The face of business is changing. It's younger. Twenty young entrepreneurs from 6th to 12th grade in Northern Nevada anxiously found seats today at TMCC to learn all about starting their own businesses.
Alex Cantos is in the 6th grade.
"I want to start a business in gardening. Gardening supplies, seeds and oh, plants too," he said.
He went on to say it would be online and he hopes it's a great success.
Just next to him was AJ Barrie who is a high school senior and already taking classes in the foundations of entrepreneurialism at TMCC.
"I've always like business. I can't wait to start one myself," he said.
His idea is artisan confections.
"Like beeswax gum, and other candies you just don't see," he said. "I'll sell them online. I'll make them myself, when it gets big I'll get other people to make them and then I'll sell it and move on. I want to start a lot of businesses."
And he is just what the Young Entrepreneur's Academy is looking for.
Eric Madison runs The Cube, a local business incubator. He's teaching the course and he says it's about keeping entrepreneurs here.
"We want to help them build a business and get them to stay here and run it instead of moving away."
And Leslie Masterpool with the Reno-Sparks Chamber of Commerce agrees.
"We have a lot of interest from the kids and from mentors in the community who want to come and talk with them at different steps in the process. But we really are looking at them as an economic driver for the Reno-Sparks area."
It's a 30-week course. So hopefully by spring we'll be writing another story about 20 new businesses here.
