FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – One young business woman doesn’t have her high school diploma yet, but is making hundreds of thousands of dollars from her idea. Rachel Zietz is a full-time high school student, lacrosse player and now the CEO and owner of a booming sports business.
“I bought a rebounder and a goal and I used them to practice,” Rachel said. “They would rust and tear and after a month or maybe even a couple months, if they were great quality, they would be completely destroyed. I decided there has to be a better way and I’m like, why not create them myself?”
Recommended Videos
Rachel did build her own rebounder and goal. And her high school coach couldn’t be more impressed.
“All coaches tell their players to improve their stick skills and the best place to do that is in their own backyard,” Eileen Pliske, girls’ lacrosse coach at Pine Crest School in Fort Lauderdale, Florida said. “Rachel saw a need for that and really has helped kids of all ages develop their skills at home.”
This smart high school student knew where to start.
“I entered into the Young Entrepreneurs Academy which was a 33 week program we did over the course of the school year,” Rachel said. “We met after school for a couple hours and I learned how to start and manage a business. Then at the end, I pitched investors for funding and I received a grant of $2,700. I used that money towards my first purchase of a container of goals and rebounders.”
First year in business: more than $200,000 in sales. And she’s not stopping there.
“The company is on track to do over $1 million in sales this year and we are thrilled,” Rachel said.
“We couldn’t be prouder of Rachel,” Sam Zietz, Rachel’s father said. “She’s already exceeded the lofty expectations we’ve already had for her, but we knew all along that she would be successful.”
The “Young Entrepreneurs Academy” boast their success to teach students “how to make a job, not just take a job.” Beginning in 2004 at the University of Rochester, today, more than 4,000 students have graduated from the program. Ninety-nine percent of academy graduates go on to college and over 3,000 businesses have been launched.