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Merchant Maverick is hosting the 2024 Opportunity Grant is available for Youth-Entrepreneuers ages 10-18. They have five $2k grants to award to kids and teens who have discovered and pursued a great business idea.

A service, an invention, a store – small businesses of all shapes and sizes can apply as long as the majority of business owners are between the ages of ten and 18, live in the US, and the business has been in existence for at least 6 months.

Do you remember your very first business idea? Or how old you were when you first discovered your entrepreneurial spirit?

For many of us at Merchant Maverick, our love for the creativity and grind of owning a small business started young. Lead Writer Shannon started a lemonade stand at age seven – and made the bold business decision to go without disposable cups, using contraband glassware pilfered from her own cabinets and dutifully asking for them back after a customer was finished drinking.

Our HR Director, Charlotte, would fill her red wagon with figs from her backyard and sell them around her neighborhood, and SEO Manager Alina would go to the neighborhood market with produce from her grandparents’ farm to sell.

Lead Writer Chelsea made and sold her own peanut butter dog treats as a kid, and our Managing Editor, Shelbi, was ten when she started her first stationery business, creating rubber-stamped notecards.

And yes, even I was a proficient door-to-door salesman, peddling everything from water balloons to random things I found around my childhood home.

And while I don’t know if anyone in my house ever missed the things I sold to the neighbors, what I do know is that the love of small business (and earning your own money) is not reserved for adults.

That is one reason we are so excited to announce that our 2024 Opportunity Grant is available for Youth-Entrepreneuers ages 10-18. We have five $2k grants to award to kids and teens who have discovered and pursued a great business idea. A service, an invention, a store – small businesses of all shapes and sizes can apply as long as the majority of business owners are between the ages of ten and 18, live in the US, and the business has been in existence for at least 6 months.

Applications opened a few weeks ago, and we are already floored by the young innovators and creative thinkers out there. They put the Merchant Maverick’s staff’s childhood businesses to shame.

Know someone who should apply? Let them know! Share our application and help us spread the word about the opportunity for a cash infusion to a deserving kid-owned small business.

Our younger selves are bursting with support and nostalgia. We can’t wait to share our winners with you! Look for that announcement in June.

Until next time, Mavericks!

Source: https://deal.town/merchant-maverick/calling-all-young-mavericks-we-have-a-grant-for-you-FK8952HZ2