Teen Money Making Ideas

A great business idea can come from the most unlikely of places. Take Anderson Trail, Inc., www.andersontrail.com, founded by Justin Avery Anderson in 2003 at age 16. A year earlier, Justin had stayed at a bed and breakfast with his best friend, Spencer, and his family. The next morning, at breakfast, the owners served granola.

It wasn’t just any granola. This granola was moist — perfect for Justin, who had braces on his teeth at the time. It reminded him of a homemade oatmeal cookie, only healthy, he says. Impressed, Justin asked the owners for the recipe, but they wouldn’t give it up. Back at home, Justin searched area supermarkets for the granola. “I couldn’t find anything like it,” he recalls.

Cooking Up a Success

For many people, the pursuit may have ended there. Not for Justin. “I decided to try to make my own,” he says. Justin went to work in the kitchen, mixing various ingredients and trying to duplicate the granola recipe that had so intrigued him. He exceeded his own expectations. “I tried to recreate the recipe,” he says. “But what I came up with — after several attempts — was even better.”

At first, he made the granola just for himself. Then, he started sharing it with friends and family. In the summer of 2003, he brought a batch along with him on an Eagle Scout camping trip. It was a hit. A light bulb went off in Justin’s head. “I began asking people, ‘Would you buy this?’ and when they said yes, I knew I was on to something.”

That Christmas season, he gave out batches of granola instead of Christmas cookies — all to rave reviews. His aunt urged him to consider turning his passion into a business. Her idea piqued Justin’s curiosity and he began to scope out the competition near his home in Houston, Texas. There wasn’t any. “We couldn’t find anything like my granola,” he says.

Getting the Ball Rolling

That’s when Justin decided to start knocking on doors at local supermarkets. Cold-calling, Justin says, was no picnic. “I was afraid people would say no — and they did. But I got over it.”

His perseverance paid off. He convinced the specialty food director at Houston’s HEB Central Market, FB Godinez, to give him a shot. Godinez agreed, and Justin, then a high school senior, began to clear the hurdles necessary to get a product to market. He purchased business insurance and a bar code and found a nutritionist to come up with the fact box listing the calories and fat content in the granola.

Shooting for the Stars

He also had to find a commercial kitchen to work with. He tackled that challenge Justin-style — with gusto — picking up a copy of the Houston Business Journal Book of Lists and calling every caterer until he found one who was willing to work with him. By April 2005, Anderson Trail Original Recipe hit the shelves at the Central Markets in Houston and Austin, as well as two other local stores, and became available online via the company’s website.

Like a true entrepreneur, Justin sees his early success as just the start of something really big. After cornering the local markets, Justin is off and running to capture the national marketplace.

On Justin’s To-Do list: the creation of additional varieties of his unique moist granola — including possibly a wheat-free, and a holiday variety — and the expansion of his business to Whole Foods Market and other health and specialty stores nationwide.

He’ll have plenty of help. At a chance meeting at the 2005 Horatio Alger Awards — where he was named a National Scholar — Justin met Lyttleton “Lyt” Harris IV, who is credited with the discovery and promotion of Orville Redenbacher’s Gourmet Popping Corn. Harris came out of retirement to help Justin with his business and he, along with his wife, Venita, are Justin’s first investors.

Ingredients for Success

Justin, now 19, is a sophomore at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, where he is majoring in what else — entrepreneurial management — at the Neeley School of Business and was recently named a TCU Youth Entrepreneur of the Year.

He currently operates his business from new offices located near the TCU campus at a small business incubator and spends an average of 20 - 25 hours a week coordinating the packaging, production and shipping of his product. Justin says nothing can replace the hands-on experience he’s gaining. “I’ve learned so much,” he says. “I learn something new every day.”

Justin, who was inspired early on by the success of fellow teen entrepreneurs Evan and Elise Macmillan of The Chocolate Farm, also wants to serve as an inspiration to his peers. “I tell them to research the market and to figure out why their product is different and why people should by it,” he says. “I also tell them that the most important ingredient is having a passion for what you do.”

Credits: Amy Rauch Neilson @ Youngbiz