Teen business thriving well

Ask most schoolboys to darn a shirt and they will most often refer you to their mum. But for Tyler Hindley from Bridgnorth it's the other way round.

For 16-year-old Tyler, the future is looming.

In this case literally, because by day the pupil at Bridgnorth Endowed School is also an entrepreneur who has transformed his mum's haberdashery shop into an embroidery business with an estimated added turnover in it's first year alone of around £10,000.

Not bad for a lad who hasn't yet done his GCSEs.

Perhaps it's something to do with living in the countryside, away from traditional centres of mass employment and having to create your own job, but Tyler is not a lone beacon of hope in the world of teenage business - it turns out Shropshire is a hotbed of school-aged enterprise and Tyler is just one of a growing number of youngsters who are taking their futures into their own hands and setting up in trade.

Looks like they won't be needing the help of The Apprentice's Sir Alan Sugar - they are their own bosses, and their own apprentices too.

Tyler may not have left school but through his enterprise, Sheeep Wear, he is already making good money from local seats of learning, bulk buying sweatshirts in school colours and embroidering on them school crests and badges.

He has also found demand for embroidering people's names on their slippers and football boots, club badges on karate suits, and even branding hotel napkins. People can give him any design and using computer wizardry Tyler can create a template and embroider it on to any garment.

And there can't be many 16-year-olds who get people coming up to them with 12 pairs of pants and asking them if they'd mind embroidering them with their names.

Tyler launched the business last August, borrowing cash from the sale of his mother's house in Bridgnorth - and mum, Naomi, is only too pleased that his side of the business is already overshadowing hers.

At the shop in Wellington, the haberdashery called The Sewing Box used to fill the whole shop. Then Tyler moved in, occupying a small corner of the shop with two hi-tech embroidery machines, and now his operation dominates a good half of the premises.

Tyler has had good training, mind. His grandmother was a haberdasher before his mum. Tyler too has been brought up to know that a stitch in time save nine. This boy certainly knows his weave from his weft.

He says: "We used to be in Wellington Market and from the age of 10. I used to help there, serving haberdashery. Now I work at night after school and during holidays it's full time.

"Mum keeps the machines running while I'm at school."

He adds: "When I was 12 I used to sit in the nan's house in the basement doing the cushions. We used to have big squares of foam and stuff them into the cushion covers and sew them up to sell on the market."

But it was one of the young budding 'seamsters' enterprises that showed the stuffed cushions a clean pair of heels. The peg bags, they were Tyler's idea.

Says Tyler: "I did peg bags on the sewing machine - they sold really well. It was nan's cushions that hung around."

Says mum Naomi: "It's taken over from haberdashery. People come in for bits and pieces but I'm really proud."

Joe Graham was 18, coming 19, and working for telecommunications giant Orange when he thought of setting up in business selling mobile phones. Today he runs a successful communications shop, Mere Mobiles, in Ellesmere.

But Joe warns there are pros and cons to being young and being the boss.

"It can be very difficult because some suppliers don't take you seriously. They expect me to be older.

"I would say 'I'm only 19' and they try to pull a fast one over you."

He adds: "It's a challenge but I like a challenge. At school I struggled with being dyslexic so it's always been a challenge.

"There are advantages to being young in business though - you have got nothing to lose, I've got no kids or a girlfriend, I've just got myself and this business."

Teen chocolatier Louis Barnett has built up a thriving business with his company Chokolit, based in Bridgnorth.

The 17-year-old, who started his business at his parents' house four years ago, now operates from a purpose-built factory in Faraday Drive and now employs four staff.

The teenager with the sweet-toothed midas touch is now fulfilling contracts for Waitrose, Sainsbury's and other national supermarket chains for his hand-made chocolates.

But at the age of just 13, Joe Vera-Sanso from Leintwardine near Craven Arms must be one of the youngest entrepreneurs in the area.

Still at school and looking to bump up his pocket money he hit upon the idea of taking away people's recycling rubbish.

Joe can often be seen pushing a wheelbarrow full of newspapers, bottles and cans and taking them to the local recycling centre near the village.

He explains: "It occurred to me when I was taking our recycling to the recycling centre. I just thought there's a gap in the market for recycling and to make a bit of extra money out of it.

"I didn't want to do a paper round but I wanted to do something.

"I put up a sign on the church noticeboard and put flyers around. There was a good response."

Joe's Recycling Service, as he calls the enterprise, will take away a bag full of recyclable waste for 20p and a box full for just 30p, and villagers are only too happy to cough up.

The young entrepreneur's success has given him real drive to carve out a career in business.

"It's inspired me to do business studies when I go to university - and with Joe's Recycling Service I'm planning on expanding to employ a friend and work another street."

Who needs The Apprentice? Listen up, Sir Alan - the lad is taking a lad on. Fancy a job?