In tight job market, some teens start their own businesses
— -- Eric Cieslewicz has spent the last couple of months drumming up business.
Faced with dismal employment prospects at traditional teen-friendly employers, the 18-year-old has turned his passion for percussion into a money-making venture.
The Milford, Ohio, high school senior set up a website promoting his services as a drum instructor, printed business cards and spread the word that he was open for business.
He has eight students, ranging in age from 8 to 50. He hopes to pull in more than $400 a month from lessons, as well as earn more money from performing.
Amid shrinking job opportunities (the 16-to-19-year-old unemployment rate in April was 21.5%), many of his peers also are embracing their inner industrialist. The Small Business Administration's Office of Advocacy doesn't break out statistics for teens and tweens, but says in 2006, there were 492,000 people younger than 25 who were self-employed. Figures for that year are the latest available.
But experts say this year's number will likely rise due to job scarcity.
Already, the rough employment market has led kids to increasingly sign up for the entrepreneurial programs offered by youth-oriented groups such as Junior Achievement and the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship.
"Kids are actively considering starting their own businesses," says Junior Achievement USA President Jack Kosakowski.
"It might be out of necessity, since there aren't a lot of jobs out there. But they're also seeing parents and other adults that have been loyal to companies for years ... getting laid off, so these kids might be thinking, 'Hey, I might be better off being my own boss.' "
From tiny acorns ...
Many entrepreneurial kids will use their businesses to scrape together summer spending money, but the fledgling firms can blossom into something much bigger.
As a teenager, Tommy Hilfiger sold customized clothes in his Elmira, N.Y., hometown. Microsoft maven Bill Gates co-founded a data business that focused on traffic counts, Traf-O-Data, when he was in high school.
