Student entrepreneurs take on the world
Overview
NPHS is filled with many student entrepreneurs whose business range from a diverse set of topics, from clothes to cookies, or designs to delectables, these students not only have managed to turn their passions into profit, but also learned how to market, sell, and ship their respective products in this great era of the internet.
Lex and Leo Young, seniors, both are known worldwide as some of the best cross country runners, and used their fanbase as a launching pad for their clothing brand, “We had somewhat of a following in the running world. It’s just about spreading our message, we want more people to be wearing the “RunFast” stuff, because we think it supports a positive culture and running,” Young said. The Youngs sell apparel ranging from baseball caps, hoodies, and crewnecks, to even including stickers in their catalog of merch on their website.
After the long run, you can reward yourself with a delicious treat made by Veronica Texidor, senior, and her company “thatboricuabaker”, which specializes in baking American and Puerto Rican desserts. “The business enabled me to learn more about baking,” Texidor said. “So I typically make American and Puerto Rican desserts and I sell them to close friends and family and just anyone that wants to order.” Customers who wish to buy Texidor’s desserts can order them on her instagram where she primarily platforms her business.
Yet another business, D D’s delectable delights that makes numerous different baked treats is owned by Daniela Palomino, senior. Her business is relatively successful and she sells her products quite frequently. “It has a constant form of income coming in and holidays push the income as that is the popular time of cookie buying,” Palomino said.
Finally, Jillian Abbott-Gonzalez, junior, leads a jewelry company “Jewls by Jill” with a mission to help victims of abuse, “I make bracelets for the [The Family Justice] children who are survivors who have dealt with any type of abuse. I donate one [bracelet] back to the kids and to the adults and it kind of gives them support,” Gonzalez said.
While all these previous student entrepreneurs have sold real life items, Brody Wrishts, freshman, sells ones and zeros, as he runs “Drop” an highly successful internationally spanning business creating an online marketplace where 3D designs for video games are sold. “I started my business with an initial investment of a few hundred dollars by paying some developers to make me some assets [3D models] I thought it would be cool for myself and I decided why not sell them and see if I can make some money off of it, and now it runs fully autonomous,” Wrishts said.
Ultimately, even though being an entrepreneur takes a lot of work and dedication, it can also be rewarding not only in a monetary fashion, but in pure enjoyability as well, “For us, it’s about just spreading some fun and positive positivity throughout running,” Young said.
Brothers – Leo, Nico and Lex Young (from left to right) run Run Fast, a clothing apparel brand centered around runners, using their platform on youtube for promotion. They take pride in seeing people wear their clothes. “I did a lot of track meets. I see many, many people wearing our clothing. I love walking around the track meet and seeing people wearing Run Fast because I think it looks sick, ” Lex said. Lex Young/With Permission
Shine – Jillian Abbot-Gonzalez, junior and owner of Jewls by Jill, did not start her business for monetary reasons, but has since then started to sell her jewelry. “I originally wanted to start my jewelry business because I work for a nonprofit out in Ventura called The Family Justice Center, ” Abbot-Gonzales said. Jilian Abbott-Gonzales/With Permission
Baked goods – Daniela Palomino, senior, owner of D D’s, delectable delights “ I would consider my business to be successful as it has a constant form of income coming in and holidays push the income as that is my most popular time of cookie buying,” Palomino said.
Daniella Palomino/With Permission
Love Cake – Veronica Texidor, senior, has been running “thatboricuabaker” since the beginning of quarantine and continues to share her baked goods with the citizens of Newbury Park. “So I make typically American and Puerto Rican desserts and I sell them to close friends and family and just anyone that wants to order,” Texidor said. Veronica Texidor/With Permission
3D – Brody Wrishts, freshman, runs “Drop”, which is a digital marketplace that sells 3D models for video games. Wrishts believes that hard work and dedication will help one reach their goals. “I think putting in as much work as you can and really pursuing your topic can really help you become a master at it” Wrishts said. Brody Wrishts/With Permission
Social Media
One of the largest components to a successful business, especially during a time so heavily influenced by online culture, is social media.
Along with building clientele, social media such as Instagram can help spread news of products through word of mouth, or in this case; internet waves. Daniela Palomino, senior and owner of D D’s Delectable Delights, finds social media to be her main source of advertisement. “It spreads the work and helps people from school spread the word [so they can] swipe up and DM me,” Palomino said. Palomino utilizes popular apps as well as an email in order to increase communication between her and customers. “The social media platform that I use is instagram and I have google forms connected to this so anyone that comes across my account can order and I would get notified,” Palomino said.
