Young Entrepreneurship

One year, sometime during my pre-teens, I spent a summer in Indianola, Nebraska where a lot of my family lived. During that summer, Vacation Bible School was one of the weekly activities. 

During VBS we had been tasked with creating some odd keychains with ribbon and beads. I ended up having a ton of fun with this, and when returning back home to South Dakota after the summer, I asked my mom to take me with her to the craft store. 

After our trip to the craft store, I ended up coming home with a ton of supplies to make more keychains. I think this excited my mother, as she was a die hard crafting fanatic. My mom had her own craft room, where she spent much of her time working on projects.

With the craft supplies, I began making keychains, most of them were animals or other simple objects. The keychains were constructed with a hook or key ring, some ribbon, and pony beads. Easy to make, I made dozens, then hundreds of them. After becoming burned out of making so many key chains, I began venturing off into the art of other beadwork. I began using smaller “seed” beads, which I used to construct various necklaces, bracelets and earrings. 

I quickly began to amass a large amount of finished projects, which I had been placing it bins as I finished them. My mother and I sat and looked at several full bins one day and contemplated what should be done with everything.  

I cannot remember if it was my idea or my mothers, but it was decided that I would get a booth at the upcoming Christmas Craft Fair and try selling some of my completed projects. When the craft fair came around, it was a huge success and I sold a ton of my work. 

Seeing how much I had sold, lit a blaze of excitement within me. I began making more and more stuff, which expanded into many different craft projects. Sometime between 2001 and 2002, I took a trip to visit my brother in Oklahoma. My brother had been spending time learning about the Cherokee culture which was vast in Oklahoma. Our family has a mixed ancestry and family history indicates that we are possibly of Cherokee descent, though DNA does not corroborate that information.

My brother spent some time, teaching me about the Cherokee culture and exposing me to it. After a day trip to see a Pow-wow, I became mesmerized by the songs, regalia and their elaborate jewelry and beadwork. My brother ended up taking me to a Native American craft store, where I purchased tons of various beads, leather, and other craft items. 

I returned home and hit the ground running with all of my new items. With so many new supplies, I began attempting more complex craft projects. I also started seeking out more craft fairs to sell my products at. 

I was approximately 12 years old when I received a jaw dropping letter from the South Dakota State, Department of Revenue, advising me that I needed to have a tax license and pay taxes if I were to conduct business in the State of South Dakota. 

Wide eyed, I remember reading the letter with my mother. To me, this had all just been for fun… but that had changed without me realizing it. I soon set up my account with the Department of Revenue, and before I knew it, I was officially a business owner. My first ever business was named “Logan’s Beads”—slightly embarrassing looking back on the chosen name. Embarrassing names will be a theme for me throughout my pre-teen and teenage business ventures. 

Embarrassing names aside, boy did I run with it; sometimes a little too quickly. My mind was firing on all cylinders and the ideas were flowing. In no time, I was setting up at multiple craft fairs a year, selling my handmade crafts. I soon had business partners who made other various items of their own and we would sometimes even get booths together. 

After time passed and I began getting older, my interests started to change. The first change was sparked by a middle school dance sometime in 2002. Our town was very small, 248 people to be exact, and our school was equally small. Our dances were often held in the school lunch room. Someone would supply a CD player and we would all bring CD’s to play during the dances. Typically there were little to no lights, and it was more of just a dark room with a less than mediocre stereo playing music for everyone to dance to. 

My mind sprung to a new business idea, and I began researching sound equipment, lighting and music. I started looking at prices and finding deals. It was not long before I started purchasing a small amount of equipment so the next dance had some decent equipment. Sometime in the Spring of 2003, I set up some simple speakers, lights and began playing music for our dance. 

I did not stop there, and I was self tasked with purchasing more equipment so our next dance could be bigger and better. Throughout the first half of 2003 I ran the sound and lights for several events in our town. In October of 2003, I signed into my first hand written contract to purchase a set of larger professional speakers. Those speakers got put to good use right away, and I started getting contacted by our local bar and other area schools to DJ for events. 

All of the money that was coming in was siphoned straight back into growing my business. It was not long before I had a full setup of professional sound and lighting gear. In December of 2003, my first ads start running on a local radio station, and from there business took off into a full on sprint. 

I began booking events nearly every weekend from that point forward. A larger local newspaper contacted me to do an interview, which was published shortly after. My business started setting up at showcases around South Dakota to generate more business. Bigger schools reached out to hire me for proms and dances much larger than I had previously done.  

On March 24, 2004, I was presented with my “first dollar” from the Wessington Economic Development Corporation and made my second appearance in a local newspaper. By this time I had already begun operating under the business name “Blue Fire Mobile DJ Service.” (Please note, I am now 2 for 2 on the list of embarrassing names, but it’s cool… I had a branded hoodie, it’s fine.)

I continued building my business, making partnerships with other area businesses and started expanding my service area. I went on to DJ for hundreds of events to include bars, weddings, high school dances and proms, fundraising events, and much more. Throughout my time I was given several opportunities to run the sound and lights for several big stage productions with some well known professional artists. 

As I grew older, my interests continued to change and I slowly ventured into other business ventures and career changes. Out of High School, I began a Photography Studio specializing in senior portraits. I operated my studio for several years before making some other career changes. Since this time, I have operated several successful businesses and had many more failed business attempts.

Still to this day, I own a significant amount of sound and lighting equipment, but it has been years since I have set up and utilized my equipment for an actual event. Perhaps one day I will get my feet wet again, but for now, I am on a much different path. Photography is one side hustle that I have kept afloat off and on over time. 

My business ventures over the years have taught me some important lessons about life and building partnerships; also how to do my own taxes at the ripe age of 12. Sure made for some interesting times that I will never forget. I think that entrepreneurship has been, and will always be a passion of mine. I have definitely noticed that when I was younger and fearless, it was much easier to run and jump with a new idea. Today, much thought, research and statistical analysis goes into any new idea that pops into my head. Typically steering me away from new ideas and putting them on the back burner or trashing the idea altogether.

I’d love to say that it’s a good thing as it is certainly more calculated; I’d be lying, however, if I said I didn’t miss that fearlessness from my younger years. I may dive more into some of my business ventures in a later post, but what I can say currently is that good or bad, successful or failed; the knowledge obtained, the fun had, and the smiles created, were without a doubt, all worth every second of it. 

If you’re even remotely business minded and you have an idea, it is definitely something to seriously consider. Even if it does not work out, it may teach you some lessons you will never forget. Although, 12 year old Logan was much better at doing taxes than I am now haha. Until next time…

Much Love,

Logan August