Employment Guide: Driven entrepreneurs combat unemployment

Dismal employment figures and a slowly growing economy make the prospect of simply finding a job…Dismal employment figures and a slowly growing economy make the prospect of simply finding a job after college frightful for many students. So creating their own must be just as daunting.

It’s no secret that students graduating from four-year universities are faced with the increasingly unpleasant reality that work is scarce. But even amid this dismal climate, some students are daring enough to take matters into their own hands.

Pitt junior Alec Davis is working on a company of his own called Flippo. The idea of the company centers on a mobile app that allows students to request tasks they want completed by their peers while on campus. Tasks can vary from menial jobs such as cleaning or taking out the trash to odd jobs such as delivering food.

The app would work like an online chore database, where students can post tasks they need to have done and how much they’d be willing to pay to have them done. Other classmates could look at the app and choose which tasks they could do — and make some extra cash in the process.

“I thought to myself, what if there was a way for the busy people, who didn’t have time to grab that burrito, or the lazy people, who didn’t feel like running back out to pick up that binder, to get in touch with the people who were out on campus anyway, and might want to take advantage of their breaks in order to make a few extra dollars,” Davis said.

Davis, a marketing major, plans to have an official launch of the app in October, but in the meantime, he has used Facebook and the campus community to attract buzz for his startup.

Davis doesn’t believe his young age is a hindrance to his success, and neither does Lani Lazzari, creator and founder of Simple Sugars.

Lazzari got the idea for Simple Sugars in 2005 when she was only 11 years old. She said it used to be difficult to find lotion for her sensitive skin. Several test runs later and Simple Sugars was born. The company now distributes to 10 local Giant Eagle stores in addition to orders placed online. Lazzari’s advice to young entrepreneurs is simple: do what you love.

“You’re the only one who can truly motivate yourself,” Lazzari said. The 18-year-old Pittsburgh native who acts as the President and CEO of Simple Sugars recently graduated from high school and is taking a year off before college to work on her business.

As with many startups, Lazzari’s business faced adversity, and the economic crisis of 2008 proved especially challenging.

“A lot of our business was based in small shops that would carry our product. When the economy started declining in ’08, those stores started closing down,” Lazzari said.

But Simple Sugars was able to survive the recession and expand business nationwide.

Lazzari’s youth acted as a help and a hindrance through the tough economic times. On one end, she said, businesses were more wary of taking orders from a teenager. But the marvel of what she was doing attracted a lot of media attention, which meant free advertisement.

James Craft, employer relations professor at Pitt’s Katz School of Business, said youth is an asset in most businesses.

“If you look at the most important companies around today, all of them were started when their CEOs were young,” Craft said.

Craft continued to say that many young people can identify the needs of an emerging generation that haven’t been touched on by the major corporations.

Craft, along with most students in this country, acknowledge that it is rather difficult to enter the labor market these days, but for many, there’s no shortage of opportunities for those with a good idea.

And for Davis, college is an ideal time for entrepreneurs to start their businesses.

“As a student, you have essentially paid to be surrounded by driven and inspiring people, great mentors and endless helpful resources for four years of your life.” Davis said. “It’s like the ultimate incubator for success.”