Hunting For Gold Young Entrepreneurs Learn All About Chasing Big Dreams

Who wants to be rich?

Without a doubt, every one of the teens who attended the Young Entrepreneurs Seminar at the Spokane Convention Center does.

Several hundred students from area high schools including Lake City, Shadle Park and Davenport met in Spokane Friday to learn what it takes to create their own successful businesses.

When Simon Craven-Thompson, co-founder of Craven’s Coffee Co., asked students if they wanted to make lots of money, they all said yes. He said he couldn’t guarantee it, but he could promise a rewarding experience.

“You’ve got to be patient and you’ve got to be tolerant,” he told them. “If you’re truly entrepreneurial, you’re going to work every hour that’s humanly and physically possible.”

But the resounding message from Craven-Thompson and others at the seminar was that if the students want follow their dreams, they can.

“You’re going to run into people throughout your life that are going to tell you you can’t do things,” said Bobby Brett, owner of the Spokane Indians, the Spokane Chiefs and Spokane Shadow. “You people right here are the future of this community and you can accomplish anything you want.”

Similar words of inspiration flowed throughout the seminar. “If you can become successful in your own business, you can become a successful person,” Renee Graham, owner of Home Interiors and Gifts, told students who listened to how she started a home accessory business.

Scott Fitzgerald, a franchisee for Adventures in Advertising, told his audience about his plans to be a star football player that were foiled by a bad motorcycle accident. After several years in a business he hated, he found the work he loved. “And now I’m too busy,” he said with a sheepish grin.

For the students, the best part of the day was hearing the success stories of those who have found success in their dreams.

“To know that you can do it and just be an average person is encouragement I guess,” said Keith Riddle, a senior at Mead.

Riddle said he’d like to take over his family’s custom haying business. “It’s something I’ve been doing my whole life,” he said. “It could kind of help pay for college, maybe.”

Riddle’s classmate, Elysia Hanna, has a business plan born of demand. Her class this year won’t have a senior quotes section in the yearbook, so she’s trying create an alternative.

“I decided to take the initiative instead of sitting around and whining,” she said. She’s planning on creating an insert of senior quotes for the year book, but first she needs a business license, some advice and a lot of energy.

Several Liberty High School students already have a business going.

This year they’re creating theme gift baskets which sell for $30 to $50.

“We’re having a lot of fun doing it,” said Liberty freshman Abby Thomas.

Thomas and her classmates could be on the way to being their own bosses.

Half of all small business owners started their first business as a teenager, said Coralie Myers, manager of the Spokane Area Business Information Center for the Spokane Area Chamber of Commerce.

And according to the speakers, Spokane is a good place to start.

“We stumbled on Spokane by accident, which I think everyone does,” Craven-Thompson said. “It turned out to be the best decision we could make.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo