Enter ‘young entrepreneur’ into any search engine and you’ll unravel an endless chain of inspiring articles about Young People Doing Great Things.Tales of child prodigies, teenage millionaires making megabucks from the comfort of their bedrooms, savvy students cashing in from their smart start-ups. Being a rather average 24 year old myself, I could find my comparative levels of underachievement a little deflating. But, if you believe in the sentiment that it’s never too late to make a success of yourself, then it’s probably never too early to get started in business, either.
From working in a Speaker Bureau, I’d say that business speakers on the corporate circuit generally seem far closer to middle age than their teens or twenties. This might suggest that you need years of conventional professional experience in order to have something interesting to say, and for people to pay you handsomely to say it. However, I’d argue that Generation Y and younger are bucking this trend and rightly shaking up what might be viewed as a bit of a stuffy scene. To help prove my point, here are 3 successful young entrepreneurs and Speaker Bureau favourites showing us how it’s done:
Josh Valman: Josh was 10 years old when he started making robots, and I don’t just mean ones out of Lego bricks. Begging his parents to take him along to competitions, he found himself competing Robot Wars style against engineers, scientists and PhD students. As Josh cheerfully reminisces; it was the guys in flashy suits versus the geeky child in flashing trainers.
At the age of 14, he was ready to move on to bigger and better things. While others his age were chatting away on MSN messenger after school, Josh was conducting international conference calls as a supply chain consultant and helping manufacture orders worth millions of pounds. After all, Josh says, they were just numbers on a spreadsheet.
To cut a long story short – and because you should really hear this story from Josh himself - Josh is now founder and MD of RPD International, employing 67 people in his office and working with over 100 factories in 40 countries. Josh claims one of the secrets to his success is his youth. His fresh eyes saw solutions older people, often stuck in their ways and bogged down by the traditional methods of doing things, didn’t. And Josh doesn’t see conventional routes or modes to success as always necessary: “I was rejected from 5 universities, but now I teach at all 5 of them”.
Fraser Doherty: Now we move from robots and machines to something infinitely less complex: jam. Fraser makes the point that a good idea doesn’t necessarily have to be high tech, and he’s right. As a boy, Fraser learnt to make jam in his grandmother’s kitchen, and it became a super obsession. So much so, he’s now the multi award-winning businessman behind SuperJam.
Originally selling at farmers markets, Fraser took heed of the decline in traditional jam sales and spotted a gap in the market. With sugar fast falling out of favour with consumers, his 100% fruit recipe was born, and he starting churning out humungous orders and presumably making a gigantic mess of his grandmother’s kitchen. All worth it though, as at 18, he achieved the feat of becoming the UK’s youngest ever supplier to a major supermarket chain.
The rest is history, and since then he’s written the SuperJam Cookbook (Banana and Rum Curd anyone? Umm - yes please!) and SuperBusiness, telling his inspiring story and explaining how you could have a super business, too. When he’s not leading SuperJam to world domination, he’s working on his craft beer company and his ethical coffee subscription business. When he speaks, Fraser’s enthusiasm positively glows, and he reinforces the delightful idea that any craft can grow into something amazing if nurtured with love and imagination. He’s a perfect personality for any event, conference or dinner – and if you’re nice to him, he might bring along a pot of jam or two.
Amber Atherton: The eagle-eyed amongst you might remember Amber from the first 3 series of hit reality television show Made in Chelsea. It’s a guilty pleasure of mine, I confess, but that’s not really the reason I’ve included her here. Just as the internet was really beginning to change the world, Amber set up her first website selling books and CDs at the tender age of 9, and continued her enterprising streak from the confines of her boarding school dorm. Amber is founder of MyFlashTrash.com, a rapidly expanding online marketplace selling fun, quirky jewellery at largely affordable price points.
You want Amber if you’re looking for a speaker who seriously knows their stuff on social media. Amber reckons bloggers and YouTubers are the most influential faces in the teen market these days – much of her website’s traffic comes from such partnerships and endorsements – and I think the evidence out there would suggest she’s correct. Super hot on active social engagement, she thinks Facebook is probably out, and visual apps like Snapchat and Instagram are most definitely in when it comes to engaging customers.
Now, you may scoff at my reference to Made in Chelsea, but turns out it was actually a pretty shrewd business move rather than a bid for fame and notoriety. Amber worked with producers to create the show, with characters wearing her merchandise onscreen. The TV exposure sent business booming – even Kate Middleton has been rocking her pieces. Sassy, articulate and confident, Amber really knows how to spot, predict and react to trends in an age of pop culture and celebrity.
So there we have it – 3 young people making serious waves in the business and speaking worlds. Do you know of anyone who would be a worthy addition to this list?
