said, 'I got somethin' for ya! I've got these garbage bags I need to sell. Why don't you go out there and sell these garbage bags?'" Cuban tells Bloomberg's Barry Ritholtz in a Masters in Business podcast.
The bags were sold in boxes of 100 for $6. Cuban went door to door in his neighborhood and convinced customers that since they'd be buying trash bags anyways, they might as well buy them at a cheaper price from him. A six-year-old Warren Buffett sold packs of gum to his neighbors — and drove a hard bargain.
The young Oracle of Omaha would buy packs of gum from his grandfather's grocery store and then spend the evenings going door to door in his neighborhood selling packs to his neighbors.
"I remember a woman named Virginia Macoubrie saying, 'I'll take one stick of Juicy Fruit,'" Buffett recalled to Alice Schroeder in her biography, "The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life."
Buffett has the perfect response.
"We don't break up packs of gum," he said.
It sticks out in his memory.
"They were sold only in five-stick packs," Buffett said. "They were a nickel, and she wanted to spend a penny with me."
Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad rode around his tiny Swedish town selling matches.
The man who built Ikea has been looking for a better way to sell since the 1930s.
Now 88, a 5-year-old Ingvar Kamprad was growing up on a farm in rural Sweden when he showed the first signs of the entrepreneurial itch. The kid rode to his neighbors' houses selling matches.
He started earning his reputation for finding efficiencies way back then: He would buy matches in bulk from Stockholm then sell them individually at a markup — but still at a reasonable price.
That business grew into other home supplies, which then turned into furniture. At age 17, he started Ikea.
Learn more about the next Richard Bransons and Juliette Brindacks incredible young entrepreneurs and engineers: https://rocketclub.com/rc-academy-admissions
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