Teen Entrepreneurs

Like a lot of college freshmen¹, Sean Belnick has a job. He works for a company that brings in more than $20 million dollars a year. But Belnick is not just another employee; he is also the company’s owner.

“We started off with a couple of orders a day and it just mushroomed迅速成长 from there,” Belnick says.

Belnick’s company sells office chairs online, and maintains a huge warehouse²仓库，货栈 of inventory存货，详细目录. But it all started in his bedroom, when he was 15 years old.

“I always had an entrepreneurial企业家的，创业者的 spirit,” says Belnick.

In fact, more teens than ever are tapping into their entrepreneurial spirit. According to a new Junior Achievement survey of more than 1,400 teenagers, 71 percent said they would like to be self-employed one day.

What’s more, experts say, kids have a huge advantage as entrepreneurs because they know the web, and understand the workings of network sites such as Facebook and Myspace.

“[Teenagers] intuitively直观地，直觉地 understand the power and potential of using web-based services for distribution, for marketing³, for outreach延伸，拓广 -- for connections,” says Andrea Hershatter, Emory University. “They are incredible networkers who have a very large number of human resources in terms of依据，按照 their peers at their disposal.”

“That’s the whole thing with the Internet really,” says Belnick. “Anyone can put a web site up, and it looks professional. But there’s nothing saying that there’s a 20-year-old kid behind it. Which is the biggest thing about the Internet … you can create your own credibility.”

Experts say parents should encourage entrepreneurship in their kids, whether it’s mowing⁴ lawns or running an online business. They may not make millions, but they will learn a lot about managing a business and what it takes to turn a profit.

“I think they learn, they grow, they mature,” says Hershatter. “If they are not enriched financially, then at least they [will be] enriched in terms of life experiences that will serve them forever,” says Hershatter.