Ryan Hickman was only three years old when he developed a love for recycling. From that young age until he was 12, his love developed and turned into a passion. When Ryan heard that he could make money by bringing recyclables to a plant, he decided to bring his own things and collect recyclables from people in his neighborhood. Not long after he started collecting from others, he began getting requests from more and more people in his community to take their recycling to the plant, and Ryan was making incredible sums of money. Soon after, Ryan’s dad helped him turn his hobby into a full-blown operating business, “Ryan’s Recycling.” The trash Ryan was once able to collect using his bike, he had to do in a car, and even expanded outside his neighborhood. As of now, Ryan’s business had collected over 1.6 million cans and bottles, which was truly an incredible feat and a powerful statistic when considering the environmental impact. Ryan is an incredible entrepreneur, and I love that his parents helped him turn his seemingly silly passion into a business and job.

To top that all off, Ryan didn’t stop there and was able to start an additional business called Project 3R, which is a non-profit solely built upon donations. It is all focused on raising awareness for the environment and the need to recycle and Ryan has been incredibly success with it. He is truly incredible and continues to make a positive impact on the world and environment every day, on bottle and can at a time.

Stephanee Beggs is a what many would call an accidental entrepreneur. As a college nursing student during the pandemic, Stephanee decided to get creative with the way she would study for exams. She found that the best way for her to study was to teach the information back to hersef as if she was a teacher. She often took videos when she was teaching material and never planned on sharing them with anyone. One day, she decided to post the video on Tiktok and the response was incredible. Stephanee got thousands of views on the video within a few hours and that is when she realized the opportunity she had on her hands to share her studying materials with others. She began posting more of her videos which ultimately led her to start selling some of her study sheets on Etsy under her new business name of RNExplained!

Stephanee made more than 2 million dollars in the first 2 years of business, and she is still the CEO today. The business sells many products such as study sheets, t-shirts, stickers, and flashcards and Stephanee also runs a very successful YouTube channel as well. Through her business, Stephanee has been able to help nursing students across the country study and she is truly an entrepreneur making a difference in society. She is also still working full time as a nurse while running her business which is an incredible amount of commitment showing just how much she cares about continuing to make content. What an incredible testament to the power of social media… Who knows what other entrepreneurs will be born because of small TikTok videos.

Website: RNExplained – Nursing Made Simple!

Youtube Channel: RNExplained – YouTube

Etsy: RNExplained – Etsy

Carina Chaz is a young girl who invented perfume line called DedCool. Growing up, Carina was not a typical girl who loved floral and girly perfumes. She always enjoyed the smell of colognes more and wondered if there was a way to create a perfume with a more masculine scent that both women and men could use. As she began developing her product, Carina realized that not only did she want to create a unisex perfume, but one that was sustainable as well.

She came up with a recyclable, biodegradable, layerable, cruelty-free, vegan, and waterless perfume for men and women to both enjoy. Carina launched her business, DedCool, in 2016 at 21 years-old and has been extremely successful ever since. She has even expanded her business to now sell not only perfume but detergent, lotion, and air freshener as well.

What started out as a simple inconvenience in Carina’s life has now turned into a full-time job which should inspire all young entrepreneurs. She took a commonly purchased and well-known item such as perfume and put her own twist on it which has made her so successful.

If there is one thing to learn from Carina, it is that there is always an opportunity to innovate whether it’s by coming up with a new idea or taking an old idea and revamping it. We often get stuck in the mindset that all new products need to be completely unheard of and brand new, but she showed that statement is not true. Carina revolutionized the perfume industry, and that is incredible.