When she was a child, Gabby always dreamed of being a princess so she decided to turn that dream into a business idea.  At the age of 18, she founded her own business, Gabby’s Once Upon a Time Princess Parties, where she helps make the dreams of children become reality.

Her idea originated from wanting to one day be a Disney princess.  Instead of going to Disney she decided to stay at home and become a princess.  The first party she ever performed at turned out to be a huge success and the company has grown ever since.

What can you expect from one of these princess parties you might ask?  A realistic experience meeting the princess of your choice, story time, games and songs.  This unique business idea has been able to capture customers by filling an unmet niche.  Children’s entertainment seems to have always been a large industry but this real life experience is what makes Gabby’s company much different.

Michael Litt was born in Waterloo Canada and he had plenty of entrepreneurial experiences before starting his business, Vidyard.  Some of these ventures included day trading, a smartphone blog, and a bio-diesel enterprise.  It seems to be a common trend that most entrepreneurs have vast exposure in the business world before starting their own company.

Vidyard is a company that helps businesses manage their online video content.  It also allows them to see how users interact with their videos.  This “Youtube for business” idea grew rapidly and enabled Litt to be recognized by the top business incubator in silicon valley.  This recognition allowed him to receive the funding necessary to make his idea a reality.  Michael Litt is another example of a young entrepreneur finding a unique opportunity to create value for customers and turning that into a successful business idea.

Christian Ngan is a young entrepreneur from Cameroon.  He started off his career working in an investment bank in France which helped to give him exposure into the business world.  When he returned to Cameroon he started his own business with his $3,000 savings.  The company he started is Madlyn Cazalis, a cosmetic company that makes lotions, soaps, and creams.  The products from his company are sold at over 30 stores and that number has continued to grow.  This example of a young entrepreneur stood out to me because it is a person with a different ethnic and social background.  It shows how anyone can be a successful entrepreneur no matter what their circumstances are.

Sneakerville is a street-wear and sneaker boutique located in Youngstown Ohio.  Dom Mashorda, the owner and founder of the store is a millennial Entrepreneur who is only 19 years and decided pursue his passion and open his own shoe store.  I personally have an interest in shoes and was able to follow the progress of Sneakerville through Instagram and even consigned multiple pairs of my own shoes with the store and developed a relationship with Dom in doing so.  Dom stands out to me as being unique because he knew early on in high school that he did not want to go to college but instead start his own business, this takes a lot of courage and comes with lots of risk but can also result in great rewards and returns.

Sneakerville is one of the only sneaker boutiques in Youngstown, Cleveland, Pittsburgh and other surrounding cities and that is why it has been so successful.  The store does not operate like any traditional shoe store at your local mall, but it instead offers specialty shoes that sell out instantly at other stores, and they also offer different types of clothing, hats, and accessories.  People (like I did) are able to consign their shoes through the store which takes 15% of the sale price and lets the owner of the shoes keep the remaining 85% which also makes the store unique.

It is important how passionate Dom is about shoes and making his business last because without passion it is hard to have longevity.  I have always dreamed of opening my own shoe store someday and getting to meet Dom and deal with Sneakerville inspired me keep pursuing my dreams.