YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS 25 Kids That Made Millions Before Graduating High School

Young Entrepreneurs Who Made It Before Graduating From High School

It’s not out of the norm for teens to focus on school, friends, hobbies and even part-time gigs that put some spending money in their pockets. Although, there are some kids who have taken their passions and side-gigs and turned them into successful startups . Here are 25 kids who not only launched successful businesses, but made millions of dollars doing so.

1. Ashley Qualls
At the age of 14, Ashley Qualls launched a website called whateverlife.com in 2014, which was designed to provide free Myspace layouts and HTML tutorials for people in her age group. The site was so popular that Qualls received a number of offers, such as $1.5 million and the car of her choice from an anonymous buyer.

2. John Koon
Believe it or not, John Koon opened the first auto parts business in New York City at just 16-years-old. Koon made millions when the company, Extreme Performance Motorsports , became one of the main suppliers for the MTV reality show Pimp My Ride . He used his connections to start a clothing company alongside rapper Young Jeezy, which helped him earn a cool $40 million.

3. Cameron Johnson
In 1994, when he was just nine-years-old, Cameron Johnson launched a greeting card company called Cheers and Tears. By the time he reached high school, Johnson moved onto online advertising and software development, which earned him a monthly income of around $400,000.

4 Things Entrepreneurs Should Learn From American President Donald Trump: “If I Don't Win, I’ll Consider This A Total And Complete Waste of Time” -- Donald Trump

Donald Trump 

“If I don’t win, I’ll consider this a total and complete waste of time” -- Donald Trump

Love him or hate him, the Republican candidate and New Hampshire GOP victor Donald Trump can sometimes say something extremely powerful.
The above quote is an example. It sums up the kind of mindset every entrepreneur needs to have: Never set out to do something with hopes of being second best.
So, what else does Trump have to teach us? Politics aside, here are four lessons that every entrepreneur can learn from the controversial billionaire and his presidential run.

[ARB] BE INSPIRED TUESDAY (BIT) Young Entrepreneur of The Week - JOYCEE AWOJOODU - CEO ORIKI

Joycee Awojoodu - CEO Oriki 

Joycee Awojoodu - The startup story of an African luxury personal grooming brand fusing the continent’s beloved botanicals with scientific research


As the fast developing world of personal grooming and skincare grows in Africa, so too does the desire to find products that harness the unique natural ingredients from the continent for their inspiration. One luxury brand, ORÍKÌ, is not only creating a range of products that truly celebrate Africa’s natural resources, but it also positively touches the lives of those who harvest those raw materials.

[ARB] BE INSPIRED TUESDAY (BIT) Young Entrepreneur of The Week - "Bilikiss Adebiyi" - CEO WeCyclers

Bilikiss Adebiyi - Founder & CEO WeCyclers

Bilikiss Adebiyi is an inspiring Nigerian social entrepreneur and founder of WeCyclers. Her company offers waste collection and recycling services to the Lagos informal settlements, where an estimated 66% of Lagosians live. As a part of the process, residents are offered an incentive for collecting their household waste which is picked up for free by Wecyclers using specially adapted bicycles. To create incentives among low-income households to participate, rewards are given to them for every kilogram recycled, via points sent by SMS. These points are then redeemable against goods they value, such as cell phone minutes or basic food items. The rewards have been funded in partnership with big brands such as Coca Cola and GlaxoSmithKline.

Some small businesses later become the nations Big business; while some still maintain their small scale level. Either ways, here are some tips for small businesses to dominate the local market.

1. Small business tips online.

According to a study from Bazaarvoice, roughly 39 percent of in-store shoppers research a product online before buying at a physical location. This means that your small business must have an online presence in order to compete locally. How can your small business improve its online presence?

2. Improve your local SEO.

Focusing on improving your small business’ local SEO will help generate more traffic to your website and ultimately, more leads and sales for your business. With roughly 97 percent of consumers going online to search for local businesses, why wouldn’t you make SEO a priority? Additionally, Google is placing more emphasis on local search with prominent local results floating at the top of targeted search queries. With that said, Google has altered their local results to focus on the top three businesses for a specific search. This means, while difficult, getting your small business inside the top three results can result in tremendous return on investment. To get started, make sure you register your business with Google and Bing Places. Other considerations to improve local SEO include, hyper-local content creation onsite and offsite, outreach and publisher partnerships with local websites, optimizing your website (NAP, keywords, etc.) and strategic social media management among others.

Habits You Need To Be Successful

Many people wonder how they can become highly successful, not realizing that they hold within them everything they need to achieve all of the success they desire.
Successful people are where they are today because of their habits.  Habits determine 95% of a person’s behavior.
Everything that you are today, and everything that you will ever accomplish, is determined by the quality of the habits that you form.
By creating good habits and adopting a positive behavior, you too can become successful and live a prosperous life.

