As children, it was nothing to dream up a business and immediately open its doors. When we gave it up the next day for a last minute beach trip or the challenge of beating the neighbor kid’s bike to the end of the road, there were no consequences. The adults in our lives humored our commitment.
The issues come up when we start to get older and our ideas are still not taken seriously. Entrepreneur Seth Spencer is 19 years old and already a success despite opposition.
“The idea of starting your own business and being so young, there are definitely people who doubt you. Saying you’re going to start your own business is something they don’t understand,” says Spencer.
Seth’s company, SERA Solutions, is his most recent in a long line of innovation. In high school, he created a t-shirt brand that he sold at school. Seth made a few businesses focused around his passion for competitive gaming, and designed websites that he and his teammates could use.
Those sites may not have lasted but the experience is still paying off. Seth taught himself a lot of skills, including web design, coding, and social networking. In 2014, he began working on computers and websites on the side.
“Nobody was doing it then, it wasn’t cool. It was something so different that no one knew how to do. I learned by trial and error,” he says.
Seth did have some help along the way. Through the website SCORE he received a start-up mentor that had business experience of his own. The site’s premise is to help entrepreneurs through the rocky beginning phases of an enterprise. SERA Solutions thrived as a side job and became a company with two locations and a small staff. Seth was recently featured as one of their “success stories.”
“Success to me means being able to give back to family and friends who helped me. I feel success when I can teach others and help kids. My business is what has allowed me to do that,” said Spencer.
Seth has already taught a few seminars to elementary school kids across the region. He will be returning to the La Porte School System that groomed him, to teach a five-week course on business principles. Students will learn about zoning, requirements for business ventures, and many of the other intricacies that go into working in a city.
“It’s about imagination,” Spencer says. “Having dreams at a young age and knowing these things is a big deal. They have creative ideas, and I am able to teach them more about it. Planting that seed in third grade goes a long way.”
When Seth was in high school he was able to take Aeronautical classes that most schools do not have access to. His senior project was to launch a projectile 95,000 feet in the air, a feat that no class prior had been able to achieve. Now, because of their data, every class can recreate the project.
“La Porte is a good city. I was born and raised here. It’s an interesting city. We have access to so many things: parks, lakes. Being able to work on the Aerospace Project was incredible and I don’t think many schools can give their city that.”
Seth graduated in 2014 and now attends Purdue Northwest as a Business Major. He has been certified through the National Science Computer Academy to gain the expertise required for credibility in his field while he works on his degree.
Between attending classes and teaching them, Seth still finds more moments to be a philanthropist. He and his team fix up and donate recycled computers to school districts that cannot fund their own. He has a passion for giving back.
“It’s an interesting triangle. I own my own business, make money doing what I love, and get the privilege of helping others.”