What does it look like to be a teen entrepreneur here at Richard Montgomery? Within these halls, there are all kinds of creative and unique businesses students at RM are running. Whether that includes selling used clothes on Depop, or landscaping/home improvement, RM has it all. Everyone has the opportunity to become a successful entrepreneur; however, it takes a lot to start your own business.
Sophomore Emily Rogers sells old clothing she doesn’t wear anymore on an app called Depop. App users can sell pretty much anything you want, though it is most common to sell used clothes. She makes a profit from other users on the app who buy her items.
“I had extra clothes that I wasn’t wearing anymore and I didn’t know what to do with them,” she said. “When one of my friends told me about Depop, I thought it was perfect. I got rid of my old clothes and earned money too!”
On the other hand, sophomore Tristan Trebules has his own home improvement business. This includes shoveling yards on snowy days, raking leaves in the fall and mowing lawns in the summer heat.
“Over quarantine my parents would always complain about me never getting outside anymore. To combat this, I started working in the yard,” he said.
It is this kind of experience doing chores for his parents that gave Trebules the skills he needed to start his own business. “Once I started to get pretty good at it I went around to my neighbors and asked if they wanted me to do their [yards] too, if they were okay with paying me. From there, it took off and I am working in various neighborhoods all throughout our area,” he said.
How you market yourself is huge for business owners. If you don’t properly market yourself, you lose out on tons of business just because people have never even heard of your company.
“I don’t do a ton of marketing, however for a little while I put the link to my Depop account in my Instagram bio,” Rogers said.
As the popularity of sites like Instagram and TikTok continues to rise, it is extremely common to use social media to market your business.
“At first I just put flyers up in the neighborhood, but it wasn’t helping me out too much,” Trebules said. “Instead, I put ads on Facebook.”