Successful People Maintain 7 Good Habits

For thousands of years, success in human life has been studied by great thinkers and philosophers.  I have personally studied the subject for more than 30 years.  What I have found is that the very best people have developed good habits.
I have identified seven valuable habits that you need to develop if you want to perform at your very maximum in everything you do.

1. They Are Goal Oriented

The first habit is to become goal oriented.
You need to be a habitual goal setter, and dedicate yourself to working from clear, written goals every day of your life.  All highly successful people are intensely goal oriented. They know exactly what they want, they have it written down, they have written plans to accomplish it, and they both review and work on their plans every single day.

[ARB] BE INSPIRED TUESDAY [B.I.T] For ENTREPRENEURS: Inditex -Zara

In 1975, Amancio Ortega started a garment factory called Zara with his wife in La Coruna, Spain. The city la coruna is a little more than 300 miles from madrid and 555 miles from barcelona. A very odd location for an aggressive, global company like Inditex. Imagine a Nigerian brand producing in Akure or Ekiti. In this city, Inditex has its HQ which houses its in-house designers, commercial team, seamsters, seamstresses and so on. They basically imitate the latest fashions and speed their cheaper versions into stores. Every one of Inditex’s brands — Zara, Zara Home, Bershka, Massimo Dutti, Oysho, Stradivarius, Pull & Bear and Uterqüe follow the Zara template: trendy and decently made but inexpensive products sold in beautiful, high-end-looking stores. The man today at 79yrs old is the second richest man in the world. Here are lessons i think any aspiring designer or fashion entrepreneur can learn from Zara - the fast-fashion clothing giant.

[ARB] BE INSPIRED TUESDAY [B.I.T] For ENTREPRENEURS: 10 Tips For Doing Business The Virgin Way - Branson Founder of Virgin Group

10 Tips For Doing Business

 I am often asked how I got to where I am, and how the Virgin brand achieved all that it has. While there are no shortcuts to success, certain attitudes and actions can help. Here are my top 10 tips for doing business the Virgin way:
Follow your dreams
You will live a much better life if you pursue your passions. People who work on the things that they love usually enjoy life more than everyone else does, simply because they are chasing their dreams.
Do some good
If you aren’t making a difference in other people’s lives, you shouldn’t be in business – it’s that simple. Companies have a responsibility to make a difference in the world: They owe this to their community, their staff, their customers, everyone. The amazing part is that doing good is also good for business.
Believe in your ideas
Give your venture everything you’ve got. A passionate commitment to your business and personal objectives can make all the difference between success and failure. If you aren’t proud of what you’re doing, why should anybody else be? And don’t get suckered into blindly pursuing profits and growth. If you stay focused on being the best at what you do, it’s more likely that the rest will follow.

[ARB] BE INSPIRED TUESDAY [B.I.T] For Entrepreneurs: 3 Basic Guide To Start Your Business

3 Basic guide to start  your business as an entrepreneur

When starting a business, you would need to ask yourself if you possess what it takes to run it efficiently and get the desired results. Every successful business man has a mentality and should possess a strong sense of character. That is why it is important to carry out a self analysis before commencing a business.
The business man does not see failure as a reason to quit; to him failure is a stepping stone that launches him to his next level. He is not afraid but is a risk taker, possessing the utmost desire to succeed; he is not just out to make money, but rather to bridge the gap between demand and supply. He is a sharp thinker and very witty, seizing every available opportunity to meet the demands of consumers. The following make up the mindset of successful business men.

BE INSPIRED TUESDAY [B.I.T] For ENTREPRENEURS: Tips For Succeeding In Business - Branson, Founder Virgin Group

Be an entrepreur

Favorite readers of BE INSPIRED TUESDAY [B.I.T] For ENTREPRENEURS on Arik Raymond's Blog [ARB] This week, we are not interviewing anyone, we'll just share with you some tips on how to build yourself as an Entrepreneur since that's what this show is all about, HELPING and BUILDING Entrepreneurs. Find below tips Branson, founder of Virgin Group has for entrepreneurs.
I am often asked how I got to where I am, and how the Virgin brand achieved all that it has. While there are no shortcuts to success, certain attitudes and actions can help. Here are my top 10 tips for doing business the Virgin way:
Follow your dreams
You will live a much better life if you pursue your passions. People who work on the things that they love usually enjoy life more than everyone else does, simply because they are chasing their dreams.
Do some good
If you aren’t making a difference in other people’s lives, you shouldn’t be in business – it’s that simple. Companies have a responsibility to make a difference in the world: They owe this to their community, their staff, their customers, everyone. The amazing part is that doing good is also good for business.
Believe in your ideas
Give your venture everything you’ve got. A passionate commitment to your business and personal objectives can make all the difference between success and failure. If you aren’t proud of what you’re doing, why should anybody else be? And don’t get suckered into blindly pursuing profits and growth. If you stay focused on being the best at what you do, it’s more likely that the rest will follow.

