Summer jobs out, teen CEOS in

ROGERS -- When 15-year-old Misa told her mother, Margarita Fontana, she wanted to open an Anime Cafe, the last response she expected was "OK!"

"She was talking smack," Fontana said of her daughter. Misa loves anime, Japanese cartoons, and wanted to make an after-school hang out spot for herself and her peers. "I said 'OK' and she looked at me like 'What?' Before we knew it, we were launching this adventure."

Her cafe opens Thursday on Second Street after two years of concept development and building renovation. It will keep Misa and her mother busy and employs three others.

"I thought it'd be a great idea if we could make a place where teenagers and people of the same interest as me could grab a bubble tea, talk about anime and just hang out," Misa said. "At the time, I thought she'd say 'Oh, that sounds interesting,' but when she agreed to help do something about it, I was surprised."

Misa isn't the only one going into business this year. Other teenagers in Northwest Arkansas are opting to work for themselves instead of finding traditional employment like fast-food chains and lawn care.

The entrepreneurship path remains rare among the millions of young people who pour into the labor force each summer. More than 20 million people ages 16 to 24 were working or looking for work in July 2016, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Only about one in 50 of them were considered self-employed, the lowest rate of any age group.

Several Northwest Arkansas groups nevertheless are working to boost that number. Ignite Professional Studies, for example, is an off-site program of the Bentonville Public School system that helps students gain skills while earning college credits through Northwest Arkansas Community College, landing internships and forging professional connections in the area.

"They can do what they want to do without going into overwhelming debt and go in working, making excellent money," said Sarah Bartmier, a creative arts instructor at Ignite. "They can work for themselves, as a freelance artist."

Of her 20 students, Bartmier said half are offering design and photography services independently this summer.

The Young Entrepreneurs Academy, a national program instituted by the Greater Bentonville Area Chamber of Commerce in partnership with Sam's Club, provides similar opportunities to students ages 11 through 18. Students take weekly lessons at the community college from October through May. Kids in grades six through 12 learn how to create a business through brainstorming, writing business plans, perfecting an elevator pitch, holding meetings with investors and securing funding.

More than 6,500 kids have graduated from the national academy and started more than 4,000 businesses, according to the Bentonville Chamber website.

Area teens say they're going into business because they've found a way to do it, whether they're confident enough to market a service they can provide or have found support through their parents, teachers or other organizations.

They say they find clients through social media, primarily Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook, rather than marketing through traditional means like websites, billboards or media advertisements.

CEO Learning on the go

Misa's Anime Cafe will screen the cartoons on a TV in the shop, and customers will be able to choose a bubble tea, the Taiwanese milk and tea drink, and various Japanese snack products, such as Pocky biscuit sticks and Taiyaki, a fish-shaped cake with traditionally sweet fillings such as chocolate and vanilla. Anime art imprinted on dictionary pages and displayed on the walls is the only other product for sale.

"We have four schools in very close proximity to downtown," said Karen Wagaman, vice president of downtown development for the Rogers-Lowell Area Chamber of Commerce. "The cafe geared toward young people will make it unique and, I'm sure, popular."

Fontana, who previously ran a fruit and vegetable market in the city, ran with the idea because she thought it would be a good learning experience for her daughter, even more than the years Misa ran the cash register in her market.

"I wanted to teach her how to run a business, all the ins and outs and give her a chance to grow at her own pace," Fontana said. "We, by no means, want her to think that this is it for her, that it's her [whole] future, but it's an education, learning about the avenues you can take."

The family bought the building at 111 S. Second St. and took time with renovation. Fontana took the lead on the buildout, but ran every decision by Misa. Beyond that, all furniture, colors, styles, product decisions and kitchen design were Misa's.

"Before my mom taught me about business, I thought it was a simple thing," Misa said. "I knew it was difficult to start, but at times with the renovations, I felt hopeless. I learned you have to have a lot of patience."

Confidence Boost

Tyler Moler, an 18-year-old junior at West High School in Centerton, launched Tyler Moler Photography with the help of Ignite.

"I've always had an interest in photography but not had a means to do it," Moler said. At Ignite, "I started to learn more about camera settings and things that gave me the ability to take clearer pictures. It gave me a boost of confidence in everything, not just photography."

The competitive-entry program offers several areas of study, such as computer and information technology, construction professions and management, medical and health sciences and creative arts and production. About 100 students participated this year, and the pool will expand to 200 for the 2017-18 year. Through the creative arts strand, Moler and other students were put in touch with potential clients for photography and graphic design.

It also helped Moler learn how to conduct himself professionally and develop the people skills needed to manage the variety of photo shoots he wanted to do, he said.

Bartmier said the key to Ignite's concept is encouraging professionalism. Instructors focus on interview skills, how to write business email and fostering entrepreneurship.

"Mostly the program invests in students that, in the regular class, are not the star students," Bartmier said. "They may not be first in their class or have the highest GPA, but it's because they're not in a class that interests them."

Learning the trade alongside other peers, with a teacher never far away to answer questions, helped Moler gain the confidence to do more and more on his own. Since starting in the program, Moler branched out to take senior photo sessions of classmates, wedding photos for two couples, maternity, infant and other family sessions, as well as event and sports photography, some of which are now displayed on the school's website.

Perhaps most importantly, it gave him the flexibility to experience the learning curve while the stakes for mishaps were fairly low, Moler said. He recalled leaving an SD card behind on a busy day that had more than one session.

Since joining Ignite, Moler improved on the academic side too.

"Tyler had it rough before getting into this program," said Jimmy Moler, his dad. "But it's just one of those deals and it really took off with him. Now his GPA is a 3.9. He was awarded an honor at the Governor's mansion and he's going to go to college for photography."

Not all who come through the Ignite program will go to college, but Bartmier said many of them decide to gain more training, such as at the design program at Northwest Technical Institute. The instructors are glad to provide a practical option to start making a living.

Making It Last

Garrett Nickel, 21, started G's Mobile Detailing directly after high school graduation at age 18 as a way to generate income for college tuition. He used money he'd saved from past summer jobs to purchase a generator, vacuum and pressure washer -- just the essentials to get started -- and booked his mom's co-workers as his first clients.

"I knew I didn't want to work for somebody [else], I was more made to be working for myself," Nickel said. "Things weren't great at first because I had a lot to learn. There were a lot of days I wanted to quit."

It took 18 months before he found his groove. There were many moving parts he had to learn about running a business, such as the tendency for work to follow you home.

Nickel earned an associate's degree from Northwest Arkansas Community College and now spends his time solely operating his business.

At the end of the day, "I usually have five missed calls and several texts from customers," Nickel said. "That means I have to be on the phone 35 minutes to an hour each day and consistently deal with the maintenance of washing and drying towels. I don't just get to go home."

He also learned the need to reinvest in your business and how word of mouth influences more than traditional advertising.

Nickel progressively bought more equipment to expand his services, purchasing hot water carpet extractors, steamers and an array of polishers and buffers. Now when he arrives at a client's house or office, his work trailer is well-stocked and the service takes two or three hours on average. Nickel gets unique requests, such as cleaning up ATVs, dump trucks and scrubbing boats on Beaver Lake. He's had to hire a part-time worker to meet the demand of more than 70 customers each month.

"If you do quality work and do what you promise for a reasonable price, you will grow as a business," Nickel said.

NW News on 05/29/2017