At the young age of 3-years-old Ryan Hickman found clutter aggravating. When walking around the house and see recyclables he would pick them up and put them in the trash. One day his father had him collect the recyclables to sell the haul t a local center. After making $5, he quickly became excited about the fruits of his labor and made this job a routine.

As Ryan aged, he hustled his neighbors for their recyclables. He would go door-to-door asking for their trash. It did not take long until it became a business of his. After some success, he shifted his passion to keeping the environment clean and used his growing business as a medium. Today, Ryan has customers all over Orange County, CA. Mr. Hickman’s goal is to keep cans and bottles from reaching the ocean. He once stated: “Make the Sea Trash Free.”

He has a clear passion for his occupation and wants to share it the world. That is why he created a non-profit to educate others around him called Project 3R. Not only does this non-profit educate people on the necessities of keeping our home, earth, clean, it operates as a way to organize and manage community clean-up efforts.

In conclusion, Ryan Hickman’s story shows how one person’s passion and hard work can make a big difference. What started as a young child’s desire to clean up clutter grew into a successful business and a meaningful cause. Through his company and nonprofit, Project 3R, Ryan works to keep the environment clean and raise awareness about the importance of recycling. His goal, “Cleaning up our planet,” shows his dedication to protecting our oceans and the planet. By teaching others and organizing community clean-up efforts, Ryan is inspiring people everywhere to take action and care for the Earth.

What does this mean for us? He once said: “If a kid like me can make a difference, anyone can, too.” We can make a difference as well and it does not have to be in the field of environmental wellbeing. He found a passion, worked at it, made money from it, and created value with it.

Conversation starters connected to a believer’s faith and the gospel of Jesus Christ are not easy to come by, resulting in the Great Commission, “to go and make disciples of all nations,” quite difficult to do in our everyday lives. Blake Stoner, the founder of Jesus Freak Club (JFC), identified the lack of faith-based conversation starters after he began to fully pursue his relationship with Christ. Stoner noticed this gap within most Chrisitan clothing brands that had not yet been filled and has made it the mission of Jesus Freak Club to bridge the gap between believers and non-believers. Blake Stoner also recognized that he has the skills necessary to create and run this business well, allowing JFC to be his ideas coming to life and it fully being rooted in the truth of the gospel. 

Jesus Freak Club was founded in January of 2022, and was advertised as a Christian clothing brand different than any other. The distinction between JFC and other brands has been the short messages in every piece of apparel. The most frequent design being “Jesus Loves You” with new designs being filtered in and out throughout the year. The short messages allow for readers to grasp a short glimpse of the love of Christ or spark a moment of curiosity that may lead individuals to engage in conversation about what the message on the apparel truly means.

Blake Stoner longs for people to know more about the truth of the gospel within his everyday interactions but also around the globe. Because of this, Stoner has partnered with Streethearts Haiti, a mission organization stationed within Haiti and donates a portion of all JFC profit to the organization. Not only does this support his personal desire for mission but also the command God has placed on all of our lives to go and tell His Gospel to all people. Jesus Freak Club is a special organization, pursuing a special mission in a new way.

Visit Jesus Freak Club HERE!

The online buying and selling hub, Etsy, has submerged itself almost seamlessly into modern American culture. Its ingenious concept is now not foreign to the average household: buying and selling products through an online mediator. The creation and nature of Etsy is a prime example of the thought concept entrepreneurial mind. It makes possible and encourages the individual’s ability to sell simply. As a new Etsy seller myself, I’ve firsthand experienced the ease behind listing and growing a store’s presence.

The start of Etsy is riddled with the essence of entrepreneurship. It began with a frustrated entrepreneur, struggling to sell his creations successfully and consistently online. Rob Kalin was a woodworker at 25 years old when his frustrations led him to the engineering of Etsy. He founded it in 2005 and served as its CEO until 2008. He told Reader’s Digest during this period that “the industrial revolution and consolidation of corporations are making it hard for independent artisans to distribute their goods”.

I love how his story is inspired by real problems he noticed in the American economy and his own life. This points to the reassuring concept that problems in business and otherwise are usually relatable. Solutions can be widespread and shared to create something of an empire that can bring people together for common betterment.

Bearbottom Clothing is a brand of clothing founded due to a very unique occurrence.  Robert Felder started this company after his trip to Bangladesh, one of the largest manufacturers of clothing in the world.  While he was there, he realized that even though many of the people working there, had jobs in the clothing manufacturing industry, many of them could not afford to buy clothing for their families.  This sparked his business idea.

Bearbottom is a company that only works with manufacturers and companies that treat their employees with dignity, respect, and kindness.  Not only has this promoted a sense of positivity in this industry, but he was able to build so much respect for his company, that when COVID struck, his company took off and remained successful due to the relationships that he built with other companies.

This company is notable for their efforts to place people and works over profit.  Businesses can’t run on their own.  They rely on their workers so why not treat them the best that you can and make sure they are valued and taken care of? This company stands to be admired for recognizing the chain of workers in their company and the importance of caring for your business family in order to all be successful and bring about change in the industry.

22 year old Anton Krecic founded Seven Weeks Coffee. This is a coffee shop that is centered around its mission of supporting Pro Life efforts. As the name symbolizes the size of a baby at seven weeks old, which is very similar to the size of a coffee bean.  At 7 weeks old, this is the time when the heartbeat of a baby becomes clearly detectable. This coffee shop was founded in 2021 and works in different ways to bring a greater focus on people rather than profit.  Anton has dedicated 10% of each order to a pro-life pregnancy center.  Furthermore, he also places emphasis on the importance of fueling the body with healthy ingredients.  With this, he only uses coffee beans that are locally sources from farmers who are trusted by him and the company, and are further lab tested to ensure their quality and safety for the consumer.  This Christian Conservative influence on something totally unrelated, coffee, is truly inspiring, especially for young Christians who are looking to take a stance and bring about a unique change in the world.  With the clever name, focus on people over profit, and the wonderful way in which the shop supports pro-life and naturally sources their coffee ingredients, this mission stands to be truly admirable.

Cassandra Thurswell is one of the few who started with nothing but a dream, a few dollars and some determination and was able to turn it into a successful business. After working in many different fields including waitressing, retainer assembly, and managing a cupcake shop, she ended up in a jewelry store where she learned the value of taking ownership of her job and putting her all into it. After making improvements that helped grow the business she was working for, she caught the entrepreneur bug and decided to pursue starting her own company. As she explains, she had no plan going into this business, but received the support she needed from her husband and launched into the adventure of starting something new. She financed her venture with some money she had saved, a maxed out credit card, and some frugal living.

She decided that she wanted to start a business that she would find value in herself, and went in the direction of beauty and haircare. She started on her living room floor, hand making knotted hair ties, eventually getting orders big enough that her husband needed to quit his job to help her. That has turned into a trendy beuaty business carrying hair care products, skin care tools, and hair accessories, and has collabed with big names like elf, Disney, Harry Potter, and Hello Kitty. Her heatless curling set even went viral on TikTok!

However, this wasn’t her only business venture, just the first one that succeeded. As she said in an interview, this was her 8th business. She is a testament to the beauty of not giving up! In the same interview, when asked what her best piece of advice would be for people starting a business, she said that it was important to be 100% sure of your “why” and be sure that it is strong enough to sustain you through the highs and lows of your venture. As she said, make sure your actions align with your “why”. For example, if you want to be extremely wealthy or have a huge house, but entrepreneurship might not be the best way to get there! She said, “Your ‘why’ should be strong enough to be willing to live with very little for a period of time in service of your dream. I never felt like a victim to the struggles and menial tasks when starting Kitsch, I saw it as an investment in my future and made a game out of it”. This is one of the best pieces of advice I have heard from successful entrepreneurs – it’s not for everyone and for every goal! Cassandra Thurswell’s story shows how valuable determination, confidence, a strong “why”, and support are in starting a successful business!

See her interview here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/viviannunez/2019/10/30/for-cassandra-thurswell-starting-kitsch-came-down-to-trusting-her-intuition/ and her store here: https://www.mykitsch.com/

Miracle Olatunji is a Nigerian-American entrepreneur, author and speaker. From a young age she had the ambition, perseverance to empower young people to build their own business. She had a passion for career development and an even greater passion for helping others.

She was born in October 24, 2000, in the United States. As she was growing up she experienced difficulties that young people face when trying to start up a business. She figured out that there was a major lack of resources and guidance to help young people to build a career. She discovered this with her own career resources struggles. This problem became her motivation and platform to build her business around.

In 2018, Miracle founded OpertuniMe, which is a platform created to aid young people find career opportunities, such as internships, job opening and scholarships. But this business didn’t come without many struggles and obstacles. She had many people doubting her due to her age and experience. With encouragement help from mentors she was able to persevere these hurdles and launch who business to help to help many more launch there careers.

Miracle did not end her entrepreneurial journey with OppertuniMe. She then went onto becoming a sought-after speaker for empowering others in there career journey. She spoke at many schools, and organizations sharing her experiences and offer her guidance. Her speeches focused on attaining mentors and how important networking is.

