Archive for Business – Page 14

Gymshark- Ben Francis

Gymshark is a fitness and sports apparel brand founded in 2012. Ben Francis, the founder of the company, created this company with some of his high-school friends. He was only 19 years old when starting the company. He was a full-time college student and worked night shifts at a pizza shop. The money he earned helped him to start his company. Francis couldn’t find athletic apparel that he wouldn’t want to wear. He started making his own clothes after learning how to sew from his grandmother. He would work out of his parents’ garage and create around 10 clothing items a day. He created clothing pieces while earning a degree and working.

After two long years of hard work, he made over $320,000. He realized this company had potential and dropped out of college. After focusing on Gymshark full-time for eight years, he is about to make over $130 million in sales. Francis said the secret to his company’s success was “using social media influencers with large followings to wear the brand and spread the word online.”

Francis sold the company to Steve Hewitt, sportswear expert and Gymshark’s new CEO. Hewitt had experience in business and has helped the business grow, as well as their sales. Francis is still a major stakeholder in the company.

The three main values of Gymshark are family, progression, and vision. The family of Gymshark are athletes, artists, and visionaries. They are all around the world and all bring the visions of the company to life. Progression is making the products with a mindset of the future. Vision is bringing the ideas to life. All ideas are accepted.

I think it’s inspiring that Francis created the company at 19 years old. He found a way to balance college, work, and building a company. Francis shows us that we can achieve anything though hard work and determination.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6227737/Gymshark-owner-entrepreneur-Ben-Francis-26-Birmingham-tells-story.html

https://www.gymshark.com/pages/about-us

BeYOUtiful

Hannah Grace, a ten year old, started her own bath bomb business called BeYOUtiful. Grace first began this business because her father encouraged her to recreate some of her favorite products from her preferred health and beauty store. Around New Year’s Eve 2016 Grace was making her first bath bombs. BeYOUtiful bath bombs were selling in a local gift shop a few weeks later. The Grace family decided to continue selling this product; it is being sold in eight retail outlets in two states however, BeYOUtiful makes its largest impact online.

Grace’s business is called BeYOUtiful because Grace believes the being beautiful means to be yourself no matter the challenges you face.

Bath Bombs | Shower Cakes | Hannah Grace Beyoutiful

Grace was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes at eleven months old. After this diagnosis Grace makes it her mission to donate 20% of all web sales to JDRF. Additionally, Grace has donated over $5,000 to multiple charities in hopes to leave an impact on the world.

At the age of ten Grace displays resilience, passion, and motivation. Grace inspires me to persevere through tough challenges and strive to pursue something I am passion about. This little business taught me that even just a small difference in innovations can be just enough to turn into a large successful company.

NOHBO, Planet-Friendly Personal-Care

Ever wonder when large clunky plastic containers of bathroom hygiene products will be a thing of the past? Nohbo, or NO-Hair-BOttles, has answered this question with, “right now!” Benjamin Stern thought up the innovative idea of Nohbo in his ninth grade biology class and ran with it. At the young age of fourteen, Benjamin watched a documentary about the plastic-bottling industry and how much plastic truly ends up in your bathroom garbage each year, rather than being recycled. He took it upon himself from that day forward to come up with an eco-friendly solution to the limitless plastic waste. His goal was to blend the innovative concept of detergent pods with every-day bathroom products such as shampoo, body wash, and shaving cream. Young Benjamin’s solution was the prototype he created that was a dissolvable ball of product inside of a biodegradable wrapper. He saw the problem of plastic waste in single-use products being mass produced and eradicated this unnecessary abundance with his waste-less product called Nohbo Drops. This product was just the beginning because it soon launched him all the way to the hit TV Show, “Shark Tank.” It was here where he struck an impressive deal with Mark Cuban for $100,000 with a 25% equity stake in his business. Success was bound to happen.

The years following this were big for Benjamin Stern, he not only had Mark Cuban on his side, but he had money and mentorship to aid his growth. On many accounts this young man has found himself deeply appreciative of the amazing business people and scientists that he is surrounded by. They have helped him avoid countless mistakes. In the past three years, Stern graduated high school, raised over three million dollars in business financing, and his Nohbo Drops have been bustling off of the shelves. Though Ben Stern has seen success on all levels, he has hit some pretty significant roadblocks along the way. The most major of the many was the “structurally instability” that the dry dehydrated product form caused within the biodegradable wrappers. This problem was fixed by filling the wrappers with a gel based product which not only worked better and was easier to ship out, but also cut the production cost to a third of what it had been. 

