15 Companies Founded by Amazing Young Entrepreneurs

  • Children of any age can legally start a business as long as their guardians help them handle documentation and legal requirements. 
  • A number of successful businesses have kids and teenagers at the helm in some form. 
  • The young business leaders on this list used imagination and creativity to launch a wide range of enterprises. 
  • This article is for young people, parents and all individuals with entrepreneurial ambitions who are interested in reading about businesses founded by kids and teens. 

You’ve heard about the “30 under 30” lists celebrating young business leaders and innovators. But have you ever seen a list that includes 15-year-old CEOs and 4-year-old founders? 

Age does not limit success. You’re never too young or too old to start pursuing your ambitions. No one knows that more than the young entrepreneurs on this list. They don’t need high school diplomas or even driver’s licenses to turn their ideas into thriving businesses. 

If you’d like to help your child start a business, make sure that business follows all legal requirements applicable in your city or state. Business News Daily’s guide to helping your kids start a small business walks you through that process, so your kid is set up for success.

15 companies started by young entrepreneurs 

1. Aline Morse — Zolli Candy 

At age 7, Alina Morse went on an errand to the bank with her father. The teller offered her a lollipop, but she reluctantly declined — her parents had taught her that candy would damage her teeth. The experience sparked an idea: why not make candy that tastes great and is good for your teeth? Zollipops were born, and before long, Zolli Candy was sold in stores across the country. Since then, Morse has expanded the vegan, sugar-free, tooth-friendly candy line to include taffy and drops.

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4 trends transforming advertising, media and entertainment

The advertising, media and entertainment industry relies on a wealth of consumer data to understand how to best personalize each consumer’s experience. However, that data is spread across the different tools, teams and technologies used by these companies. And businesses are reluctant to share data with each other due to increasing consumer privacy concerns and regulations. Organizations also lack the infrastructure for new technologies that would help them better share and collaborate on their data with other departments and partner organizations. As a result, media companies and publishers are unable to maximize their advertising revenue, and their advertisers are unable to optimize their ad spend and track attribution.

However, today there are four major trends transforming advertising, media and entertainment to address these challenges. Let’s explore each to see how organizations can prepare for and leverage these trends to enable better customer experiences and drive revenue.

1. Data collaboration is a business necessity, with organizations increasingly adopting data clean rooms

Tough competition, market pressures and consumer demand for personalization is forcing media and entertainment companies to collaborate on and analyze data from a wide range of sources more effectively. The goal: to create a 360-degree view of subscribers, improve advertising effectiveness and optimize business decision-making. To achieve this, industry leaders are securely collaborating on their data in near real-time in the cloud, bringing together data sources from websites, CRM systems, online streaming, advertisements, social media and more. These organizations are also increasingly turning to data clean rooms when strict privacy, governance and query controls are required. We can expect to see wider spread adoption across the industry of data cleans room technology. 

2. Increased adoption of data-fueled technologies

Consumer behavior continues to evolve, in response to and driven by new innovations in technology. These innovations are creating massive volumes of

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The 11 Best Digital Business Card Options in 2023

Building new connections with prospective clients is crucial to small business success. To do that, handing out business cards at networking events can be an excellent strategy. But you should think beyond traditional business cards. And start sharing a digital business card to leave a powerful impression in today’s digital world.

We have spent hours researching to help you choose the right digital business card app to create a distinct virtual business card to represent your business.



What is a Digital Business Card?

A digital business card or a virtual business card is a digital file that includes contact details, a link to the business website, and social media links.

The content of a digital business card can vary from business to business. Some business owners prefer to include basic contact details only, while others incorporate user bio, photo, location, and much more in addition to basic contact information.

When it comes to sharing a virtual business card, you have multiple options. You can send it in the attachment/signature of your Email. And you can also share the URL of your digital business card in text messages. Also, you can ask your prospects to scan the QR code of your virtual business card to save it on their devices.

Moreover, some digital business card apps allow you to create digital business cards that can be shared using near-field communication (NFC) technology.

Here are the key benefits of sharing digital business cards:

  • They are cheaper than paper business cards.
  • You can easily distribute them.
  • Digital business card creation takes just a few minutes.
  • You can easily update information on digital cards.

Additionally, digital business cards are more environment-friendly than traditional business cards.

digital business card

Digital Business Cards in 2023

The use of digital business cards is growing rapidly. According to a report from

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The financial benefits of electrifying your business fleet

Research shows that a company’s progress toward sustainable operations can have a positive impact on financial performance. Perhaps this is why we’re seeing businesses of all sizes around Chicagoland prioritize incremental changes that demonstrate a commitment to sustainability.

Nowhere is this focus shift toward energy efficiency more accessible than in a company’s use of vehicles for daily operations. According to the state of Illinois, transportation is the most significant source of greenhouse gas emissions in the state.

The good news is that transitioning to electric vehicles (EVs) is achievable for business of all sizes and across all industries. The transition to electric vehicles won’t happen overnight, but it’s smart to start preparing now. Below are several reasons why it makes sense to consider electrification for your business fleet.

