"Millionaires by 30: Watch out, Bill Gates: Teens are starting businesses like never before!" The Miami Herald, by Fred Tasker, April 14, 2000

Eric Bias, 17, and David Gauntlet, 18, seniors at Dillard High in Fort Lauderdale, are good enough with electronics that they're used as trouble- shooters for their school's entire computer system, and on call to help a dozen other Broward schools.

On the side, they're partners in a Web design business, and plan to run computer business after college.

NOVEL IDEA: Jacqueline Harrell, 11, holds up a board with greeting cards that Ludlam fifth-graders designed.

And to be millionaires by, respectively, 28 and 29. "I'm going for it," says Gauntlet. "The opportunity is there."

Capitalism is alive and well in the 21st Century. Teenagers are embracing entrepreneurship, diving into the marketplace with business plans and big ideas, hoping to be the next Bill Gates. Buoyed by a high-flying economy, guided by new programs in high schools and university summer camps, unencumbered by the anti-corporate attitudes of earlier generations, they're planning to go into business for themselves.

"More teens are starting their own businesses now than ever before in history," says Bret Rios, a former Viacom exec who runs a summer teen camp at Oregon's Willamette University that he calls a "global institute for
developing entrepreneurs."

"These kids are excited about the opportunities that life and business present," says Rios. "They see Bill Gates and other entrepreneurs succeedlng so wildly, in such dramatic ways, that they say, "'Gee, I could do that.'"

The enthusiasm with which the budding tycoons dive into money
making enterprises bemuses some of their parents and teachers, who grew
up in an era of student protest against the perceived evils of capitalism and corporations.

"These kids don't worry about that," says Mary Meiller, magnet coordinator at Dillard. "They want to do what they love. And they love making money. Capitalism is not the enemy any more."

One potent local lab for budding biz whizzes is CudaCom Printing & Publishing a real, profit-seeking operation run by the Academy of Business and Finance, a magnet program at Coral Reef High in south Miami-Dade.

With an all-student staff, CudaCom uses donated and purchased equipment to print business cards, banners, posters, stationery and newsletters and do photocopying, with projected monthly revenues of more than $7.000.

Combining study in accounting, marketing, advertising, public relations and design, the business, named for the school's sports teams, The Barracudas, sells its wares to students, faculty, staff and neighboring private businesses.

"Students interview for positions, and they must have letters of recommendation from outside," says Linda Willis, the entrepreneurship teacher, "The teachers are the top management."

Work combines with study. "Every month they choose a different career to research," says Willis. "The salary, the educational requirements, benefits, outlook."

One of the harder lessons is how to supervise subordinates, Willis says, especially when they're your classroom friends. It can be awkward.

You have to draw the line," says Karelle King, 17, a senior and CudaCom's general manager.

"They might give you a face, but they know they have to do it," adds Eugene Echevarria, 18, operations manager for the firm.

GOOD FOR DEPORTMENT

Other crucial lessons come From the academy's monthly "Dress For Success Day." Rules are Firm:clean nails ,no open-toed shoes, neckties for boys, business attire for girls.

"Dress slacks are OK," advises King, "but a suit is the safest way to get an A."

They learn a proper business handshake, "firm grip. good eye contact," she says. They're taught what to order at a business lunch, "something
you can cut up and eat neatly: nothing messy like ribs or spaghetti."

King wants to get a doctorate in business, start her own company - she's not sure what - and also be a millionaire by 30.

Echevarria wants to study business administration at Miami-Dade Community College, then go on to the University of South Florida in Tampa.

EARLY START

Echevarria, however, isn't waiting to start. At age 12, he began spinning CDs for friends. Now he operates Miami DJs, has a slogan - "Musica para todas ocasiones " - and pulls down $500 a weekend, lugging in chairs, hiring caterers, spinning everything from cutting-edge rap to oldies from his father's precious, preCastro Cuba stash of Elvis and Beatles records.

He plans to start several businesses in the next few years - pest control. catering, you name it. And to be a millionaire by 40.

"I believe it could happen." he says.

So does David Gauntlet. He's a senior at Dillard's Emerging Computer Technologies Magnet Program in Fort Lauderdale, whose curriculum includes advanced electronics classes in robotics and Web page design. The program also teaches students how to set up their own businesses.

Gauntlet's after-school computer repair and setup work has bought him a 1985 Toyota and will help pay for study in computer science and business administration at Florida International University. He hopes to start as a computer network administrator, end up owning his own business.

"The Internet is coming up really quick: anything's possible there."

Bias, Gauntlet's business partner, plans two years at Broward Community College, then a degree in computer science from Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne or University of Central Florida in Orlando.

ART OF BUSINESS: Andre Cabrera, a fifth-grader at Ludlam Elementary, designs greeting cards for sale.

Some aspiring entrepreneurs are even younger. In a fifth-grade class at Ludlum Elementary in Southwest Miami Dade, students in a dropout prevention program are running a profit-making business called Art by Kids. They create greeting cards in oil, acrylic, pen and ink and felt-tip markers, sell them, learn how to run the cash register and properly account for proceeds, and get to vote on how to spend the profits.

In the lead right now is a trip to an IMAX movie theater.

Jacqueline Harrell, 11, is proud of her part in it.

"I put my hard work into it to see if I can make some cards," she says, "and then we sell them on the weekend."

It's not hard to approach strangers and ask them to buy, she says.

"Not really. I'm not shy."

What does she want to be? "A business woman. She creates her own business."

Andre Cabrera, 10, is a little shy about selling.

"It's a little bit hard. I just tell them, 'Would you like to buy a card?' "

SPEAKING ENGAGEMENT

A high point for the Art by Kids kids last year was a visit to the local Rotary club, where the students lectured the grown-ups on successful business practices, says Alice Horn, who formed a nonprofit organization called KidVentures to guide the program.

'They stood at the podium speaking to the Rotary, "It was a great esteem-builder."

At Rios' summer camp in Oregon, kids choose possible careers and learn how to go after them.

"A lot of it involves the Internet, and computer technology," he says. "We've had kids running T-shirt businesses, acting as agents for rock bands, starting a chain of cafes for teenagers, working with digital radio.

"We don't focus just on money," Rios says. "Our approach is balance. We teach teens how to set goals in every facet of life, including family, social health, mental and spiritual development."

Not all of South Florida's future tycoons are starting their careers through their schools. Some mean to be self-made.

Adam Zerlin, 16, of Weston, bought a computer text-writing program and a graphics program and taught himself how to create Web pages for businesses.

"I just figured it out by trying. I didn't even read the book."

Zerlin recently scored his first $500 for designing a 10-page site for a Weston financial company.

"I just played around for a couple of years, just to see if I could do it. Then I started making really nice Web pages, so I decided to sell them.

He wants to go to college - Georgia Tech is looking good - to major in computer science and become a computer programmer, and to run a Web page designing business.

But even with their new attitudes about business, today's teens are not ready to entrust their whole careers to corporations.

King had a downsizing scare from her paid, after-school job, five days a week with American Bankers Insurance Group, an insurance company in South Dade, after it merged last year with Fortis.

"When I first heard about it, I was nervous," she says, "Because the reality is that when companies merge, there's a possibility of layoffs."

"I want to open my own business. I'm not sure what, but I want to be my own boss."