It is the summer of young business people. Children and young people in our entire region earn money.
CLARKS SUMMIT, Pennsylvania – Experts call it a surge in entrepreneurship: kids and teens start their own businesses in northeast Pennsylvania and beyond.
The pandemic has brought all types of jobs to a standstill for many over the past year.
“Children haven’t been able to do the soda stand or babysitting or all of those things or mow that lawn or do things they would otherwise have done,” said Gregg Mursett, CEO of BusyKid.
But this summer they’ll get those opportunities again.
From baking to babysitting to walking dogs and more, young entrepreneurs we spoke to say they are happy to have these opportunities.
Reese Azar, 10 years old, of the Clarks Summit area, has just started her own business for homemade dog treats. She donates part of her profits to an animal shelter in Lackawanna County.
“I love dogs and I love to bake so I just wanted and made treats for my dog all the time so I don’t know, I was just doing a business.”
Experts call this a really positive trend: children work and learn about money and economics.
“It’s about bringing these two things together – work and money – and I think it makes children fit for the future,” said Murset.
Murset said these young bosses are pretty tech-savvy too. He created an app like Venmo called BusyPay that can be used to get kids paid for their jobs and business.
As for Azar, she says she will keep busy baking these goodies.
“I think it’s great that every child can just do what they want.”