Incentives

Illinois is quickly becoming a hub for electric vehicle investment and adoption, with tens of thousands of electric vehicles already on the road across the suburbs. Part of this adoption is due to the existence of state and federal incentives for EV customers.

In Illinois, rolling rebates of up to $4,000 have been made available for the purchase of electric vehicles, while at the federal level, many customers are eligible to receive up to $7,500 in tax credits as part of the Inflation Reduction Act. While the availability of these incentive programs can vary, they represent a tremendous cost-saving opportunity for businesses looking to replace gas-powered vehicles over the next several years.

Cost of ownership

Integrating an electric vehicle into your business fleet can reduce the ongoing cost of ownership substantially. Particularly for regional businesses whose fleet vehicles serve customers primarily in the Chicago area, EVs can be less expensive to power than vehicles with internal combustion engines, where fuel prices dictate much of the ownership costs.


        
        
        

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Employees Are Feeding Sensitive Business Data to ChatGPT

Employees are submitting sensitive business data and privacy-protected information to large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT, raising concerns that artificial intelligence (AI) services could be incorporating the data into their models, and that information could be retrieved at a later date if proper data security isn’t in place for the service.

In a recent report, data security service Cyberhaven detected and blocked requests to input data into ChatGPT from 4.2% of the 1.6 million workers at its client companies because of the risk of leaking confidential information, client data, source code, or regulated information to the LLM. 

In one case, an executive cut and pasted the firm’s 2023 strategy document into ChatGPT and asked it to create a PowerPoint deck. In another case, a doctor input his patient’s name and their medical condition and asked ChatGPT to craft a letter to the patient’s insurance company.

And as more employees use ChatGPT and other AI-based services as productivity tools, the risk will grow, says Howard Ting, CEO of Cyberhaven.

“There was this big migration of data from on-prem to cloud, and the next big shift is going to be the migration of data into these generative apps,” he says. “And how that plays out [remains to be seen] — I think, we’re in pregame; we’re not even in the first inning.”

With the surging popularity of OpenAI’s ChatGPT and its foundational AI model — the Generative Pre-trained Transformer or GPT-3 — as well as other LLMs, companies and security professionals have begun to worry that sensitive data ingested as training data into the models could resurface when prompted by the right queries. Some are taking action: JPMorgan restricted workers’ use of ChatGPT, for example, and Amazon, Microsoft, and Wal-Mart have all issued warnings to employees to take care in

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The 10 Best News Aggregators of 2023

Millions of people use news aggregators on a daily basis to catch up on what’s happening in the world, but which ones are worth your time? Here are 10 of the best news aggregator apps you should check out.




What We Like

  • Its no-nonsense approach to news reporting.

  • Photo galleries are beautiful.

What We Don’t Like

  • It’s a bit plain compared to other apps on this list (except for the gorgeous photo galleries).

While a variety of news outlets have their own mobile apps, AP News is the place to go if you’re looking for the facts. The Associated Press is an independent, nonprofit news cooperative providing content to other outlets. The organization has won 52 Pulitzer Prizes since the award was established in 1917.

Although the app isn’t as fancy as some of the others on this list, it’s clean, readable, and full of beautiful photo galleries from the AP’s award-winning photojournalists.

Download For:





 



What We Like

  • The personal briefing provides a concise snapshot of the day’s big news stories.

  • Polished format.

  • Easy to subscribe to publications you like.

What We Don’t Like

  • Not every article in your feed will be relevant to your interests.

Google Reader might be gone, but the technology behemoth still has a popular news aggregator in the form of Google News. Like other apps on this list, it pulls thousands of articles from credible online news organizations, blogs, and magazines, and presents them in a polished format.

Google News gives you the option to set up a personal briefing that updates throughout the day with relevant stories, or you can choose to get full coverage about a topic, including different perspectives, a timeline of key events, and more.

Additionally, Google makes it easy to subscribe to newspapers and magazines with a single tap, so

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A Tough Road Ahead For Advertising: Time For Fundamental Change – Advertising, Marketing & Branding


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The bull market for global ad spending, which expanded by over
$450 billion (an 8% compound annual growth rate) from 2009 to 2022,
has come to an end.

Emerging disruptions are closing in from all angles as
advertisers shift their spending to stronger channels and partners
with demonstrated ROI. We see four major factors driving this
transformation.

  1. Macro challenges. CMOs are looking to optimize
    their marketing budgets to reflect slower revenue growth, and
    we’ve already seen the impact on corporate earnings. On
    average, S&P 500 companies saw year-over-year revenue growth
    decelerate from 28% in 2021 to 16% in 2022, driven by higher
    interest rates and slowing consumer spending. According to Standard
    Media Index’s US Ad Market Tracker, the ad market fell in
    proportion to corporate returns, declining 12% in December 2022
    alone-the sixth consecutive month showing year-over-year
    declines.

