TEEN-AGERS ENJOY BEING TEEN-OWNERS

More and more kids are working and earning money. However, not many kids can take a job of mowing lawns and turn it into a lawn-care business or turn the love for the game of paintball into a paintball supply store.

Two young entrepreneurs did just that. Y-Press spoke with Chris Thomas, 18, who owns a lawn-care business, and Patrick Miner, 15, who owns a paintball store, to find out about the challenges and rewards of starting their own businesses.

At age 14, Chris began mowing neighbors' lawns in the summer. His number of clients increased, and Chris began saving for additional lawn-care equipment.

He worked at a restaurant and continued mowing lawns. With his savings and a loan from his father, Chris was able to buy the equipment, and his summer job evolved into a full-fledged business, which he advertises by distributing fliers and business cards.

From his business venture, Chris formed his own definition of the word "entrepreneur."

"Yeah, I would consider that I am an entrepreneur. An entrepreneur is somebody that is a risk-taker," the 18-year-old said. "But I think it's a little bit different. You have an idea, OK? Take your idea to a new level. Start a business. Market what you've got. People find interest in it, and you make money."

To Chris, being an entrepreneur is more a personality trait than a skill that can be learned.

"I think you either have to have it or you don't have it."

Chris graduated in May from Lawrence North High School. Even though he was a full-time student, setting priorities between school and work was not a problem: His business was busiest in the summer, and his customers were understanding during the few months when work and school overlapped.

"I've never had straight A's, but I know I could get 'em. But it was either have straight A's or have a company. But to tell you the truth, I love working 10 times more than I do school," he said.

Balancing work and school was never an issue for Patrick. He is home-schooled, and his idea for a business began as a homework assignment from his mother when he was 14. She, too, had a business when she was young. With her inspiration, Patrick's assignment soon became a real business.

"We just found a general something I like to do, which at the time was paintball, and went through the process of figuring out about how much it would cost, (finding) a building, about how much money we had already, things like that. Just calculating funds and general beginning stuff and figuring out a little bit more about the product and things like that," Patrick said.

He is still learning through the guidance of friends and family, who are also helping spread the word about his company.

"My parents are actually funding it, so they've helped a lot in that way . . . getting it off the ground. I've had a lot of friends, like I said, working on it, and they've helped me out, figured out a lot about the product and about different places to get more supplies and things like that," Patrick said.

Patrick realized that to keep prices low and have a larger variety available, he must reinvest his earnings into his business. "Because we're so young right now . . . we're putting almost all of our funds, or a good amount of it, back into the business," Patrick said.

Chris has a similar situation. After he cashes his customers' checks each week, he pays himself an hourly rate. "Whatever money is left goes into the business account for my company," he said.

Business success has brought the teens more than money.

"The best thing is probably just knowing that, 'Hey, I own a business.' It's a lot of fun. I've learned a lot about people, about myself. Some of the worst things . . . there aren't a lot of worst things. Some of it's just worrying about the business, and some long hours. But in the end, I think it all pays off really," Patrick said.

Above all, Chris enjoyed the perks of being self-employed.

"The best thing is, you can structure your business however you want. You can start whenever you want. You can charge whatever you want. You can say whatever you want. You can do anything. It's totally up to you," said Chris, who does hire help for bigger jobs.

Patrick believes his age has been an asset to his business. "A lot of the customers are my age, and a lot of them respect that and say, 'Hey, he's cool,' " he said.

Being young hurt Chris once, he said. He had a problem with a neighborhood association whose common grounds he maintained. Residents told him he did a great job, but the treasurer of the neighborhood association didn't want to pay him what he normally charged.

"She pretty much told me on the phone that an 18-year-old kid doesn't need to be making that much money. I took that to heart. I just thought that was very rude. . . . It's a business," he said.

Patrick has a few years before he has to choose between maintaining his business or investigating future careers. Chris is taking classes at Ivy Tech this year and plans to continue his business even if he goes away to school.

"I know a guy who does the same thing I do who's a junior at Ball State," Chris said. "He comes home on weekends and has a guy help him, and he gets all his lawns done."

Starting a business is not easy, Patrick and Chris both agree. However, even with all the work involved, the job is never too big for a dedicated kid.

"It'll be a little crazy in the beginning, but you don't have to worry about it. Just keep working, and hopefully it'll work out. A lot of it is just keeping going and keeping going and hoping that it all works out," Patrick said.

ASSISTANT EDITOR: Lauren Rochester, 17. REPORTERS: Laura Appelt, 11; and Julie McDowell, 14.