CAN AN 11-YEAR-OLD OWN A BUSINESS?
By Ethan Lo ; Wilson Tao
5.9 million entrepreneurs and business owners are aged 35 or less
A young entrepreneur is a young person who finds an opportunity to start and operate a business off of any creative idea they may have, through a passion. Through a basic understanding of financial literacy, business principles, and risk-taking, anyone can turn their idea into a business.
Though it may be daunting to take that first step, starting out small with just a passion and idea is often enough to plant the seed for your business.
This time on entrepreneur spotlight, we will be interviewing Emma Lo, an 11-year-old who turned her arts and crafts passion into the small business SimplyKey on Etsy, where she creates custom keyboard keys.
Take a look at our interview with her!
So Emma, how did you start your business idea?
I watched loads of youtube. I love to design and also to get my hands dirty. One day, I saw a Youtube video about making customized keys for my gaming keyboard and I asked my dad to buy some materials to make the keys.
After I finished making my first set of custom keys, I only wanted to use them for my own keyboard. But then I still had some spare raw material left and I was not sure what to do with it. I then asked my dad what to do, and he suggested maybe I could try to make some extra keys and sell them on eBay.
How do you start your own business?
In the beginning, I tried to use eBay to sell my products, however, later on, I found out that eBay is not specialized for selling handcraft products. I then had to find an alternative platform to sell my products. At last, I found that I could open an online store on Etsy.
How do you promote your product?
I took some photos with my iPhone and set different display themes. I then used Canvas software to create my own label. My mum also helped me to create a business account on Instagram and a business page on Facebook. I tried to pay a bit of an advertisement fee on Etsy, and then the business just took off. I got orders as far as from the US. My parents were very impressed that I could do my own packaging and print the label for custom declaration with postage paid all in one go!
How do you work out your profit and capture the money?
I had to calculate the raw material cost, and postage cost and then add a bit of my labor time. I also research similar products on the market to make sure the pricing is reasonable.
For the income, it goes into my bank account which my parents opened for me when I was 9 years old.
What is your advice for young people who want to become an entrepreneur?
Look into the problems to solve, be resilient and perseverant with your dream, be motivated, and be brave!
To find out more about Emma’s products, check out https://www.instagram.com/simply_keycaps/
Or https://www.etsy.com/shop/SimplyKeyShop?ref=seller-platform-mcnav
Check out some of Emma’s work below!
