Student by Day, Entrepreneur by Night

Jonathan Patton was dressed up in a suit and tie when he first visited potential customers to garner business for his new Web design company, but the budding entrepreneur quickly recognized one glaring marketing obstacle: He was 14.

Patton and his high school buddy had decided to try and turn their Web-design hobby into a business after friends showered them with compliments for a World Wrestling Federation fan site they had created. The pair became business partners when they founded Bellevue, Neb.-based JM Web Designs.

The initial steps of starting the business seemed easy — opening a business savings account, signing up for an employer identification number, finding a good Web host and registering a domain name. But when it came to finding clients, the duo faced the challenge of proving that the business was more than the pipe dream of a pair of cocky teenagers.

After three weeks of rejections from potential clients, Patton revised his marketing strategy. “I realized that going in person was not good,” he says. “I just had to consider the rejections to be constructive criticism.”

Undaunted, the teen decided to advertise by showing his work instead of his face. Patton advertised on the Web via a banner exchange and submitted his site to search engines. He also began designing Web pages free of charge for friends and family, and they were soon showing his work to their own friends and coworkers. His sister alone referred four clients. To motivate friends to spread the word, Patton promised a 5 percent cut of the profit for clients they referred.

Patton’s second attempt at marketing quickly paid off and brought him both clients and employees. The teen employs six designers ranging in age from 16 to 27. Two are friends, and the others found him when he advertised job openings on his company’s Web site.

One employee, a classmate with a knack for marketing, helped Patton overcome his fears of relating to clients in person. “When I first started, my heart pounded when I had to talk to clients,” Patton says. “(My classmate) taught me how to give confident handshakes and huge smiles, and most importantly, good eye contact.”

Patton uses his age to his advantage. He says some customers choose him over the competition because they believe young designers will be more creative than adults. He also offers lower prices than most Web design firms — just $700 to do a site that most would charge more than a $1,000 to complete.

His marketing efforts have also been rewarded with increased business. He now has about half a dozen design jobs a month — three times last year’s average — and he's grossed about $15,000 since January. And Patton manages to do all of this by finishing his homework during study periods at school so that his evenings are free to work on his business. Once he graduates from high school, he’ll take a year off from school to move his business out of his house to a storefront. Then he wants to hire some “older people” who can work full time while he earns his B.A.

For Patton, though, a bigger business or more money is not the payoff for managing his own business. “For many people, opening a business is about profit,” Patton says. “For me, it’s about accomplishing something I set out to do. Being your own boss is incredible.”

— Heather Stringer