For students such as Veronica Texidor, senior and owner of thatboricuabaker, internet attention is key to a successful business as it aids in building a business model for potential customers. “So if I put it on stickers, like on boxes for my packaging so people can look them up, look it up and see my Instagram and then that becomes kind of like you know, like a portfolio of everything that I’ve made and it kind of gives me some sort of reputation I guess like everything that I make turns out like this and this is how I made it,’’ Texidor said. After starting her shop in 2020, Texidor found that Instagram allowed her the space to showcase the process of bringing baked goods from the kitchen to the seller. “I guess that kind of keeps my followers like they’re like I’m not just you know, posting the result. Like through here it’s [good to] share your process. You’d like to get more people who want to buy baked goods from you, so I want to compile everything that I’ve made into one space,” Texidor said.
While social media helps spread the word on products such as baked goods and jewelry, the internet is a great place to start to build your own brand as yourself. Lex Young, senior, builds his brand as a track and field runner by promoting running products while spreading the culture of fitness. “It’s all possible because we have a following on social media. If you don’t have a following on social media it’d just be a website that you’d randomly find and not really want to buy. People buy it because they connect to us on our YouTube channel on our Instagrams,” Young said. By using apps such as Tik Tok and YouTube, Young showcases new products in order to influence viewers to buy similar products. “I’ll put a little reel of the shots that we got of us wearing it to show people how sick it looks. On Instagram, well, we have an Instagram account for it and we will post, we’ll repost it and you know, we’ll tell people when new stuff is dropping,” Young said.
Brody Wrishts, freshman, utilizes tools of the internet to help sell 3D assets, or online models for video games. “Social media is definitely a big key factor in [spreading the word] to people who are just outside of our Niche but are maybe that will maybe be interested in joining it once they see the different things and products that we have available,” Wrishts said. Finding the right customers to sell to encases a large part of what Wrishts does on social media. “Once you have this target audience they’ll most likely stay with you if you’re providing the services and the products that they’re most interested in and finding the right people to purchase your product [involves taking] risks,” Wrishts said.
Advice
For students who think they may want to start a business, Ryan Thompson, business teacher at NPHS, suggests just doing it. “Kids in general have nothing to lose, there’s no risk involved, ” Thompson said. However, the younger age also brings about less experience. “Kids need to find a mentor, someone who will give them the honest truth, not just tell them they’re doing a good job but say, ‘Hey this product or idea it sucks you should do something different.’” Thompson said. To those looking to use social media as a means to advertise and spread their business, slow growth on these platforms can serve as a major obstacle. Veronica Texidor, owner of “thatboricuabaker,” believes that to overcome this hurdle, consistency is key. “Post whenever you can and whenever you remember, because even though you might think, ‘Oh, it’s just one post, it’s gonna get three likes,’ as long as you build up that portfolio people have more reference to things that you’ve done and they trust you more and buy products,” Texidor said.
To these prospective entrepreneurs, beyond having a slow growing social media, slow business in general can be incredibly discouraging, but Lex Young, cofounder of “RunFast,” thinks that stopping or giving up can be the downfall of a business. “You have to be committed to it. If you want to build the brand, you have to keep it going, ” Young said. “You have to keep the posts going and keep the products coming.”Time management is one of the most important skills in ensuring the success of your business. Daniela Palomino, owner of “D D’s delectable delights” says that managing your time is essential to success. “Make sure to be organized and to manage your time wisely and make sure you are making enough revenue for the hours put in so that you make sure what you’re marketing is worth your time, ” said Palomino.
Beyond knowing the worth of your time, knowing the monetary worth of your product is also important as to not undervalue yourself. “Don’t be afraid to charge what you should be compensated. At the beginning I would charge people super low for the work that I did and it really wasn’t enough to cover the ingredients, the hours of work that I put in, ” Texidor said. “So definitely don’t be afraid of maybe overcharging a little bit because you do still need to make a profit and feel that you’re compensated for what you’re doing.”
Another pitfall of many people starting businesses is underestimating the undertaking that it will be. Brody Wrishts, owner of “Drop,” advises anyone who wishes to start a business to put in the work to meet this challenge. “If you don’t try hard or you just think it’ll just come easy then you’re going to get nowhere and just I think putting in like as much work as you can and really like pursuing your topic can really help you become a master at it and develop something, ” Wrishts said.
To students who want to know more about the process of starting and running a business, Mr. Thompson’s class, entrepreneurship, is also available. “The class isn’t like a typical elective, it’s more project-based. You learn about marketing and you really have free range kind of do what you want to do as long as you meet certain criteria, ” Thompson said.
