High school entrepreneurs also are working less hours being their own boss than if they worked for someone else — the opposite to what occurs with every older age group.
Teenagers just need an ABN, a tax file number and a good idea to get started, with many putting to use their superior knowledge of technology, compared with many adults, by building websites and doing other computer work for small businesses.
Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show 663,200 15 to 19-year-olds are employed nationally, 98 per cent of whom work an average of 19 hours a week for someone else.
However, 3,700 are own account workers and work alone on average 13 hours a week, while 500 teens are employers and hire other staff, working an average 10 hours a week.
Adelaide’s Prince Alfred College careers counsellor Monica Magann said young entrepreneurs often spent just a couple of hours after school before dinner working on their business, then did their homework at night.
“For those that are leaders and are interested in testing the waters themselves, that thought has a natural link to entrepreneurship,” she said.
“We’re starting to see at universities — five years ago we wouldn’t have had anywhere near the number of courses we have now that are focused on entrepreneurship.”
She said having a mentor was important to ensure young people gained business skills to complement their technical ability.
Year 11 student Ben Coppell from Adelaide did not like the idea of working for someone else, and with dreams of a career in IT, decided to put his computer skills to use in a part-time job to save up for university.
He has recently applied for an ABN and already has customers lined up who want him to build their business a website.
“I like the idea of living my own life,” he said.
“Look at the millionaires out there — they have an incentive to go out there and make money and make not a small amount of money but a large amount of money from their industry.”
Jonathan Colak, meanwhile, started earning extra cash in high school by selling mobile accessories on eBay.
By the time he finished school it had expanded to an online retail outlet with an annual turnover of $100,000.
He sold the business after finishing high school for $50,000, which funded his move from Adelaide to the Gold Coast to study a law and commerce degree.
“I had a part-time job (at a butcher) and it was okay, I wasn’t earning that much money or being able to enjoy it,” he said.
“I enjoyed working from home. I gave it a go, started off and it went from there.”
He said the only hurdle he faced was opening a business bank account as a teenager and took one bank to the Equal Opportunity Commission to do so.
He advises other young people to stick with it if they think they have a good idea but face hurdles.
“If you do it for the money, it won’t work out,” he said.
“Think of something that you enjoy and are good at.”
Not all student entrepreneurs are success stories though.
A teenager at Scotch College in Melbourne has been embroiled in a financial scandal that left classmates thousands of dollars out of pocket.
Year 11 student Alexander Beniac-Brooks invited students at the elite Hawthorn school to invest in his fledging online fashion business, which lost classmates an estimated $185,000.
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