BE INSPIRED TUESDAY For Entrepreneurs: Michael Banjo ‘How I Started My Company From My Bedroom’

Nigerian born United Kingdom-based Michael Banjo is not only young and dynamic but is an entrepreneur of note, he’s been able to set a pace in his generation. Through his flourishing England based interior designing firm, Décor& Rainbow, Michael rates as a top ranking personality in the world of interior designing, even as he’s set to a branch of the outfit back home. Banjo shared the inspiring story of how he started his blossoming business with WOLE ADEPOJU
Can you tell us into the world of Michael Banjo?
I was born in Lagos and I spent pretty much of my time in the UK and the other half in Nigeria, between Lagos and Ibadan. I moved back to the UK in 1998 and I have been here in like seventeen years now. I studied Business Information Technology at Manchester College of Arts and Technology and I went on to study Management at Manchester Metropolitan University.
Pretty much later in Manchester, I worked in various capacities…in terms of sales and business development. I had the opportunity to work in an environment they manufactured and supply luxury kitchens and I guess that where the interest in creativity started mainly. I was trained by the firm in terms of designs in kitchens.
I moved on from there, I guess it’s the Nigerian in me wanting to set up my own company and I set this company up in 2009/2010.

[ARB] BE INSPIRED TUESDAY [B.I.T] For Entrepreneurs: Kosoko Ronke CEO Employment Clinic

Ronke Kosoko

Hello wonderful readers of Arik Raymond's Blog [ARB], you all are welcome to another inspiring episode of BE INSPIRED TUESDAY [B.I.T] For Entrepreneurs. To those who are just joining this show for the first time, you're once again welcome on board. 

As the name implies, BE INSPIRED TUESDAY [B.I.T] For Entrepreneurs; this show welcomes entrepreneurs to share theirr business to the world, inother to inspire young people to join the Enterpreneurs clique. It is scheduled to be released on every Tuesday of the month after been launched in August. 

On this week's edition of B.I.T for Entrepreneurs, join me as we welcome Ronke Kosoko, CEO Employment Clinic.

Employment clinic is an Employment Solutions Company offering a wide array of bespoke and integrated services across industries. Its ultimate goal is to redefine Africa’s employment profile. Employment is a global issue but the Nigerian case is different because there are many fundamentals that were not being addressed which constitute the major cause of unemployment in Sub Saharan Africa and there was no organization addressing these issues, so Ronke established Employment Clinic to fill the gap. With over 40 million unemployed Nigerians, we can no longer wait for the government to be the only answer to our national problems especially with the spate of policy shocks and policy somersaults that continues to aggravate unemployment in the country. Hence, this organization.

[ARB] BE INSPIRED TUESDAY [B.I.T] For Entrepreneurs: Faith Emenike CEO La’ Fame Accoutre (The Fragrance Lady)

Faith Emenike on Arik Raymond's Blog BE INSPIRED TUESDAY For Entrepreneurs

Wow! Wow!! Wow!!! It's another episode of BE INSPIRED TUESDAY [B.I.T] For Entrepreneurs on Arik Raymond's Blog [ARB]. You are welcome to the show. 

Our Nigerian Entrepreneur for the week is no other person rather than: Faith Emenike of La’ Fame Accoutre. This week, we present to you Emenike Faith, a Perfumista and Youth Empowerment Convener. She produces, packages and markets perfumes, specifically Body Splashes called La’Fame Body Splash. This young lady also organizes, hosts and trains interested individuals who want to start up this line of business.

Faith Started this business out of love and passion to smell good! She loves what she does, especially mixing different essential oils to create a signature scent.

She also has a great passion to help youth become better versions of themselves financially by offering hands-on trainings on how they can earn extra income or become self employed.

Let’s meet Faith Emenike, The Perfumista.

[ARB] BE INSPIRED TUESDAY For Entrepreneurs: Ibinabo Usoroh CEO Itoby’s Culture Mix

Ibinabo Usoroh, CEO Itoby’s Culture Mix

Dear lovely readers and lovers of Arik Raymond's Blog [ARB], y'all welcome on this platform. Having a list of EXCLUSIVE CONTENTS which include BE INSPIRED TUESDAY [B.I.T] For Entrepreneurs; a show scheduled on Tuesdays of every month, we decide to bring another episode of it this Tuesday as usual. Our entrepreneur of this week is a young vibrant lady, a lady who believes soely in being her own boss.

Let's find out who she is after the cut...

[ARB] BE INSPIRED TUESDAY For Entrepreneurs: Adeoluwa Adekanmi CEO ViPEA Photography

Dear Arik Raymond Blog's [ARB] reader, I welcome you all to another segment of BE INSPIRED TUESDAY For Enterpreneurs. This week, we’ll be featuring a young man who kept pushing through all odds and decided to follow his passion right after School without looking back. Wondering what his passion is? Don’t be in such a hurry, our young Nigerian Entrepreneur of the week is ready to inspire you to greatness.

Meet Adeoluwa Adekanmi of ViPEA Photography

[ARB] BE INSPIRED TUSEDAY {B.I.T] For Entrepreneurs: Lucy Adi of Lavvida Global Services

Lucy Adi Of Lavvida Global Services

Supporting Nigerian Businesses both Big and Small is really what we are passionate about here On BE INSPIRED TUESDAY [B.IT] For Entrepreneurs. Like we always do on B.I.T, we celebrate Entreprising Nigerians who have made the move to start and grow Businesses and take charge of their world.
Our Entrepreneur for this week is a young lady who is going to Inspire and make you really wonder what’s stopping you from starting your own Business. Are you ready?

BE INSPIRED TUESDAY [B.I.T] For Entrepreneurs: Lagos State’s War Against Youth Unemployment

 

A place where opportunities and youths abound, yet unemployment reigns, is a place devoid of strategic management of resources and doomed for crime and restiveness. Such a place is not hard for any Nigerian to imagine, because it actually exists and we live in it.
Daily Times findings has however shown that an interesting 17-year old scheme in Lagos exists which provides ample opportunities for youths seeking gainful employment, the question is how successful has it been?
Perhaps you live in Lagos and you ply the Ogba-Agege axis, then you may by now be familiar with seeing mature youths clad in black and white uniforms and probably concluded that they are students of a learning institute of some sorts and of course continue minding your business, which is what everyone is expected to do in Lagos.

Arik Raymond's Blog [ARB] BE INSPIRED TUESDAY For Entrepreneurs - BAMITALE ALIMI CEO RECREATIONS

 

Happy new mooooooooonth people, It's so good having you people join us as usual on our weekly edition of BE INSPIRED TUESDAY [B.I.T] for Entrepreneurs. From the stable of A.R media, we will like to say Welcome once again to B.I.T for Entrepreneurs.
As we launched WEEKLY contents of BE INSPIRED TUESDAY [B.I.T] for Entrepreneurs in the month of August, we will continue with it on our blog throughout the month of September - Forever. lol.
This is a Series that celebrates young Enterprising Nigerians who take the Business World by storm.
Our Entrepreneur for the week will be sharing her amazing story on how she started an outfit that would be with us for a very very long time. You will be inspired by her story [that’s exactly what we want].
Find out who she is after the cut...

ArIk Raymond's Blog [ARB] BE INSPIRED TUESDAY (B.I.T) For Entrepreneurs - Mayowa Owoeye CEO WATCHAVEN Company

 

Hello faithful readers of Arik Raymond's Blog, you are welcome to another episode of BE INSPIRED TUESDAY (B.I.T) for Entrepreneurs.For some individuals, starting a Business might seem like a pretty huge, risky and tiring journey but not for someone like this young man whose love for wristwatches knows no bounds and has turned that love into a glowing Business. Arik Raymond's Blog presents our Nigerian Entrepreneur of the Week-Mayowa Owoeye of Watchaven Company.

As an IT engineer with a plethora of experience in IT systems integration, Mayowa had always wanted to run his own business, but due to his extensive knowledge in building online portals and his amazing love for wristwatches, he decided to merge them together. Mayowa got ready confident, thanks to the feedback from his initial customers which formed his strong customer base.

Let’s find out more about Mayowa Owoeye and The Watchaven Company

[ARB] BE INSPIRED TUESDAY (B.I.T) For ENTREPRENEURS: Maryam Adebola Salami Of MADE CREATIONS AND DESIGNS LIMITED

Maryam Adebola Salami

 Dear favorite readers of Arik Raymond's Blog, welcome to this week's edition of BE INSPIRED TUESDAY For Entrepreneurs.

 To those of you who know, and to those who are here to know, what we do basically on BE INSPIRED TUESDAY For Entrepreneurs is; we feature young Enterprising Nigerians who believe in conquering the world by making good use of the gifts, talents and skills they have.

Our Nigerian Entrepreneur of the Week, is an independent woman who has got so much passion for Fashion. She’s a change agent. Join her as she shares her Story on Entrepreneurship, you’ll be inspired. Pay attention.