Young Guns

Ambition knows no age – or so it seems for a few teenage entrepreneurs who have been bold enough to start their own businesses.

Scott Fitzpatrick, owner and founder of Shell Knob-based MariCorp U.S. LLC, started the dock manufacturing company at age 15 in 2003. Last year, it posted revenues of $6 million, and his company employs 40 workers.

Springfield-based Global Web Design founder Barron Hilton started his design and social media marketing firm in 1998 when he was just 14. Today, Hilton counts Silver Dollar City, Bass Pro Shops and Neale & Newman Law Firm among his 250 clients.

Glendale High School senior Reagan Bachus is new to the game, but she recently earned a $1,000 scholarship from the National Federation of Independent Business Young Entrepreneur Fund for her work to start Simply Organized, a service company that organizes everything from closets to garages to office files.

In her first year, the full-time student has generated revenues of $5,000 working part time for some 50 customers, including SMC Packaging Group and American Family Insurance agent Jordan Heinz. Bachus said she started the business last summer after friends and family kept sending her referrals.

“It’s the best job being self-employed,” said Bachus, who – with no advertising budget – has turned to posting flyers at local gyms, grocery stores and coffee shops to get up and running. “All my friends have hard hours and work retail, and I can do something I love and look forward to.”

College days
At 15, Fitzpatrick thought he could make some extra money completing dock repairs. Guided by his father, a business owner with experience in dock repair, Fitzpatrick said working on the lake came naturally to him.

Business picked up during his senior year when a tornado hit the Branson area, and Fitzpatrick saw on the TV news one dock flipped on top of another. He drove to town and convinced both dock owners to let him build new docks, kicking off a manufacturing career.

“I took the cash from building those two docks and started advertising and bought some more equipment and the phone started ringing,” Fitzpatrick said.

In 2006, the year he went to college at the University of Missouri, he had five employees and around $670,000 in annual revenue. By the time he graduated, at age 22, Fitzpatrick had 30 employees and $4.5 million in annual revenue.

He said hiring a dedicated core staff early on was a key to his success, as was his determination to keep the business alive.

“In college, there were lots of nights where my friends were doing things I would have much rather been doing than sitting around and working,” Fitzpatrick said.

Chase Snider, a 19-year-old Drury University freshman, last summer started Chaser Media, a social marketing and Web design firm. His revenues are approaching $5,000, and his work to carve a niche in the market appears to be making headway. He got his start designing a Web site for Kickapoo High School when he was part of its journalism department.

“In my sophomore year, I developed our first online program, and that is what kind of gave me the bug to get started in the field,” Snider said.   

He has since worked with the Nixa High School and a high school in Minnesota to develop online news sites.

In addition, Sinder’s developing a social marketing strategy for Eureka Springs, Ark.-based garden products company The Rainbow Makers, a division of West Coast Design Studios. And last year, Snider was named the social media coordinator for Arizona-based Mister Car Wash and its 75 operations nationwide.

“I’m happy with where things are. One of my big goals starting out as a college freshman was I didn’t want to take on more clients than I could produce quality work for,” Snider said, adding that he’s currently managing work for about six clients and has turned down offers for more.

He’s now planning to keep the business running, at least through college, and possibly attend law school.

“I’m one of those people who can’t stand a boring moment,” Snider said. “It looks like I’ll never have one.”

Full circle
Multimedia and Web development firm Creo Creative has been in operation for about five years, but only in the last 12 months has owner and founder Kent Otto, 26, been able to devote much time to it. Otto said the company is an extension of a mobile disc jockey service he started at age 11 and work he did for Students in Free Enterprise while attending Drury.

“I’ve always had the entrepreneurial spirit,” Otto said, crediting his SIFE work with rounding out his résumé since.

For four years, he worked for Irvine, Calif.-based Advantage Sales and Marketing LLC, a job offer he received after a company representative saw his work on a SIFE project. SIFE, which has its world headquarters in Springfield, is a nonprofit organization that teaches concepts such as market economics, entrepreneurship and business ethics to 57,000 student members, according to SIFE.org.

Otto said Creo Creative has brought in roughly $30,000 during the last year doing contract work for clients such as Shout stain remover and Axe deodorant, which Otto worked with at Advantage Sales. One of Creo’s most recent client additions is Drury’s SIFE program.

He’s now working with students to develop a Web site, brochures and signage for Art Inspired, a project that will collect paper waste from businesses and turn it into pulp that can be converted into pieces of art or furniture.

Otto said a key for young entrepreneurs is the ability to recognize a quality opportunity. In December, Otto started ElectronicMidwest.com, a Web site devoted to promoting and reviewing venues for the electronic music genre, with money he’s earned from Creo Creative.

It was a love for music in his preteens that prompted him to perform DJ services for birthday parties and sorority houses through college before inspiring interest in video production, marketing and Web design.

“I’ve really come full circle,” Otto said.

For Fitzpatrick, age is just a number.

“There have probably been less than a dozen times that someone asked me how old I was in the course of doing this,” he said. “It has not been as big of a setback as I would have thought.”

Fitzpatrick said he encourages other teenagers to chase down their business dreams.

“When you’re 16 or 17 years old, you don’t have a lot to lose,” he said. “If you have something you think you want to and you want to give it a shot, there is not a better time do it.”

Next up for the graduating Glendale student Bachus: University of Arkansas Sam M. Walton College of Business.

Bachus said she plans to work during the summer to grow the business and would like to keep it running through college.

“It’s small right now, but I’d like to have a storefront someday,” Bachus said.