Teens are taking charge— and starting businesses.

By Nichole L. Torres

Long gone are the days of lounging away the summer. Today’s teenagers have loftier dreams—they’re starting businesses. Seeing a rise in entrepreneurial interest among teenagers is Brendan Landry, YouthWorks program director at the Micro Business Development organization in Denver (www.microbusiness.org ), an organization that offers micro-loans to entrepreneurs. “Teen [entrepreneurs] get motivation from what they feel is relevant, what they’re interested in and what they like doing,” he says.

Entrepreneur Chauncey Holloman was interested in creating greeting cards especially for the black youth market when she started her company, Harlem Lyric Enterprises Inc., in 2003. Holloman, now 17, got the idea when looking for a card for a friend. “They didn’t have cards that said exactly what I wanted to say,” she recalls. “I have a long line of entrepreneurship in my family, so I went to my mom and told her this was a gap in the greeting-card industry, and maybe it was something we should look into doing.” Holloman’s mother, Subrena McCoy, helped her get started.

Parental help is key for most teenage entrepreneurs, note experts. They often help with financing the startup and in taking care of tasks while the entrepreneur is in school. “[Teens] need the support of their parents, their guardians and their communities—and they do have this,” says Diana Acevedo, program manager of Girls Going Places (www.girlsgoingplaces.com), a scholarship program created by The Guardian Life Insurance Co. of America.

In addition to a $10,000 scholarship she received in 2005 from Girls Going Places, Holloman had the help of her family and friends. She and her mom held a fundraiser to get manufacturing and distribution capital—and it worked. Today, her products are found in stores all around her Mabelvale, Arkansas community and even in stores from Mississippi to Washington, DC, pushing annual sales to about $100,000.

Being taken seriously as a young entrepreneur can be a challenge, but Holloman notes that the pressure just pushed her to work harder. “It was basically me pushing my-self to be more adult,” she says. But she found that the quality of her products spoke for themselves.

Professionalism will help you increase your credibility, notes Timothy C. Ferriss, a guest lecturer of tech entrepreneurship at Princeton University and author of Lifestyle Hustling: How to Work Less and Live More. “Project a professional image. Having a good website is critical,” says Ferriss. “[Also] try to get press [as a teen entrepreneur], as it helps to validate you in many ways.”

Bottom line: You don’t have to wait to start a business. “Just understand you have control over your life,” says Acevedo. “Don’t be deterred by any limitations you might face as a young person who’s starting out . . . you really can go far.”

There are many resources to help you start your business. Check out the SBA Teen Business Link website, www.sba.gov/teens; Entrepreneur magazine’s www.teenstartups.com; Ve2ntureKids, an entrepreneurship program for minority elementary school students (www.venturekids.org); and YoungBiz Inc., an organization that provides entrepreneurship training workshops and camps as well as online resources for teens (www.youngbiz.com).

Nichole L. Torres is a writer for Entrepreneur magazine.