Middle school and high school students launch their businesses

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – You’re never too young to start your own business.

Middle school and high schools launched their businesses recently with the help of the Macon Young Entrepreneurs Academy (YEA!).

Program Manager Nadia Osman says the Macon Chamber of Commerce wanted to keep its residents local.

“Not only does the chamber want to focus on recruiting and retaining our local businesses, but we want to start with our youth and helping them understand how great Macon is to do business,” she said.

Students said they were challenged to come up with businesses that would create opportunity for them.

Some of those businesses included Mink Brazilian hair bundles, custom shoe designs, and even self-defense phone cases.

Elijah Rutland, Owner of Fix My Sole, said he is ready to take what he learned in YEA! to college.

Rutland’s favorite part of YEA! was the elevator pitch lesson.

“You have to explain what your business is about in about 30 seconds to a minute, which would be about the time you’re on an elevator, and I think that was the thing that stuck with me the most,” he said.

Aman Boricha-Masand, owner of CordIt, said he learned a lot about the challenges of being an entrepreneur.

“It showed me that there’s more to business than you really think and it involves a lot of networking,” Boricha-Masand said.”You have to be confident in your business idea and confident in yourself to be able to do this.”

Boricha-Masand and his classmates were the first class to graduate from YEA!.

The 20 YEA! students graduated May 24th.

More information about YEA! and how it was formed can be found on their national website.

More information on how Middle Georgia students can join YEA! can be found at the Macon Chamber of Commerce’s website.