These eco-friendly drops of personal-care products are making Ben Stern a successful young entrepreneur, and they are making the abundance of single use plastic bottles, (that are overused in hotel chains especially,) a thing of the past. These Nohbo Drops melt in your hands once in contact with water and leave no plastic waste to discard following their use. As this environmentally aware entrepreneur has made clear, they [Nohbo] “are a mission driven research and development company founded on the premise of eradicating unnecessary single use plastic bottles in areas where there truly is no need for them.” 

From inspiration to innovation, Benjamin Stern has found a problem and solved it. Today, he continues to work hard behind the scenes at Nohbo. If only he had known that one spark in his mind during a ninth-grade biology class would lead to the prosperity he lives in today. It took only his pursuance of one single idea to inspire a whole generation of young men and women to find problems in the world and try to solve them just like he did. He has not only thought like an entrepreneur, but he has innovated an old commodity like one too. 


For More Information On Nohbo Visit: https://nohbo.com/

Or Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5TMemcpi3w

Catherine Cook – myYearbook

   When Catherine Cook was just 15 years old she and her brother Dave came up with the great idea for the website called myYearbook. The platform was designed to be a way for high school aged students to meet others. The two were inspired by the idea when they were starting at a new high school and were having difficulties making new friends. They got the program up and running by working with people in Mumbai. Catherine says that she and Dave would stay up into the early morning hours just so they could connect with their developers and go over the multiple wireframes they drew out with a paper and pencil. 

   In April of 2005 the website was launched in their high school. Catherine told ADWEEK in an interview that they faked a few press releases to catch people’s attention and within the first year they had 1 million members. One of the biggest struggles they had to work through with the website was finding a way for people to have fun with the platform regardless if they had multiple friends or no friends on the site. They were able to overcome the hurdle and because of it they had 37.2 million members back in August of 2011.

Later in 2011 the company was sold for 100 million dollars of combined cash and stock shares. At the ripe age of 21 she became a millionaire from a simple idea she had when she was just 15 years old. Today the website was known as MeetMe after the name was changed but has since then rebranded and is now The Meet Group. The Meet Group is still growing and branched into the dating site scene and produced the sites Growlr, NextDate and also purchased the company that owns eharmony. 

  When Catherine and David came up with the idea I am pretty sure they did not know it would take off like this. It is amazing to see a simple idea such as theirs flourish into something so big. The story of myYearbook is just proof that you are never too young to be an entrepreneur and that no idea should ever be underestimated.

Are You Kidding Socks

video thumbnail

For Brandon Martinez (14 years old) and his brother Sebastian (12 years old), age is simply a number when it comes to business. The two brothers started their sock company in 2014 as they sought to start a non-profit to live out their passion: designing and selling socks while supporting national and local charities. Hence, the mantra of these boy’s non-profit: “kids helping kids.” The boys are quite intentional about shaping their business so that communities are impacted by their model of charity. With each pair of socks that one buys, one sock is donated to a charity. The business partners with a list of nine non-profits.

 

One of the parts I love most about this business is the design of the socks. They consist of youthful patterns which are certainly attractive to kids. Furthermore, some of the socks have designs of certain charities printed on them which create awareness of the charity when worn and 30% of the sock profit is donated to that charity. The picture below illustrates and example of these charitable socks.

 

 

 

 

“You’re never too old or too young to start a business… you can be 7 or 70.”
– Sebastian Martinez

“If we’re not learning to give back then what are we really doing for the world.”
– Brandon Martinez

 

As the quote of Brandon Martinez suggests, the two business kids are all about improving the world. Christian or not, these boys are serving others through ingenuity. In addition, they did not let their youthful status stop them from pursuing their dreams. What an entrepreneurial spirit the two possess! The two boys have contributed over $300,000 in charitable contributions; located on their website, they claim the main focus of the business to be donating socks to kids in foster care, the homeless, and those affected by natural disasters.

The business does a great job at marketing their product well too; they know the desires of their audience. For example, the business acknowledges that more than nine in ten millennials would purchase a product associated with a cause. I admire these kids as they obviously discerned a common passion and implemented a business that first and foremost focuses on others.

