Young Entrepreneurs Showcase Products at Summer Market

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Ohio Virtual Academy ninth grader CJ Hall envisioned his 3P logo long before he developed a product to showcase it.

The 3P represents pain, purpose and passion, and he developed his business, a merchandise and lifestyle brand, at the Inspiring Minds Youngstown Summer Enrichment program. Students in the program worked with the Youngstown Business Incubator to develop their businesses. 

They showed their wares at a summer market Friday in front of YBI.

“Pain, Purpose, Passion is a lifestyle brand,” said CJ, who also attends classes at Youngstown State University, while standing behind a table of blue and black T-shirts and hoodies he was offering for sale. “It basically means that everyone in their life has gone through some type of pain in their life, and that leads you to your purpose and passion.”

He likes helping people as well as selling products.

“I want people, when they wear my clothing – it actually to have meaning,” CJ said. 

He’s one of 80 Mahoning County fifth through 12th grade students who participated in the program. Friday’s market was the culminating event. 

Tammye Hardin, Inspiring Minds Youngstown program coordinator, said this marks the ninth year of the summer program and the 10th for IM Youngstown. Its flagship is in Warren, and that program hosted a similar market for its summer program participants earlier this week.

The summer program focuses on Inspiring Minds’ five impact areas: education, college and career readiness, personal development, health and wellness and exposure to new experiences. The entrepreneurship element of the program covered all five.

“Basically, everything we do cross-pollinates,” Hardin said.

Students involved in Inspiring Minds’ after-school program during the 2023-24 school year participated in sessions at YBI, Junior Achievement of Eastern Ohio and Goodwill Industries.

“All of those organizations and all of those activities were to prepare them for this,” she said of the summer market. “In doing so, they learned the basics of starting a business.”

They learned how to write resumes, secure references and deliver their elevator pitches for their products.

“Throughout the entire school year, we knew this was what we wanted to do,” Hardin said. “We centered our entire after-school program around this day.”

The students weren’t limited in the type of business they could develop, she said.

“All of these businesses were their passion,” Hardin said.

Other businesses included scented candles, jewelry, art and lemonade.

St. Christine School seventh grader Myah Starkey developed Glossify by Myah, a lip gloss.

“I have a variety of different flavors or scents,” she said.

Strawberry, mint, cherry, watermelon and pineapple are just a few.

“I was thinking about doing a lotion, but then I thought lip gloss would be different,” Myah explained.

Her target audience is females of all ages, and she’s a big proponent of lip gloss. She believes it’s better than lip balm.

“You would want your lips to be glossed all the time, especially for a photo shoot or pictures,” Myah said. “And it’s just as hygienic for moisturizing.”

But she also learned that starting a business is hard – and expensive.

One Bead at a Time is Amaris Moss’ business. 

“One Bead at a Time is where we make custom bracelets and necklaces,” said the sixth grader from Liberty’s Blott Guy PK to Sixth Grade School.

Most are glass beads. Amaris’ inspiration came from making jewelry with her great-aunt.

“I just always wanted to make a business,” she said.  

The aspiring business people worked weekly throughout the summer with Megan Payich, YBI director of youth entrepreneurship.

“We call it our launchpad, so it’s like an accelerator program for young people to learn how to start a business,” Payich said. 

They go through the concepts of running a business, including financing, marketing and advertising.

“This was the culmination, a celebration of everything they’ve learned this summer,” she said.

Payich said the program builds students’ confidence and gets them thinking about entrepreneurship as a career option.

“We’re here to help them continue it on,” she said. “We provide one-on-one sessions, too, so some of the students that are in Inspiring Minds, this may be the last time they set up their stand. But the majority of them have done it before and want to continue doing it.”

CJ, the Ohio Virtual Academy student, learned patience through developing 3P, his business.

“Sometimes things might not come as quickly,” he said. “Merchandise may not come as quickly. You’ve just got to adapt.”

Pictured at top: Myah Starkey, Tammye Hardin, Amaris Moss and CJ Hall pose Friday at the Inspiring Minds Youngstown Summer Market in front of the Youngstown Business Incubator.

Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.