  2. Consumer behavior. Inflation and slowing
    economic growth are crowding out discretionary spending, while an
    increasing number of consumer choices for products and platforms
    are forcing marketers to spread their advertising spend across more
    channels.

  3. New competition.Disruptive ad platforms and
    channels entering the market bring new models and technologies to
    bear that erode white space and take market share from legacy
    competitors.

  4. Privacy rules and regulation. Data privacy
    regulations such as General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and
    Google and Apple limiting third-party data access hamper targeting
    ability. Additionally, the EU has taken steps toward enforcing its
    Digital Services Act (DSA), which imposes increased data
    transparency requirements and mandated paid advertisement
    disclosures that will require alterations for monetization through
    existing algorithms.

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While optimism continues that the U.S. may avoid a recession

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Do I need a business to get a business credit card?

There are all sorts of travel credit cards (like hotel and airline cards) and most fall into one of two categories — personal or business. Nearly anyone can apply for a personal credit card, but we often get one question: do you need to own a business to get a business credit card?

A business credit card makes for a whole new set of possible sign-up and category bonuses. It’s also a great way to separate your business and personal expenses and give your small business the spending power it needs to grow.

Here’s how you can qualify for one of your own.

Qualifying for a business credit card

To answer the question: Yes, you need a business to open a business credit card. But it’s important to define what exactly is a “business.” The qualifications for having a business may be different than you might expect.

Do you sell items on Amazon, eBay or Craigslist? Do you teach music or sports? Ever act as a freelance writer or photographer? If you sell any goods or services, that could qualify you as a business owner.

But if you’re in one of these businesses, how do you explain that on a credit card application? You don’t have to have a registered business like an LLC or a corporation to apply. In fact, when applying for a business credit card, there will be a section asking what kind of business you own and requesting your business tax identification number. If you’re just in business on your own, you can choose to answer that you’re a sole proprietor, and in most cases, you can enter your Social Security number as your tax ID number.

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Banks sometimes ask for supporting documentation to prove that you have

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Britain’s digital finance firms under pressure after banking turmoil, execs say

LONDON, April 17 (Reuters) – Digital finance firms in Britain will find it tougher to raise funds due to higher interest rates and investor caution after the collapse of U.S.-based technology lender Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), executives told an industry event on Monday.

The Bank of England has raised interest rates 11 times since December 2021 in a bid to curb soaring inflation, which has squeezed living standards. However, the hikes have also led to higher funding costs for companies.

“The bar on capital has been raised, from an era where there was (effectively) 0% interest rates and relatively easy access to cash and capital,” said TS Anil, CEO of British digital bank Monzo, speaking at the Innovate Finance conference in London.

Anil said last month’s banking sector turmoil, sparked by the failure of SVB which spooked investors, could contribute to a broad shake-up in the digital finance sector.

Britain’s digital banks will need support over the next few months to help them cope with the market fallout from SVB’s demise, trade body Innovate Finance warned last month.

Tim Levene, CEO of fintech-focused investment company Augmentum, told the event there was likely more pain to come and start-ups would take further hits to their valuations.

“We’re going to see stories over the next 12 months of businesses that have failed, but that’s part of venture (capital),” he added.

The Bank of England is considering an overhaul of its deposit guarantee scheme, which could include boosting the amount covered for businesses if lenders hit trouble, The Financial Times reported on Sunday.

“The Bank of England looking at the regulations… is the sensible course to do,” Sam Everington, senior executive at British digital bank Starling, told the event in London.

Digital finance company bosses said they were confident the sector could weather

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Where Employees Think Companies’ DEIB Efforts Are Failing

In countless boardrooms and executive offices, leaders are feeling a sense of urgency around their company’s diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) initiatives. These leaders want to do the right thing for their employees — and they’re feeling additional pressure from investors, regulators, and customers.

According to new research from Gallup, 84% of CHROs say their organization’s investment in DEIB is increasing. We surveyed 122 CHROs of large companies in the spring of 2022, who told us that they’re implementing everything from systemic changes to local-level mentorship for managers. CHROs reported that they have active DEI-focused employee resource groups (77%), analytics teams (46%), and listening posts (37%). Many CHROs are also providing specific DEIB training for managers (73%), as well as training on recognizing unconscious bias (85%), hiring and promotion (62%), and mentoring and sponsorship programs (57%).

But if you ask employees, most feel their DEIB needs are not being met. This was a core finding of another new Gallup study, also conducted in the spring of 2022, that examined employees’ perceptions about DEIB at their workplace. Only 31% of employees say their organization is committed to improving racial justice or equality in their workplace. Even fewer (25%) say issues of race and equity are openly discussed where they work, with 37% saying they participated in a training program on D&I, and 30% saying they participated in a town hall on the subject.

Juxtaposing the results of the two studies makes it clear that HR leaders and employees have vastly different perceptions about how well their organizations are doing in this area.

To make progress, leaders must understand employees’ core DEIB needs — and where alignment is lacking. Below, I explain our findings and offer advice on what actions leaders can take to turn the tide.

10 Employee DEIB Needs

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