[dropcap]W[/dropcap]hen the Pew Research Center surveyed teenagers in an effort to find employment rates of 16 to 19-year-olds, it was unlikely they counted young entrepreneurs in the percentage. After all, the 2014 results state that the majority of employed teenagers worked in the accommodation and food services sector.
As a matter of fact, for junior Bailey Long, her profits come from running a slime business. While it is just a hobby, she enjoys making and selling her products, as she believes slime contains health benefits.
“I don’t plan on making it in the future, because slime won’t be popular forever,” Long said. “I’m just here to make it for people who buy it for fun or even for anxiety-related issues. Slime is an anxiety reliever because of it’s weird soothing qualities.”
In addition to its therapeutic effects, slime has continued to grow in popularity, especially on social media accounts, which is where Long found out about the stress-relieving and oddly satisfying goo.
“I got into making slime by seeing slime videos on Instagram. I didn’t understand it at first, but I thought [the videos were] satisfying, as many people also believe they are.  The more I saw on Instagram, the more I wanted to try to make some, Long said.  “The more I practiced, the better I got at making it. I thought, ‘Hey, many people also want to try to make it or see what the hype is about,’ so I made some for people to buy, and people liked it so I started a small business.”
Long said many people have slime businesses on Instagram, and some accounts have over one million followers. While Long admits her own slime Instagram account, which can be found @glitzy_slimes, is smaller compared to some of the others, she is growing it everyday.
As any entrepreneur might agree, spreading the word on a business is always a challenge. But for Long, a teenger living in a digital world, technology has helped her continue to expand her shop.
[quote]“To spread the word on my business, I go to social media, since it’s one of the most popular ways to communicate to someone,” Long said. “I try to get the word out mostly on Instagram, where I have a link in my bio to my Etsy shop. Spreading the word is the best advice with starting out a business.  Social media has blessed us with spreading the word with anything you want.”[/quote] In addition to publicity, Joe Robinson, a contributor of The Entrepreneur, believes there are seven factors to becoming a successful entrepreneur.
“Entrepreneurs can be guided to success by harnessing crucial attributes,” Robinson said.  “Scholars, business experts and venture capitalists say entrepreneurs can emerge at any stage of life and from any realm, and they come in all personality types and with any grade point average. However, the best entrepreneurs do share a collection of characteristics, that are crucial to a successful venture.”
These traits include tenacity, passion, tolerance of ambiguity, vision, self-belief, flexibility and the ability to occasionally break rules. Thankfully, for Long there are no age requirements to being an entrepreneur.
Like Long, junior Ethan Hayes has established himself as a young entrepreneur. He doesn’t work a typical retail job, nor does he bag groceries, but made money selling chocolate bars to his friends and peers.
“It was originally a fundraiser for my cheer gym,” Hayes said. “But we sold so many that we were allowed to start keeping profit for ourselves and once that started, I was off to the races so to speak.”
Although Hayes doesn’t sell his products anymore, he has learned to think strategically and has made the most of his short-lived business of selling sweets.
“I learned how to sell to people’s needs and wants,” Hayes said. “I figured out when and where to sell.  A lot of it was self taught, but it came easily.”
Long isn’t necessarily planning on continuing this business and marketing path forever, but for the time being, as a young entrepreneur, she believes age is not a factor in determining success.
“Anyone can open a business if they want to,” Long said. “If you think people would like your products and want to buy them, what is stopping you? With parent permission of course, who cares who the product is coming from. Plus, being a young entrepreneur is awesome.”
Do you have a business of your own? Let us know in the comments below.