Teenager Startups - Brendan Cox, The Teenage Serial Entrepreneur from Westfield, NJ, USA

The 19-year-old CEO has been trying out new business ideas for a few years and most of them went big. Brendan is currently a freshman at the University of Scranton and is studying entrepreneurship. At his university, he is heavily involved in the Entrepreneurship Program and working with several members of the program staff. One of the available resources to him is the Wayne House, an on-campus building that allows entrepreneurs to run their businesses and collaborate with other students who are entrepreneurs. And socializing and learning from other entrepreneurs is very important for an entrepreneur. 

Brendan is a serial entrepreneur and was first introduced to it during his early teens. The first profit he made was by selling candies. He surfed the internet for 'how can a teen earn money' and as we all can expect, the first suggestion that Google gave was to sell candies at school. So the next day the teen went and bought 3 sleeves for a dollar and sold it at school at 1 sleeve per dollar. This way the smart kid made 56 USD on the first day he got introduced to entrepreneurship. Then, after tasting the fun to earn profits, there was no backing off. 

At 14, Brendan bought an Instagram account at 900 USD  and started to use it for pay per click advertising and promotions and he got his investment back in a week. Isn't it amazing how the 14 year old was earning more than a lot of adults? This was just the beginning, there is a lot more to the story. Later we went on managing 5 Instagram accounts with more than a million followers.

The next business he chose was designing phone cases. He named it Kicks Cases. He would design the cases himself on his personal device and would get them manufactured and shipped from China at cheap prices. Later he would sell it at higher prices making good profits. Soon his cases made their way into two sneaker shops. The photoshop and graphic designing skills he self-learned from YouTube made this venture successful and laid the foundation for Cox Visuals as well.

Spotting one of Brendan's cases, a Brooklyn based clothing brand contacted him to design for them. And this led to the creation of Cox Visuals in 2015. The name “Cox Visuals” came from his last name and the service the company provided. The venture was set up to help small businesses grow and expand their companies through exciting and clean design strategies. And this is how Cox Visuals came into existence. 

Brendan has always been socially active and influential, he knows how to direct the energy of social media to his favour. He has previously earned through and managed many social media accounts and got huge successes. The expertise he obtained in marketing through these experiences made his Cox Visuals services i,e Marketing and Branding excellent to his clients. This made way for a successful journey. A strong foundation always rises to a strong structure. 

Cox Visuals is personally bootstrapped and funded by Brendan himself. When we asked him to give a brief insight into his venture and it's reach, he said "Cox Visuals, my current business, is a full-service graphic design company. Some of our largest clients are Habits 365, Social Study app, and Shock Apparel. These three companies and many others hire Cox Visuals for their unique graphic design and branding needs."

When we asked the young man about his ventures future goals, he replied, "We are currently working with many artists and influencers to collaborate and expand the business."

Just as a bonus fact, Brendan also started an odd teen jobs business. It connects people who need a person to do some odd job and the teenagers who are in search of some job to earn extra bucks. This business idea was a hit too and is flourishing in the Westfield locality. 

We asked Brendan about why he's not doing some internship or job like most 19-year-olds and chose entrepreneurship even when the path is so difficult? He answered; "I like being able to control all the aspects of my business. I would rather work harder and get rewarded in monetary ways than to be stuck under a boss and a salary."

The biggest challenge according to Brendan in this journey of entrepreneurship was to budget his time between school and business, and he overcame it by setting a strict schedule for himself and sticking to it. That's a serious lesson for all of us, Time Management. 

Like every entrepreneur, even Brendan made mistakes in the early days and in his words, it is, "In the past, I’ve made businesses out of trends that don’t always last or aren’t sustainable."

Before ending it we asked him according to him what's his venture's biggest achievement to date, he says, "Designed clothes are worn by celebrities (Partnership with clothing company Habits 365)." We hope he makes bigger achievements in the near future and achieves all his dreams. 

We could learn from him, how good things take time to come so be patient and always be looking for opportunities and make the most of it. 

Adios!