Age isn’t a factor for Pepperdine’s young entrepreneurs.
By DeNae Thomas
Assistant Lifestyles Editor
The average 4-year-old plays with bouncy blue balls and eats sticky Popsicles. But sophomore Katie Vaughn wasn’t an average 4-year-old. Vaughn said her interest in entrepreneurship began at the ripe age of 4, when she would take all the gifts she received each Christmas and birthday, put them on an upside-down wagon in her neighborhood and sell them to people passing by.
“It really annoyed my parents that I was selling the toys that they had just bought me,” Vaughn said. “Since then I have loved working and the whole process of selling things, making money and making customers happy.”
Several Pepperdine students make time to not only study, but to run their own small businesses. The passion and time management necessary for such an endeavor is inspiring to most people who have a hard enough time juggling school work.
After Vaughn’s wagon days, she continued her love for sales with a series of businesses. She grew lettuce in her backyard and sold it to her neighbors, she sold cinnamon rolls to truckers passing through her town, and she even catered cheesecakes for a wedding company.
“Of course no one could know how old I was because if the bride asked who was making the cakes, they would freak out if it was a 12-year-old kid,” Vaughn said.
The company even asked her to make 200 cakes a week for a restaurant they were opening up, but she had to decline because of academic obligations.
Vaughn continued her business endeavors in an EBay business for four years.
“On EBay you can make as much money as you want,” Vaughn said. “Anyone can do it if they read the instructions on the site and know how to put up html wording and post up pictures.”
She would get up at 4 a.m. every Friday and Saturday and hunt for thrifty finds at garage sales, then sell them for profit on EBay.
“I found a brand new Louis Vitton purse that a woman was selling because she thought it was ugly,” Vaughn said. “I sold that for $600.”
As a college student, Vaughn still makes time for business. Currently Vaughn is partnering up with Nick Julian in their company, Style Importers.
Vaughn said Julian has imported clothing a lot for himself and his family and she had experience in Web sites and small businesses, so they merged the two interests. So far they have purchased six Web sites and are starting with dieselforless.com, where they will import Diesel jeans for men and sell them at discounted prices.
“Eventually we hope to branch out to a full line of Diesel clothing for men and women,” Vaughn said.
They will start by flying overseas to purchase clothing in bulk, but they hope to get a direct line and be able to import and export directly from the manufacturer. Vaughn says they also hope to establish a limited liability partnership soon.
Fortunately, Vaughn’s father is a lawyer who is also passionate about business and helps with the legalities of the process.
Junior Steve Lyle is an international business major who also has an entrepreneurial spirit and is knowledgeable of the process involved in starting a company. Like Vaughn, Lyle’s interest began when he was young.
In sixth grade Lyle saved up all his lawn-mowing money and bought his first stock, 100 shares of Zila Inc., a pharmaceutical company.
“It was so interesting to me —have your money make money for you,” Lyle said. “When I realized that was when I first got interested in business. Now I know that they key to wealth is to make money while you sleep.”
In seventh grade, 13-year-old Lyle got the idea to start his own investment club and further his interest in the stock market by organizing a group for people interested in investing. In eighth grade the club became a reality.
“I still remember our first meeting on May 16, 1996,” Lyle said.
The following summer Lyle’s club had five partners and on August 26, 1996, they each signed a contract and became an official partnership. However, since none of them were over 18, one of the boys’ fathers, David Johnson, served as a custodian.
Currently, the club is known as Falcon Investment Enterprises and has nine partners.
“It’s a life long endeavor that is not only a club, a business and a think tank, but a group of friends who want to share ideas, almost like a fraternity,” Lyle said.
The members meet four times a year to discuss possible companies to invest in.
Lyle said that, while he remains active in FIE, he has another business that is more hands-on and aggressive.
He and another member of FIE, Drew Johnson, wanted to take bigger investment risks, so at the end of 1999 they partnered up to eventually form their own business, J & L Holdings, a limited liability corporation.
After hiring an attorney to file the proper paperwork in Kansas, where they began their business, the company became official in May 2002.
“I get a great satisfaction about creating something out of nothing,” Lyle said. “Every project creates another thing to overcome.”
While money is a great part of business, Lyle said making money is not the main reason he pursues the industry.
“I am in business because I love it,” Lyle said. “It’s not just about money.”
Some students want to pursue business for entirely non-profit reasons. Junior Tara Lawrence began her small business out of a desire to help people in need.
Her non-profit organization, Hats Off for Cancer, recruits businesses to donate hats to cancer patients and organizes distribution to hospitals all over the world.
Lawrence’s interest began when she was 12 years old after volunteering at American Cancer Society and meeting kids with cancer who were her age and were losing their hair.
“When you are sick you don’t need people staring at you on top of it,” Lawrence said. “Everyone I met said they didn’t like losing their hair and I wanted to do what I could to help.”
What began as a simple task of writing letters to companies in New Jersey requesting hat donations quickly became a growing organization. When the media became involved Lawrence’s idea blossomed quicker then she could have imagined.
When she was 18, the organization became Hats Off for Cancer, Inc., a legally recognized company. Since 1996, 250,000 hats have been donated and distributed to cancer patients in hospitals all over the world.
Good Housekeeping magazine, Lifetime television, Oprah Winfrey, Pantene and the American Cancer Society all helped advertise the cause.
In 1997, Lawrence started her own Web site, www.hatsoffforcancer.org, and is still keeping up the site today.
“Seeing the people I benefit is what keeps me going and is where my passion lies,” Lawrence said. “I could never just quit because this is a lot bigger than just me. I don’t want to be the one to drop the ball.”
Since news spread about Lawrence’s passion, people all over the world have wanted to know where to sign up to help her cause.
“People in Canada, Germany and Africa have heard about the organization from the Internet or the Good Housekeeping article and have contacted me wanting to help,” Lawrence said.
For those interested in starting something similar Lawrence gives important advice.
“Make sure you have a good lawyer,” Lawrence said. “All the paperwork can get overwhelming but if you have a lawyer telling you what you are supposed to be doing it is a lot more manageable.”
Many students may want to pursue a passion to start their own business, but don’t know what it takes or how to get started.
“If you want to do it, you can do it,” Vaughn said. “With diligence and a real desire to succeed or to serve a customer and an overall entrepreneurship feeling, you can do it.”
As for people who put limitations on age, Vaughn has no patience for them.
“I don’t think age matters at all, what matters is maturity and endurance,” Vaughn said. “I really hate when people put limitations on a person because of their age. It limits the youth in the country today because there is this idea that people can’t do something because they are young. I say achieve your dreams and do whatever you want.”
Vaughn encourages anyone at all interested not to wait, but to get started right away.
“Just do it and do it now because the longer you wait it is time and money flowing out the window,” Vaughn said. “Once you leap, that’s when it all happens.”
March 20, 2003
