“I’ve always wanted to start something meaningful.”

Even at a young age, Jennifer Luo knew she was destined to have a business she could call her own.

“I had a small slime-making phase when I was young. I even had my own Etsy shop that sold my creations,” Luo said. “I’ve always wanted to start a small business, but after seeing how hard it was for my grandpa to get back to where he was after his stroke, I knew I wanted to do something to help.”

Luo started her company, Healing Steps Co., in 2023 after witnessing her grandpa’s recovery following a stroke that left him paralyzed. Inspired by her grandpa, Luo designs and sells hoodies with positive messages that aim to uplift her community and plans to donate all of the proceeds she makes to the Pacific Stroke Association.

While Luo’s journey is unique, she is just one of many young entrepreneurs dedicated to supporting and enriching their communities.

According to the U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy, 99.9% of U.S. firms are small businesses, employing 45.9% of the private workforce, or about 59 million people.

While many businesses are started later in their owner’s life, some decide to take the leap at an early age.

“I started walking dogs when I was still in high school,” said Caroline Mameesh, Founder and CEO of her business, Wags-n-Whiskers. “I really love animals, but it was hard to balance my passion with my school schedule.”

As a senior at Carlmont, Luo also knows the struggle of growing her business while maintaining her grades and applying to colleges.

“One of my biggest struggles is having enough time to do my homework and complete my orders. I feel terrible when I have to delay somebody with their hoodie because I didn’t have enough time,” Luo said.

With her company, Healing Steps Co., Luo is responsible for designing, advertising, and shipping her hoodies to customers around the Bay Area. From the moment she sketches a new design to the second the hoodie finally ships, Luo puts her heart and soul into every step of the process.

“I wanted it to be a very positive brand, making every single part of the hoodie intentional and have a deeper meaning,” Luo said.

Luo started her company to support her grandfather while he recovered from a stroke in 2023, and she plans to donate 100% of her earnings to the Pacific Stroke Association after she graduates.

Helping as many people as possible with her positive messages and donations is a personal goal of hers and the reason she started her company in the first place. While Luo didn’t expect to take this path earlier in her high school career, she can no longer picture her life without it.

As a Bay Area resident, Mameesh provides dog walking and pet care services for her customers through her company Wags-n-Whiskers. Starting as a high school student in 2014, Mameesh started walking dogs as a job during her free time.

“I’ve always loved dogs, but I just never thought it was something I could do for a living until I tried it out,” Mameesh said.

While pet care was a personal passion of hers, she grew up believing that to be successful in life, you need to go to college and get a degree. So that’s what she did.

“Three months before graduating, I just remember sitting on a couch, like, wow, that’s five to seven more years. Yeah, I wouldn’t say I like school. I’m good at it but don’t like it,” Mameesh said. In 2020, Mameesh graduated from Cornell University with a degree in psychology but disregarded her studies to work for a startup that hired her without any intern experience.

During that time, she continued to run her pet care business on the side, keeping it alive in case she ever needed it. Eventually, with the love and support of her husband, Mameesh decided to take the leap of faith.

“I kept running it until, three years ago, I decided to make it my full-time job,” Mameesh said.

Mameesh’s company, Wags-n-Whiskers, provides dog walking and drop-in visits for community members. Mameesh works hard to maintain a trusting relationship with her customers, maintaining regulars who depend on the service daily.

“We come into their homes. We have their access codes and keys. There’s a lot of trust there that we have to maintain,” Mameesh said.

Mameesh believes that what allows her to connect with her clients the most is that, as a pet owner herself, she knows the importance of finding the best care for them.

“I have a dog. And you know, it’s stressful when you leave and you’re wondering how they are going to do,” Mameesh said. “We want to help the community feel safe and do what we love simultaneously.”

Mameesh plans to expand her company to reach as many pet families as possible, even hiring more employees to keep her workload manageable. She hopes that one day, she will be successful enough to work with local shelters and broaden her community impact.

While Mameesh sees partnering with shelters as her next step, one small business owner saw it as the foundation on which she built her company.

“I had Coco for about two years, and she died in 2023, but we adopted her from the shelter when she was already about 12 years old,” said the owner of Coco’s Chains, Lucia Capitanini.

Like Mameesh and Luo, Capitanini started the foundation for her business in high school. Her dog, Coco, eventually inspired her to make it a reality.

“I started it because I wanted to make myself more jewelry,” Capitanini said. “People were complimenting me on it, and I started to think that I could make something out of it.”

Based in Chicago, Illinois, she started her business by selling jewelry at craft fairs and eventually built up a considerable fan base, but eventually, she wanted to expand her reach.

To achieve this goal, she bravely sold her laptop and Nintendo Switch to gain the money she needed to start her company. While her parents supported this decision, she wanted to be independent and declined their investment.

“I wanted it all to be mine. I didn’t want to take handouts from anyone,” Capitanini said.

As a senior in high school, she maintains her business while also planning to go to college to expand her business. She plans on studying business management, marketing, and entrepreneurship to support her final goal of opening a storefront business.

Through her business, she sells clothing and jewelry with designs based on her interests. Because of her unique styling, she gained a following from like-minded people through her website and Etsy store while supporting charitable organizations.

Capitanini has donated over $7,000 to Second City Canine Rescue, the shelter from which she got her late dog, Coco. As she looks toward the future, she wonders how she will make an impact on the world.

“Experiment and take risks. Try a lot of different things, especially when you’re young and in college,” Mameesh said. “I am so happy that I decided to do my own thing, and it’s great to interact with people similar to me.”