Everyone wants to be their own boss and make their own schedule whether you are 15 starting your first job or if you’re 39 working your everyday 9-5. But it’s obviously not as easy as just waking up and boom you have a business there is more to it. You can start a business whenever, even if you’re in highschool. Alyssa Richards and Kahlil Evens, alumni of West Orange High School started their business while in high school.
How long they have been in business?
In 2025 Alyssa would be doing nails for 2 years (starting year 2023)
In 2025 Kahlil would be doing lawn care for 5 years (starting year 2020)
How did they build their business?
There are different ways you can build clientele: you can use mobile apps, flyers, people spreading the word ect. Kahlil used an app called Nextdoor, a local community neighborhood app to get his name out there and the clients he got from his neighborhood would tell their friends and refer them to him.
Alyssa went a different route.Alyssa used the fact that she was still in school to her advantage and advertised around school and starting off with low prices $30 no matter the design or length to help clients start flowing in.Her friends would repost getting her work seen and more people onto her page which also helped with gaining clients.
What was a setback or obstacle they had to push through?
Age has its advantages and disadvantages when it comes down to owning your own business. If you are younger, getting from one point to another can be hard if you don’t have a license, which was one of the biggest obstacles Kahlil had. He started his business at the age of 14 so obviously he wasn’t able to drive himself around he would have his dad drive. He was able to work around his problem pretty well but of course it would also affect when he would be able to work but no matter what he never gave up.
Once you have graduated from school you have a lot more time to be able to do things whether you need to make a trip to the store and grab supplies or wanna work morning and have the afternoons off. You have a lot more open time when creating a schedule when school isn’t in the picture but that never stopped Alyssa from doing what she wanted. While in high school Alyssa didn’t really have the option of an open schedule she was only able to work after school and on weekends. She used school to her advantage sometimes but something that Alyssa struggled with was some people would try to manage her passion making her feel like she wasn’t doing anything right.
What helped keep them encouraged?
Having your own business isn’t easy there’s days where it’s really hard business could not be doing well and you can feel like maybe you made a mistake but even through those days you have to keep moving through and pushing to get to where you wanna be at. Kahlil stayed encouraged to keep going because for him it has always been about improving and moving up and expanding his business. He wants to see how far he can push things.Even seeing a small improvement can help push you through another day.
Alyssa had a lot of support from friends and family. She started seeing growth on her account and more people going in and booking with her and as her work was getting better and her clientele started getting larger people were returning. All these factors helped Alyssa push thru any set back or doubt and keep going.
What would they have done differently?
Being so young when they first started you obviously look back and wonder what could I have done differently Kahlil wish when he was first starting he knew more about the corporate sector and that he more thoroughly learned how finance functions into reality. Kahlil said “In retrospect, I regret not saving or investing sooner”.
Some people believe with time that things will fall in place and work how they are supposed to and that’s how Alyssa felt about her business.Alyssa said “ While taking a look back on everything I did i have no regrets, everything formulated at the perfect time”
