Modernizing Neighborhood Entrepreneurship - Minor Chores
Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in business development but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Mitchell Thiem, Founder, and CEO of Minor Chores LLC., located in Jupiter, FL, USA.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
Minor Chores is a first-of-its-kind app-based marketplace and community for teenagers (known as 'minors') to learn about business and become profitable entrepreneurs. A place where adult freelance workers (known as 'mentors') can be hired by chore customers for services or by parents to babysit, mentor, tutor, or coach their kids in all sorts of things like business, schoolwork, handyman skills, sports, and much more. Lastly, the platform is a service fee free marketplace for everyone to be a chore customer whenever they need a helping hand with a variety of chore-related services.
Similar to how Uber allowed a whole new workforce to compete with the Taxi industry, Minor Chores will do the same by allowing minors the ability to earn money providing services through our marketplace. When the Minor Chores app launches in App Stores in May 2023, it will modernize neighborhood entrepreneurship by providing parents with a cheap and easy way to start a local chore-based business for their children. As the host account user, parents will be able to oversee all their children's work while their kids earn money and learn about entrepreneurship, financial responsibility, and what it takes to be a disciplined young businessman or woman. The subscription-based app will have business resources and videos for kids to learn how to grow, market their services, and manage their businesses. Additional app features include parental controls, safety features, chore communities, mentoring opportunities, and location-based customer (job) posting pages for freelance workers to bid and complete chores without any service fees!
At Minor Chores, everyone is a potential customer. Our goal is to maximize the income of our service providers and help chore customers save money on a variety of tasks. With Minor Chores, our service providers pay a small annual subscription fee (Minor: $75 Minor +: $100 Mentor: $125) and, in return, keep 100% of the payment from chore customers. Chore customers can use the app for free to find local service providers to hire or bid on all kinds of tasks.
Tell us about yourself
At the age of 10, my dad told my brother and me to go start a neighborhood business and call it Poop Patrol: "Make Every Step a Good One!" While being a Minorpreneur picking up manure may not sound appealing, the $1 a minute I was making sure did! After a few years, not only did our business evolve and grow, but so did our bank accounts. Although I wanted to spend my money as I received it, my parents encouraged us to invest 20% of our earnings. This taught us the value of compound interest and how to make money work for us!
When I graduated from high school, I ended up going to college for Entrepreneurial Management with a Minor in Energy at Texas Christian University (Go Frogs)! Upon getting my degree, I immediately start working in the solar industry. After a successful 8+ years in the renewable energy industry, I had saved enough money at a young age which allowed me to pursue my entrepreneurial dream. That dream is simply to inspire many generations to become entrepreneurs by creating an app that empowers them to earn, learn, and become successful young businessmen and women!
When I got my golden retriever, Scooter, in November 2021, I not only loved spending time with her but also training her, walking her, and picking up after her, which brought me back to my childhood days of poop scooping. I occasionally had to go into the office and needed someone to watch her, so I signed up for dog-sitting apps. While I found the application very interesting, I noticed several business model issues. First, it required the freelance workers to be 18 or older. Second, their business model was based on service fees which many customers would forego and just pay cash. Lastly, the site was only for pet care. If I could make roughly a dollar a minute picking up dog poop and mowing lawns as a minor, then there must be a way I can teach kids to do the same. In the summer of 2022, after a ton of research, talking with family, friends, and mentors, I had put together a plan and officially start Minor Chores LLC!
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
When I hear that I've inspired my neighbor's children to start their own businesses! That truly brings me to tears. Nothing is better than seeing how happy and thrilled children get when making money at Minor Chores events that I've been hosting! When I first started Minor Chores, I told some neighborhood parents that I'd be hosting dog wash stations and lemonade stands for free at the Jupiter Dog beach if their children wanted to learn about business and earn some money. The parents loved the idea, and the kids constantly ask me when we can host another. Not only are the kids making $25+ an hour, but when their parents come to pick them up… they don't want to leave! I can't wait to launch the app and hear the amazing stories that will transpire!
What's one of the hardest things that comes with being a business owner?
Quitting your day job and putting everything into your entrepreneurial dream. As an Entrepreneurial major in college at TCU, I've always had business ideas that I think can be super successful. Ideas are one thing, but following through with implementation is the hardest thing in my eyes. I didn't have everything planned out when I resigned from my day job, but I believed in myself and was willing to risk my personal savings to build something that I believe will change the world!
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
- Start a business when you are young (through the Minor Chores app, of course)! You will learn life skills that simply can't be taught in school or at home! An Inc.com article survey showed that of 118 successful entrepreneurs, 93% of them had one thing in common. They started a business when they were young!
- Save your money and invest it! I would've never had the funding to start Minor Chores if I didn't start saving my money at a young age. Investing and earning compound interest is something everyone should be doing in their teenage years! You never know when you will have that billion-dollar business idea, and it's much easier to start that business if you have the personal funding to do so!
- Revenue & Sales Plan! Have a solid plan to bring in income, and be sure you know how to sell it! Get customer feedback from strangers, not just family and friends. Try to sell them the product or service prior to having it built to be sure you have a customer base before spending thousands of dollars building it.
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://minorchores.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100083916131360
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/minorchores/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ChoresMinor
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/minor-chores/
If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.
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