Quite honestly, I’ve always enjoyed working with my hands and I started my business during my senior year of high school. All my friends were starting jobs and making money. I wanted to see if I could do that without having a traditional summer job. I knew long term that I wanted to be a business owner or at least do something in business. I did lawn care and light construction and stuff like that, and I saw some cash coming in. I wanted to see if I could create value in some way while enjoying what I do. That’s why I started thinking about the wood shop with my dad. I started by making some small things and then that turned into cutting boards, which is what I started selling. It didn’t work right off the get go but I learned some things along the way and made it work.

I started out by making small surfboard keychains and I was thinking of selling them at the local marina to see if I could get some sales there. Honestly, there was no profit margin in that, and I learned quickly when I realized how long it took to make it. I had to pivot. My friend, who I started the business with, and worked with for the first couple of months, had to move away but he had made a cutting board before he moved. I asked myself, ‘Why don’t we make cutting boards and sell them to a very specific market – moms who like wine?’ We knew a couple of potential customers and started reaching out to other friends, friends of friends, and their parents. We called and described what we were selling, and I carried around samples with me wherever I went. I made sales here and there and from there it was word of mouth. Since I had my logo branded on the back of the cutting boards, customers were also able to find me that way.

It’s been a huge learning experience from going to high school to now a junior in college. I’ve had a lot of ups and downs as far as learning how to be professional when I’m speaking with business owners because that’s a lot of my target right now. Since I’m creating promotional products and stuff like that, I talked to a lot of these professionals and a challenge there has been using what I learned in college to speak and communicate effectively and understand exactly what they want and how I can provide them value with my skill set. That’s not even including talking about time commitments. That’s a whole other area of challenges for me.

It’s a challenge I haven’t really mastered but some things I’ve learned along the way are that there is only 24 hours in a day, and everyone decides to use them however they want. I found that waking up early in the morning for school and working on my business late at night has been good and that’s how I’ve done it. It’s difficult but you need to focus on your priorities and set goals that align with those priorities. Since one of my priorities is to be a business owner someday, it’s been a 50/50 split between school and my business. It’s a challenge because with my business I’m currently being paid as opposed to paying for school but they’re both very good learning experiences so it’s very important to prioritize both things. Something that’s helped me is really being diligent with my time and using a calendar and being very disciplined. If I tell myself something, then I have to do that thing. When the time I scheduled is up, it’s on to the next thing. Doing that while running a business and doing school, it’s very important to use a calendar and stay organized. Being organized also helps with staying on track with your goals.

Don’t be easily persuaded by what you see online when it comes to anything business. You have to really be selective about what you learn and who you learn from because a lot of people are pushing a lot of things. I think it’s very valuable to have a very wide range of education and a lot of people when they’re starting businesses and making money can lose sight of the long term. They start making a lot of money, thinking that they can do this forever and they don’t think of the long term. I would just emphasize the importance of continuing education and being constantly teachable and to not thinking you have it all figured out too quickly because often I see kids do that when they’re first starting their business. Honestly, I had a little bit of that thought process too when I started out. I thought I was doing great, and I didn’t really need to learn much more but there’s always something more to learn and you have to stay teachable.

Have passion for whatever you’re planning on doing or selling or a service and make sure that you’re solving a problem. If you have those two things, you’re probably going to be well off. I see a lot of times people have these great ideas but it’s not always solving a problem which down the line can result in a lack of sales or a smaller market of who they can sell to.