Success Stories

Kerry Hoddinott, 17, “grew” his business this summer with hard work and even abit a fun. Kerry started Kerry’s Fresh Vegetables this summer and sold a variety of vegetables from cabbage, potatoes, onions, carrots, turnip and experimented with such crops as broccoli, corn and cucumbers. The entire summer was spent tending his crops, accepting orders and keeping track of his expenses. “It was hard at first, but I had a lot of fun in the process,” says Kerry. Next year, Kerry is planning on building a bigger greenhouse

S&A Lawn Care opened for a second season this summer by Sidney Coombs and Alex Gibbons. They are very dedicated entrepreneurs that emphasize the need to exceed their customer’s expectations. Throughout the summer they have advertised at a number of local establishments, handed out business cards and attended a number of community events. They accommodated their customers this summer by extending their operating hours to seven days a week, creating Gift Certificates and even Thank you notes to their customers.

Emily Best has been an established business woman since the age of 13. At 16, she came to Youth Ventures because she wanted to do more with her business and branch out. Emily is the owner of Em’s Gems, a business that produces and sells a product line of Newfoundland and Labrador “Berry Themed” switch plates, earrings pendants and brooches. Emily is an extremely creative person. She sculpts and makes all of her crafts by hand. She works completely alone and guarantees that each item created is done with upmost care.

Kelsey Hogan is the owner of Recycled Wonders and is one creative entrepreneur. She started this summer selling purses, bags and wallets made from recycled juice bags and bracelets made from starburst wrappers. Kelsey discovered the idea for these bags from a similar product that her mother had brought home from the U.S. When the purse became faulty, she took it upon herself to make a new one for her mother, but this time the bag would stay together. Her purses and bags began to catch the eye of her family and friends and before she knew it, she had a number of orders for these unique, eye catching accessories.

EvenTide is a band known throughout the province and beyond. They play high profile shows and attended many festivals and concerts in and out of province. EvenTide was created over three years ago and has since developed two albums. This band has a resume of instruments that they play, including button accordion, guitar, fiddle, bodrhan, mandolin, tin whistle, harmonica and more. Their busy 2008 summer schedule included The Burin Peninsula Folk Festival, Newfoundland and Labrador Folk Festival and Marystown Come Home Year.

FreedomArts Bellydance was established June 2008 and provides a variety of services from belly dance instruction to belly dance performances. The first four weeks surpassed her enrolment projections and her students were really excited. Infact by fall, she had a wait list of 25 student’s eager to participate. Her biggest obstacles to date include overcoming her fear of starting a business and accommodating the demand for her services.

Adam Kavanagh has been an outstanding Youth Ventures participant since 2006. This business offers a wide range of services such as video productions, DJ service, web design, graphic design, computer repairs, video conversions, slide shows, and rentals.

www.ubermedia.ca

Randy Matthews has been interested in music since he was a boy. He won the first Port Aux Basques Idol in 2005 and received 4th place at the Newfoundland Teen Karaoke Idol. At 16, he released his first CD and since then has been writing music. Recently, Randy has recorded his second CD titled “The Last Call Has Gone”.

Scott Oldford came to our Central regional Youth Venture Coordinator in the early summer of 2007. He already had what he wanted to do and how to do it, as he was doing it for five years already. However, he wanted to bring it back local, until then he was serving clients internationally from the United States to the United Kingdom. With the help of a local small business developer he was able to establish a store front, register his company and put himself on the tracks for success. Now after winning two youth ventures awards in the first year (Venture of the Year and Excellence in Technology) along with Small Business of the Year 2008 in the Central Region, he is bring
innovative web development and design to Newfoundland and Labrador in a what he says "A simple, accessible, usable and attractive way".

You can see all about his Professional Web Development and Design in Newfoundland at the company website. or visit his personal website at Scott Oldford.

Newfie Designs officially opened in September 2005 and has been successfully growing ever since. Jared Perry, 18, of Trepassey, strives to offer efficient, low cost solutions to his customers in the information technology field. His business offers computer repair services, web design for local and international businesses, as well as web hosting services via the Internet. Jared has looked beyond the borders of traditional business practices. He owns servers in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom. From these servers he rents space to companies, organizations and individuals who wish to host their websites. Jared’s hosted websites offer very fast upload times, ease in making changes and 24/7 support. Visit their website for more information.

Matt Sharpe can be found entertaining and performing for various events, festivals and parties throughout the Avalon Peninsula. Matt prides himself on keeping his performances innovative and cutting edge, and tries to not repeat a magic trick too often, as he wants to keep his audiences guessing. Matt performs a combination of modern magic, classic magic, clowning, balloon animals, mentalism and juggling. He has been in business for a number of years, but only this past summer decided to work with YV to help further develop his business. To promote his business, Matt recently developed a website that he uses to showcase some of his performances and to promote the events he attends: www.newfoundlandmagic.com.

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Since becoming involved with Youth Ventures, Allan Ricketts, owner of Ricketts’ Art and Entertainment, has developed from an aspiring young entrepreneur possessing raw artistic talents to a year-round artist and entertainer. The 18-year-old musician/singer/artist has climbed his way to becoming one of the province’s most well-known young entrepreneurs in the music business. He is a multi-instrumentalist, a singer and an artist. He can be seen playing at venues locally, nationally and internationally and if music success is not enough, his artwork can be seen on sale at the Rockcrest Cottage and Café in Pouch Cove.

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Tyler Mills, 16, has owned and operated Tidy Tyler’s Wash and Mow for the past three summers. His successful business offers general lawn care and outdoor cleaning services. He has run an extremely cost effective business, earning him a substantial amount of revenue. He prides himself on his customer service and precise financial records. He is always conscious of his inflows and outflows of cash. To keep up his top level customer service, he can state how often he has done work for a customer as well as how much profit he has earned from each customer. Tyler spends a significant amount of his revenues on marketing his services and trying to increase his customer base. This is a full time job for Tyler and he plans to continue with his business for the next several years.

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