Cameron Johnson: An Entrepreneur Since Nine

When Cameron Johnson was 9 years old, he started making invitation cards for family celebrations. Cameron then realized that people really liked his cards, so he decided to start selling them. His little business was surprisingly profitable. At 12, he used his money to buy Beanie Babies, which he then sold online at higher prices. This venture was much more successful, making $50,000 dollars in under a year. Just a reminder, he was only 12 years old! Cameron then came up with My EZ Mail, an online service that would forward e-mails to a specific account without showing the recipients’ information. In just a few years, it was making $3,000 dollars monthly in advertising revenue. Another business of his was giving him $300,000 a month. In total, Cameron Johnson started twelve successful businesses before he graduated from High School, . When he was 15, he became the youngest American to join the board of a company in Tokyo. After graduation, Cameron went to Virginia Tech, but he soon realized that business was his true passion. So, he left after less than a semester to pursue a new company, CertificateSwap.com,  with his friend. This business sold gift certificates for lower prices than those on eBay. He and his partner eventually sold the business for a six-digit account. While he has sold all of his internet businesses by this point, Cameron still invests in many other start-ups, and he now gives lectures on entrepreneurship.

One thing that really impressed me about Cameron Johnson was his ability to adapt to the internet, which was still in its early years when he started working. Him choosing to be an entrepreneur instead of going to college also taught me that you should follow your passions. But personally, I think he was most impressive at coming up with products and ideas that people would want by considering their perspectives.

Airbnb

Airbnb, also called “Air Bed and Breakfast”, is a well-known company that allows people to rent out people’s living spaces to travelers. In 2007, two men, Joe Gebbia and Brian Chesky, founded Airbnb. The company started off an email, from Gebbia to Chesky, about a design conference convention happening in their town. Chesky and Gebbia were roommates in San Francisco and could not afford rent at their apartment. Gebbia knew hotels would be booked out for the convention and many designers would need a place to stay. He emailed Chesky and decided to create a space in their apartment for an air mattress, a small desk, wireless internet, and breakfast every morning. Two men and one woman paid $80 to sleep on an air mattress in Gebbia and Chesky’s apartment. After realizing how much potential this idea had, they welcomed their old roommate, Nathan Blecharczyk, into their business. That’s how airbedandbreakfast was born. After founding Air Bed and Breakfast, they tried to create Roommates.com but it was already founded by Bryan Peters. Air Bed and Breakfast was changed to Airbnb because people were confused with the air mattress concept.

In April 2009, they received a $600,000 seed investment to help build their company. In 2011, Airbnb was in 89 countries and surpassed 1 million nights booked. There were some downsides of people renting their houses or apartments to strangers. Some would come home to find their place trashed and have to clean up the mess. They implemented a coverage policy and a cleaning fee when booking a rental property. They provide rentals all over the world and have over 30,000 tiny houses, 5,000 castles, and 3,000 tree houses to rent. Who knew?!

Their multimillion-dollar business started from not being able to pay rent. They have transformed their business into letting others rent out their own apartments, townhouses, houses, etc. to strangers.

https://www.businessinsider.com/how-airbnb-was-founded-a-visual-history-2016-2#they-created-a-simple-site-airbedandbreakfastcom-bought-three-air-mattresses-and-arranged-them-in-their-loft-5

Sustainable Air Transportation

Wright Electric was founded by Jeffrey Mark Engler to solve the problem carbon emissions by airplanes.  Flying is an essential part of modern transportation, but it can triple a persons carbon footprint.  Wright Electric is working on developing an electric airplane that will have much lower carbon emissions than current passenger jets.  The Wright 1 airplane that is in development will be able to carry 186 passengers, and it will use batteries to power electric motors for propulsion.  Lower carbon emissions will be achieved by using electric power and a more aerodynamic design that reduces drag and makes the airplane more efficient.  Battery powered airplanes are becoming more realistic as a result of research by government agencies such as NASA and the Air Force Research Laboratory that are making batteries more efficient and lighter.  An electric airplane has some additional benefits.  Electric motors are much quieter than traditional jet engines, and the decreased use of fuel will make electric airplanes cheaper to fly.  Wright electric is also designing their airplane so that batteries can be quickly swapped at an airport to allow for a faster turnaround time.

