At an age when their peers are worrying about bringing in some spending cash or looking for a first job, these young entrepreneurs have the ultimate employment: owning the company.
More Top Picks Adhd Reading Apps And Tools That Actually Help
Rather than labor under a boss learning their craft, they made themselves the boss. Business training comes on the fly; youthful exuberance replaces years of experience.
They work long hours, throw their cash back into their companies, and they’re not old enough to toast closing a big deal with champagne.
“I wanted to get a pool hall,” Matt Massman recalled. “This was after I wanted to be a racecar driver. Then I thought about a bar, but since I’m not 21, it would be hard to get a liquor license.”
Massman, 19, holds the keys to Baby Doughnuts in Southern California. He opens the doors each morning, orders the ingredients, tends the machine, watches the glazer, makes 100 dozen doughnuts a day and often sells them himself.
He averages $10,000 in sales a month, putting him on track to make back his family’s investment by year’s end.
Before entering the snack business, his resume boasted only stints at Jamba Juice and filing papers for his uncle–so he spent a month working at Krispy Kreme to learn the ropes.
Massman’s father, who also eschewed formal education on his way to building window-blind manufacturing and frozen-food companies, was less than thrilled when Massman dropped out of school.
But he figured the investment would be the same if he sent his son to a four-year university, so he decided to bankroll him in hope that Baby Doughnuts would provide hands-on experience.
“This is his education,” Bruce Massman said. “He’s learning the hard way. I didn’t get him a contract. He had to learn about plumbing, how to buy the equipment, about setting up a business, learning how to bake. Because it’s his business, this is the first time he’s learned and cared about it.”
Similar stories have played out in many industries. When Daniel Green and Lukus Eichmann were Massman’s age, they were already into their third company. The Pasadena-based entrepreneurs, co-owners of Saddlelite Jeans Inc., had little formal training before they ventured into the business world, yet they have managed to get their products sold in boutiques around the world.
“We’ve taken an unorthodox approach to it, but it’s worked out for the better,” said Green, who at barely 21 is the company’s creative director and co-owner.
Those who successfully jumped into the business world at a young age generally have no regrets, though they concede that the work is not as glamorous as it seems.
Green and Eichmann sank $15,000 of their own money into the design and promotion of their jeans, then got family loans of $110,000 to pay production costs. They now sell the pants, which retail for more than $200, in boutiques from L.A. to Paris.
“We think about what we’re good at and create a job for ourselves,” Eichmann said. “Being young, we thought we could take advantage of that. We don’t have a huge burden on us yet, and when you’re younger, you’ve still got time to learn.”
———-
Edited by Lara Weber ([email protected]) and Victoria Rodriguez ([email protected])