Mandurah to host young entrepreneur market at Make Place in August

He put his mind to work and decided to create a t-shirt business from scratch.

His brand, Knot Shore Clothing, specialises in tie dye t-shirts and was featured at this year’s Stretch Arts Festival market.  

“Always when I was younger I made shirts just as a fun thing, so I just put it to an idea and ended up finding a market and doing it this year,” Wilder said.

“It’s better than having to work six hours a day and have to worry about going to work every day.

“I can just pick a day when I need to do this, get that done and then I can just go wherever I want and still be making money off it without wasting my life away in a fast food industry or anything like that.”

The young entrepreneur said he had found being his own boss quite easy so far, with most of his sales coming from word of mouth and traffic on his business Facebook page.

He said he is planning to continue with his side businesses for as long as he can, but doesn’t rule out experimenting with other products. 

“I’m planning to carry on with the business and then see how schooling goes,” he said.

“At this point I’m trying to figure out if I stay at school or I drop out at the end of Year 10 and do a business and photography career.”

Like Wilder, 7-year-old resident Emma O’Neill, wanted to get some pocket money for herself without committing to a demanding job.

Being only 6 years old, she decided to reinvent the traditional lemonade stall and give it a fresh look.

“Her mum found an old singer sewing machine cabinet so the two of them converted it into a stand,” Emma’s dad Ryan O’Neill said.

“They sanded it all up, cleaned it up, painted it blue and made it this pretty little kids sort of stand.”

Since her first market in November last year, Emma has been selling her homemade lemonade at her parent’s food truck business, markets and private functions.

She has created her own raspberry pink lemonade and she hires her sister every now and again to help her with the workload when business gets hectic.

“She’s a 7-year-old but she’s got pretty good savings at home,” Mr O’Neill said.

Emma is now considering to bottle up her cordial and sell it in town.

Young West Australian entrepreneurs like Wilder and Emma will meet at Make Place on August 19 to put together a market.

The event will run between 9.30am and 1.30pm and will include vendors from across the broader Perth region.

Organiser Lacey Filipich said the market was a great opportunity for young creative children to test out their products, meet customers and get some feedback without having to spend a cent in hefty stall fees.

“We’ve had some kids that now have shops online and one of our 10-year-olds has got her products in a store in Fremanlte now, which is pretty amazing,” she said.

“It seems to be a really good opportunity for the kids.”