Two teen entrepreneurs have placed in America’s Best Young Entrepreneurs Under Age 25 (2008) for the 4th Annual Business Week Magazine competition.  They were the 2 youngest to be featured. Ironically they were both also females (which there were very few of..and I have had quite a difficult time recruiting to my program myself) and they were also both from the NFTE program. NFTE (pronounced nifty) stands for the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship, http://www.nfte.com. They teach a mini ‘MBA’ curriculum in middle schools and high schools that are located in low income neighborhoods. I have been a loyal NFTE Volunteer since 2005 and highly endorse it for both volunteers and sponsors.

The two featured entrepreneurs were:

Ibtihaj “Ippy” Amatul Wadud, 19, who is the owner of Ippy’s Islamic Fashions, which creates custom-made clothes for Islamic girls and women in seven states.  She was recently featured on Fox Business News NYC with Renegade  CEO’s very own Daniel Uribe.

And Jasmine Lawrence, 17, is the owner of Eden Body Works, an all-natural line of hair and body products, which are now sold in Wal-Mart and Whole Foods outlets. Her company is doing more than 1 million dollars a year in revenues.

There were lots of great businesses but I was very surprised not to see Ashey Qualls and her $70k/mo producing website http://www.WhateverLife.com I guess to some extent it’s all about who was marketing to be featured.

At any rate, to see the other niche businesses that round out the list, please take a moment to view the slide show . At the conclusion of the slide show you will be asked to place your vote for which entrepreneur you believe has the most potential to go the furthest with their business.  The deadline to place your vote is September 22nd. The winners of the competition will be announced on September 26th. Show your support for Ippy or Jasmine.