Teenage entrepreneurs get off to a good start in business

AT the age of 14 most teenage boys are likely to be found engrossed in computer games or playing sport in their spare time. But at 14 Fraser Doherty was busy making jam, after his grandmother taught him a recipe that had been handed down through generations of his family.

Unhappy that traditional jam contained high levels of sugar, he decided to make a much healthier version by using natural grape juice instead of sugar, and fruit such as blueberries and cranberries that are particularly high in nutrients and vitamins.

Doherty started selling jars of his jam door to door near his parents’ home in Edinburgh. As interest grew, his hobby started to turn into a business. He now makes 40,000 jars of jam a month, Tesco has begun stocking his SuperJam in 230 of its stores, and Doherty is well on his way to making his first million.

Doherty is one of a growing number of young people in Britain who have become entrepreneurs at a very young age. The traditional view is that it is impossible to start a successful business without gaining years of knowledge and experience, but teenagers like Doherty are proving that energy and confidence can win over age.
According to a recent Generation Entreprise report by City & Guilds, 48% of young people aged between 16 and 25 said that they wanted to start their own business instead of getting a job. The survey of more than 1,000 young people also found that almost half of them knew someone under the age of 30 who already had their own business.

Doherty, who has been chosen to represent Britain in the Global Students Entrepreneurs Awards in Chicago next month, said there are several advantages to having started young: “As a young person you have a different view of the world. You have a naviety and an optimism and are willing to try things out. I have always been willing to give something a shot and take a bit of risk. The downside for me isn’t particularly scary. I don’t have a mortgage or kids to worry about so I didn’t have a huge amount to lose if my idea had not worked.”

Doherty, who is taking a year or two out from studying management and accountancy at Strathclyde University to focus on expanding his business, added: “I can’t think of much more that I could be doing right now that I would enjoy more than this. It gives me so much excitement. I can constantly set my own challenges and achieve whatever I want to.”

Duncan Cheatle, founder of The Supper Club, a forum for established entrepreneurs in London, agreed that becoming an entrepreneur at a young age has a lot to recommend it.

“When you are young you are not conditioned or constrained by your experiences, which can be a real problem for people coming out of the workplace,” he said.

“For young people there is no concept of thinking outside the box, because there isn’t a box. There is a capacity in young people to see things in a different way that older people lose. And often not being an expert in something can be helpful because if you don’t understand why something works in a certain way you will decide to do it differently.”

Cheatle said that, contrary to popular belief, being young can sometimes open doors because successful older business people are often keen to help young people progress. “Older people are often very impressed that someone has got the guts and gumption to develop the product or service and then to pick up the phone and ask to speak to someone quite senior.”

Another teenager busy breaking the entrepreneurial mould is Louis Barnett, who at the age of 15 has just become Waitrose’s youngest supplier with his Chokolit chocolates.

Barnett, who has dyslexia, dropped out of school at the age of 11 to study at home with the help of a tutor and since then has turned his love of making chocolate into a fully-fledged business.

What sets his chocolates apart from the competition is they come in an edible chocolate box, an idea Barnett came up with when he was looking around for an alternative to wrapping his chocolates in expensive packaging. He called his business Chokolit because he writes phonetically and that is how the word appears.

Barnett said: “Some people might think my occupation is a peculiar choice for a teenager, but I am pursuing my dream � just like David Beckham did, and nobody thought there was anything unusual about his chosen career.”

Other successful entrepreneurs who began young include James Murray Wells, who was 19 when he started his business GlassesDirect, which sells prescription glasses over the internet. The business now has sales of £3m.

Meanwhile, Adam Hildreth founded Dubit, an interactive website for teenagers, when he was 14 and it also has a turnover of close to £3m.

Shell Livewire, which has been providing inspiration, advice and practical support to young entrepreneurs aged between 16 and 30 for many years, is encouraged by the increase in the number of young people wanting to start their own business.

James Smith, chairman of Shell UK, said: “There’s no age limit on entrepreneurialism but some people have a natural business spark that’s evident from an early age. And more and more people are starting young; in the past three years, Shell Livewire has supported more than 70,000 young entrepreneurs. This spirit of entrepreneurialism among young people not only has obvious economic benefits but brings real social benefits too.”

Emma Jones, founder of Enterprise Nation, the home business website, said that parents play a crucial role in encouraging young people to become entrepreneurs, not least because the vast majority of them start up their businesses from a room in their parents’ home.

She said: “At least 85% of the young people we have profiled on the Enterprise Nation website in the past six months are living in their parents’ home and running their business from there. Being cared for by their family and paying modest or no rent means that they are able to focus on their business and keep their overheads low.”

Jones said that young people were much more confident about using technology as a base for their business than the older generation. “Whole sectors that didn’t exist 10 years ago are coming up now because young entrepreneurs are defying all previous rules and saying technology means that we can do things like this. They have an open capacity to think of new ideas and as a result they are starting very interesting businesses.”
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