Senior Aiyana Purnell at Stephen Decatur High School in Berlin, Maryland, wasn’t happy when nail salons opened back up once the pandemic metrics started to allow those types of businesses to start servicing customers again, according to an article in today’s online edition of The Hawk student newspaper.
(Alice Bartlett/Flickr Creative Commons)So she decided to take the proverbial bull by the horns and start her own business, at first offering to do people’s nails for free and later expanding so she could actually make a little money by providing the service.
“At first, it was all a hobby,” she was quoted as saying, “but now I love it, and I accomplished so many things with my business.”
Another student at the school started a small business on Etsy selling pencil cases and grew her customer base using social media so that it now includes customers nationwide who buy purses, bags, scrunchies, and much more.
“I started my business as a way to learn more about what it takes to work in the world of business in order to prepare for my future career,” she was quoted as saying.
Starting a business in this way won’t make students rich, of course, but it offers great experience and doesn’t put a lot of resources or money at great risk. That is, startups like this don’t generally require too much seed money.
As for the Decatur students described in the article, arts and crafts ventures represent about 17 percent of all student-launched small businesses, according to Nerd Wallet. The only more popular category of small business in the survey included businesses based on technology. Other top categories included clothing and textiles, business and administrative services, tutoring, and volunteering or social work.
Students at the University of Houston reported both struggles and success when they tried to start small businesses during the pandemic.
