Every student in the Entrepreneurship pathway has a career goal, but 16 year old Junior, Anna Santos, is able to make her business dream come true. Winning a $10,000 cash prize to further her business “Astrafire” she is able to kickstart her growth in her online store and reach broader audiences through advertisement advancements and new products. With this funding, she has the opportunity to expand on her business goals and get her name out there.
When asked the reason for starting her own business, Anna says, “I wasn’t really doing anything at the time and I wanted to do something to better my life.” With a lot of free time on her hands outside of class, she was able to come up with numerous ideas for the products in her clothing line and set goals for herself to accomplish over time. Starting from coming up with ideas while dealing with the after-school boredom in her bedroom, she became a successful teen business owner. In the past year, she has worked to create her own website and products. She has varying styles and designs of sweatshirts and sweatpants with different colors offered for each style. From starting her business to winning her $10,000 scholarship, only a year’s time has passed.
“Starting from coming up with ideas while dealing with the after-school boredom in her bedroom, she becomes a successful teen business owner.”
Anna was ecstatic about winning this scholarship as she describes it to be, “a huge jumpstart to her business.” While winning something with the value Anna did may seem far-fetched for students, Anna was not expecting it for herself, as she has only been working on her clothing line for a year. Recognition such as this is monumental for a business owner. As a long-term improvement, Anna plans to put some of the funds towards advertising as this is sure to almost instantly benefit her business. Anna understands that for an online business, advertisement is crucial in getting the word out about her business, so with this money she plans to, “put it towards advertising and outreach in order to buy in new customers.” With an online business, Anna will be able to use social media to her advantage to display her products and gain interest from followers not just locally but nationally. Advertisement can be one of the most important steps in creating a successful business, and this scholarship will aid Anna in guiding her business on the right path to success. Anna shares that she also hopes to be creating new products in the coming months with the help of the money she won. These products will add a fresh look to “Astrafire”, and will be beneficial to Anna as this will bring in additional revenue and interest to the store. Anna has plenty of ideas ready to share for her clothing line as she excitedly says, “there will definitely be new items dropping soon.”
This is just the beginning for Anna Santos and her line “Astrafire.” With the scholarship awarded to her, she has the opportunity to take her business to new heights and accomplish things she never imagined possible for herself and her business.
