High School Student Entrepreneurship Resource Center

The old definition of an entrepreneur—an aggressive “start-up” mentality, taking on significant personal and financial risk, and scaling only for profit—no longer applies. Today’s student entrepreneurs focus on creativity, collaboration, and passion, along with earning money, having the flexibility to be their own boss, and making an impact on the world.

High school students are doing everything from contractor side jobs that use their current skills to help other businesses, to launching their own organizations or nonprofits to solve problems. All of that translates into being entrepreneurs.

The first step in starting your own small business is to know what you are going to sell and to whom.

Then, you’ll need a business plan. This requires analyzing your expenses to determine the cost of creating your product or providing your service, determining the right price to charge, and developing a sales and marketing strategy.

Finally, of course, you’ll need to ensure you record all income and expenses to file your taxes correctly.

Sound complicated? That’s why we break it down in the Entrepreneurship pathway and guide students in developing their own business plan. Plus, students can learn from each other—several Career and College Prep students are already entrepreneurs! You can access additional free resources and guidance from the Small Business Administration (SBA), Small Business Development Center (SBDC), or our online resources center for high school student entrepreneurs.