Ben Weissenstein began his entrepreneurial adventure at the ripe age of four manning a lemonade stand with his brother.  By 9, Ben had his own business cards and began weeding for neighbors or cleaning his grandmother’s pool.  In addition, he had a business called Ben’s Pet Co. where he watched people’s pets while they were away.  At the age of 14, Ben and his friend started a small business called Grand Slam Garage Sales which took off and over time expanded to be able to employ 30 part-time workers.

Ben’s business has received a large amount of publicity including Entrepreneurship Magazine and an appearance on Dr. Phil.  Weissenstein moved from Texas to Arizona where he is implementing the first of many Grand Slam Garage Sales franchises.  Ben is proof to the fact that children’s ideas, when developed and encouraged by the more mature in their life, have the potential to expand and become something never before imagined.

Syed Balkhi is a millennial entrepreneur originally from Karachi, Pakistan.  Presently, he is most well known for his business WPBeginner. Balkhi started his first business when he was 7 years old selling holiday cards for Muslim holidays.  His mother was the initial investor in this business, however, he tripled her investment in a month.  At 9 years old, Syed, with the help of his mom and grandmother, started an extremely profitable snack shop for his neighborhood.

At 12 Balkhi’s family immigrated to the United States and his family began to struggle financially.  Syed quickly got involved in the domain industry and began buying and selling domains to earn a little cash on the side.  In 2009, after graduating college, Balkhi created WPBeginner – the largest free WordPress Resource site.  In 2011, he and his roommate developed List25, an entertainment site that currently has 1.3 million viewer.

Balkhi is only 25 years old now, and is sure to continue his love for entrepreneurship in the future.  While he has had many failures along the way, Syed has learned from these and continues to move forward.

Steven Vilbert is not only my younger brother, but he is also a seventeen year old who custom builds and sells computers.

Two years ago, Steven sold his first computer.  He learned to build these computers by taking apart an old computer piece by piece and reverse engineering.  Through years of practice, Steven has researched various parts and brands with the most quality and efficiency.  At first, he sold his computers mainly to friends and family.  However, now Steven uses Craig’s List as a way to advertise his products and gain a larger customer base.

Steven has engineered extremely high end PCs specifically for gaming.  These computers are designed to run graphically intensive games which provides a more immersive experience for the players.  It typically takes Steven about six hours of work to complete a single computer.  Building computers started out as simply a hobby for Steven, but he quickly realized that what he was building was a desired product in the marketplace, specifically for gamers.  This very small business is something that Steven hopes to grow throughout the years.  For right now, however, it is something he does on the side while he is in high school.

The picture above is one of Steven’s latest creations.

Meet Connor Zwick, who is an entrepreneur who at the young age of 13 was discovered by Nettuts.com for his skill in computer hacking and asked to be a writer.

During his senior year of high school Connor built the iPhone app “Flashcards+” which is the world’s most popular flashcard app.  At age 19, Zwick left Harvard to develop the Coco Controller which is a mobile video game controller that fits over your smartphone.  Connor is currently a Thiel fellow, and thus has postponed his education for two years.  During this postponement Connor will be working on launching the Coco Controller.  Connor’s controller is currently leading in the market.  Other companies have developed their own, and Apple has even rumored about creating an iPhone controller; however, as it stands now, Zwick’s is leading the pack.

Zwick’s idea for the Coco Controller was a result of bad experience with the traditional iPhone on an airplane.  His story goes to show that good things can come if you make the most of an inconvenient experience.

At the age of 9, Cameron Johnson launched his first entrepreneurial endeavor when he created invitations for his parents’ holiday party in Virginia.   After only 2 years, Cameron had saved up several thousand dollars through this business which he creatively titled, “Cheers and Tears”.  Johnson’s creativity continued when he offered his sister a total of $100 for her collection of 30 Ty Beanie Babies.  Cameron then took those Beanie Babies and sold them on eBay – making ten times the amount on eBay.  Realizing the potential profit in the Beanie Baby business, he contacted Ty and began purchasing the animals at wholesale with the intention of selling them on eBay and his “Cheers and Tears” website making a very large profit.  Less than a year after this adventure, Johnsonn saved up $50,000 for yet another entrepreneurial idea which he titled “EZ Mail”  –  a program that forwards e-mails to a particular account without revealing the recipient’s personal information.

As a teenager, Johnson combined forces with two others to create an ad company which they titled “Surfing Prizes”.  This website provided scrolling advertisements across the top of any web browser.  In order to generate a significant profit, Johnson and the others teamed up with other agencies that could sell the ads for them.  Under this program, the one selling the ad would receive 30% of the ad revenue and the three teens would split the remaining 70%.

At the age of 15, Johnson had been receiving monthly checks of $300,000-400,000.  Before graduating from high school, Johnson reported that his combined assets were worth more than $1 million.  Now, at age 24, Johnson continues to make multiple appearances on television speaking about entrepreneurship.  Johnson encourages young people to “put yourself out there” and “not be afraid of rejection”.

Meet Sebastian and Brandon Martinez:

Sebastian (right), at age 5 became the CEO of his own company, “Are You Kidding?”.  His older brother Brandon supports his business as Director of Sales – ensuring that all sales run smoothly and that each customer receives great customer service.  You’d think I’m kidding – but I’m not.  Sebastian, even at the age of 5, had a passion; and with the help of his mother was able to turn that passion into an entrepreneurial reality.

Are You Kidding? is a company that sells fun, colorful socks to children who share the same love of socks that Sebastian does.  Mrs. Martinez, the President of this company, encouraged Sebastian to share this love with others about two years ago.  Since then the company has taken off.  On January 23, 2015 both Sebastian and Brandon were featured on Good Morning America’s Shark Tank Your Life: Kid-Preneurs Edition.

The business was officially launched in May of 2014.    In the last year, the business has made about $15,000.  Are You Kidding? is not only a for-profit organization, but the Martinez brothers also donate funds to various charities as well.  For example, in October, this company sold socks specifically designed to promote Breast Cancer Awareness.  In addition, Are You Kidding? is also working with “Be A Hero and Save Lives”, a campaign promoting safe driving through encouraging people not to text and drive.

These children are learning the ins and outs of running a business at a very young age.  It is exciting to think about where Sebastian and Brandon might take their sock business as they become older and learn more about the market and have new ideas.  If anything, these boys should teach us that there is no age limit to entrepreneurship.  Sometimes the most creative people are the youngest people, and with a little encouragement and the right resources it is possible to turn a passion into an entrepreneurial reality.