High School Students are Running Businesses

Various students here in The Columbus School own and run their own successful businesses. Making a profit for their personal expenses, and learning about the business world, while having fun. 

According to El Colombiano, only about 2% of people under 18 own their own businesses. It provides students background information about how to organize their ideas and their profit. Having experience in the real world helps them prepare to be successful in the future. Not only do you get to know very successful people, but you also get the chance to learn from them and surround yourself with people who make could make your business more successful. 

“I decided to make my own business because I think it’s a way to learn and gain experience in the real world, and understand how a business works from a first hand experience and to overall just learn and start making my own future,” Alejandro Gómez, 12th grade senior, said. 

Businesses are a great way for students to expose themselves to the real world. It teaches them how the business world works and to interact with other people to help them grow. 

 “I choose what my business was going to be about since I am passionate about cars, and I have access to the clothing industry, so I thought it would be a good combination to start our own brand,” Gómez said.

Alejandro’s business “Car-men” is a clothing brand of cars. He has finally overcome his fears of failure. His business started in 2017 and has been growing faster thenceforth. The business allows him to pursue his true passion. Thanks to the fact that his family owns a clothing business, he can mix the best of the car and clothing industry.

“It was a very boring friday night and I was searching through the internet for clothing. I questioned why I didn’t have my own. I figured out that nothing was preventing me to do so, so I made my own brand a reality,” Antonio Lugo, 11th grader from TCS, said.

When starting a business, the only obstacle is overcoming the fear on taking that first step. As Antonio said, there’s nothing holding you back and working towards success will make you a true entrepreneur.  Lugo´s business “IDVL” started in 2017 as well and he sell personalized hoodies. His profit is mostly used for the business, but some of it he invests on himself. 

“To see people wearing the clothes I designed gives me a feeling that can not be described.I also have fun while working on it, plus I am earning money,” Lugo said. 

As Lugo described, the feeling of seeing your business succeed and grow, is like watching your child grow up and become successful in his career. The feeling of seeing your product being enjoyed by your clients, is something very special for the producer.

“All my life I have really enjoyed makeup, it is my passion. It all started as an idea, since this was what I liked most, I thought I could eventually take this and make a profit of it.” Catalina Velez, 11th grade student, said.

It’s very important that when starting a business you choose something that really interests you and you enjoy doing it. For Catalina, make up has always been in her mind, since she was a little kid, she saw her mother using makeup all the time. She has been practicing these skills everyday, and she believes she is prepared to start her business and become a makeup artist.

“I decided to make my own business since I enjoy making my own money and my purpose is for my parents to give me the start up money, and then using my own money to continue working,” Velez, said.

Catalina believes that owning a business is a good idea to start making your own savings for the future. She is new to this business world and has an instagram page that was started over 4 months ago and now has over 1,000 followers, where she posts pictures of her artistic work. 

“First of all you gain a lot of experience, you start to surround yourself with people and understand the business world and how it works, so you can learn from them and make some money on the side, on top of that,” Gómez said.