Wright Electric has partnered with experienced airlines such as EasyJet, Jetex, and VivaAerobus to get commercial, operational, and maintenance insight during the design process.  The Wright 1 will not have a very large range at first with 500km or 311mi flights from London to Paris, but it will be able to get up a 1,280km or 800mi range.  The Wright 1 will also have slower cruising speeds than similarly sized passenger jets, but Wright Electric expects this to be fine for the short flights that they will be starting with.  Wright Electric is planning to perform ground tests of its motors in 2021 and flight tests in 2023.  They are hoping to have the airplane on the market by 2030.

Me & the Bees – Innovated Lemonade

It all began when four-year-old Mikaila Ulmer was stung by a bee twice in only one week. Naturally, she grew scared of bees, only until she realized how useful and crucial they were to the prosperity of human life and health. She learned about the amazing things bees do for our ecosystem. Once she was inspired by the bees, she was determined to somehow raise money to help save them and promote a boisterous population of bees around the globe. Shortly after she was stung she was encouraged by her family to create a product for two children’s business competitions. They were the Acton Children’s Business Fair and the Austin Lemonade Day. That same year she received a cookbook from her Great Granny Helen which inside included a very special homemade flaxseed lemonade recipe. As a young, talented innovator, Mikaila was prompted to think about how she could bring her newfound passion for bees and business together with her Great Granny’s iconic lemonade recipe. A lightbulb went off in her head. She thought up a plan to use honey from bees in a lemonade recipe that made the taste of that famous sweet summer drink more natural and enjoyable for consumers. At that point she began calling her lemonade brand, “Be Sweet Lemonade,” but due to copyright issues, changed it to “Me & the Bees Lemonade.” The goal of Mikaila’s business is to donate a percentage of the profits to local and international organizations that fight for the growth of the honeybee population worldwide. This young-innovator is now a 15-year-old entrepreneur who has grown her small, humble, Austin, Texas ideas into a profitable venture that has grown by over five hundred percent in just ten years. Her success does not stop there, she even appeared on the hit TV Show of entrepreneurs, Shark Tank in 2015, striking an impressive sixty-thousand-dollar investment from the famous shark, Daymond John. Even now “Me & the Bees Lemonade” is flying off the shelves of Whole Foods Market, The Fresh Market, H-E-B, World Market, and many other stores and sales venues across the state of Texas. Today, Mikaila is a known social entrepreneur, author, public speaker, social media presence, and a hard-working high school student. She is determined to grow her business, continue to raise awareness about the importance of bees, and bring delight to lemonade consumers. More than anything, Mikaila wants to teach everybody how to save the bees, and how to promote the prosperity of their kind. She went even further than just “Me & the Bees,” and established The Healthy Hive Foundation, a 501 (c) 3 non-profit that has the mission to save all bees through educating people of all ages and fields about bees, donating to bee researchers, and protecting the resources bees need to survive and thrive. She serves as an inspiration to young people by influencing them to become social entrepreneurs, just like herself. She turned her dreams into reality through innovation and social entrepreneurship. As always, we need more young women entrepreneurs like Mikaila Ulmer in the world. Take risks, you might just prosper more than you would have ever imagined you could.

Moziah Bridges: Bowties for the Boys

Moziah Bridges is a fifteen-year-old CEO of his own fashion line. At such a young age he has embraced his colorful style and his driven personality has taken him far. The fashion industry fell in love with his designs and Mo featured on shark tank in 2014 when he was ten.

His main focus started with bowties; Moziah had always had an acute sense of style but the fashion market was too boring for his taste. So, he took matters into his own hands with the help of his granny.

The business started as a hobby, with a desire to be fashionable and make the world a more colorful place. Mo’s mission has remained constant with his ever-growing fame. A 600,000 dollar business started with just a sewing machine. Mo’s first bowties were made from scraps of his grandmother’s dresses and curtains, first just for himself. As word got around however, he started selling over Facebook and later Etsy.

It did not take long for news networks to take notice of the young entrepreneur with his bright designs and Moziah has made appearances on the Oprah Magazine, the Steve Harvey Show and others. Even the NBA was taken with his style and Mo got a licensing deal to use their logo in his designs.

Ever the model entrepreneur, Mo has not only been an innovator and a risk taker, he has used his success to benefit others. Very tied to his hometown of Memphis, he wanted to give other kids there the ability find their own opportunities. He paid for several children to attend a summer camp. His philanthropic personality and love for color have fueled the basis of his business.

Maybe on of his most amazing traits is his drive. Never letting his age keep him from pursuing his dreams, Moziah Bridges is the perfect example of entrepreneurs coming in every age.