In 2020 she had published “The Little Black Book of Career Hacks,” a book based around her passion of helping people navigate the complexities of there careers. This book became a major hit selling over 10,000 copies. Today she is 24 years old who still continues to inspire and empower future entrepreneurs.

Seven Weeks Coffee is an e-commerce coffee business with a prolife mission. Its name Seven Weeks was cleverly inspired by the size of a baby in the womb at seven weeks old: similar to that of a coffee bean. This is also the first time in its life that a baby’s heartbeat is clearly detectable. Anton Krecic founded Seven Weeks in 2021 at only 22 years old after spending some time in the discouraging scene of Capitol Hill. On the Seven Weeks Coffee website, he explains the discouragement he felt in finding that organizations often valued their profits more than their people-based missions and lacked godly principles in practice. He then is explicit in his mission as a Christian and conservative. This clarity and passion has grown an immense amount of support from large conservative names in the short span of three years.  In contrast with several of their counterparts, Seven Week’s mission statement transparently puts real people over profits, as 10% of every order goes to a real pro-life pregnancy center. Seven Week’s dedication is not only truly advancing its cause, but deliciously so. Krecic and his team care about unborn life as well as naturally sourced, healthy consumption. All of their coffee comes directly from famers the team knows and trusts and is lab tested. Krecic’s ingeniously niche combination of stellar, natural, and delicious coffee with an amazing cause has saved countless lives and enabled ordinary shoppers to fund change for Christ.

https://sevenweekscoffee.com/pages/our-donations

https://www.cxplained.com/interviews-founders/seven-weeks-coffee#:~:text=Anton’s%20Journey,weeks%20after%20he%20got%20married.

We all use socks almost every day, but at best, we just use them functionally with certain pairs of shoes. Have you ever considered socks to be a tool for raising awareness? That is what young entrepreneurs, Brandon and Sebastiaan Martinez, thought when they came up with their business “Are You Kidding?” These brothers loved socks so much, they decided to design their own. At the age of 5, Sebastian Martinez grabbed his crayons and began designing many fun patterns for socks he would like to create. Just one year later, he and his brother launched a business to sell their creative designs in 2014.

Since then, the brothers have sold over 500,000 socks and are currently still running the business at the ages of 15 and 17. They partcipate in many fundraising events to raise awareness for causes such as pediatric cancer research or diabetes research. Some of their charity socks include autism awareness, cancer awareness, and bullying awareness socks. They also focus a segment of their socks on things they believe people enjoy like space, cookies and bubbles. Each sock design takes around 2 months to design and manufacture and the brothers work together to both manage creating new designs and running the company as a whole.

As entrepreneurs, we can learn a number of things from the “Are You Kidding?” business. The Martinez brothers demonstrate how to take an ordinary, every day item and turn it into an exceptional, unique product. Furthermore, they discovered a new avenue for raising awareness for different causes that people can incorporate seamlessly into their every day lives. The “Are You Kidding?” business continues to thrive and is very active on social media testing new sock patterns and interacting with fans. They have raised over $350,000 for charitable causes and continue to make it the driving motivation behind their business.

On a trip to Banlgladesh in high school, Robert Feldman was shocked by the lack of basic necessities available to the people who lived there. He left with a strong desire to make a difference and help to solve this problem. Growing up in Florida, Feldman also noticed a lack of clothing that could handle intense activity. He then decided to create a solution to solve both of these problems. That is when he created Bearbottom.

Bearbottom is a clothing brand that aims to create versatile clothing for men so that they can take on any adventure. Feldman developed this line to be the perfect combination of eco-friendly and durable material, while remaining stylish. He started his first production in Bangladesh in an effort to provide sustainable clothing and jobs for the people there. Additionally, he implemented  a “buy one, give one” business model. Essentially, every time someone purchases an article of clothing from Bearbottom, a meal is donated to a child in India.

Since its inception in 2014, Bearbottom has grown into a very popular brand of clothing for “adventurers” and is currently worth $25 million dollars and has generated millions of revenue in donations to developling countries.

As entrepreneurs, we can learn a great deal from Feldman’s story. First, we can see the impact of a business with a mission. Feldman had a heart for the people struggling in Bangladesh and put all of his efforts into helping them. Customers of his brand resonate with him as a person and with his vision for the company which makes it more appealing than other brands.

Additionally, we can see the importance of creating of valuable product. Feldman noticed a gap in the mark for both durable and stylish clothing and decided to fill it with his own products. The company was incredibly successful due to demand for a product like this.