Student Named 2008 Students in Business Entrepreneur of the Year for Landscaping Business

Mike Gillespie of Annapolis County scooped up the 2008 Students in Business entrepreneur of the year award on Monday and had a few moments to remember the good old days.

The 17-year-old honors student at Bridgetown Regional High School talked of his start in business three years ago, pushing a lawn mower around the neighborhood looking for work.

"There is lots of work out there if you are willing to get out and look for it," he said of his business, Ace Landscaping, which generated an impressive $10,000 in profit this summer.

The award was presented by the Community Business Development Corp. at the Fresh Ideas conference, hosted by the Centre for Entrepreneurship Education and Development. The event was timed to coincide with the start of Small Business Week in Nova Scotia.

While other people Mr. Gillespie’s age were struggling to find minimum-wage summer jobs — or abandoning job searches altogether in favour of video games — the student flipped his lawn-mowing enterprise into a full-blown lawn-care and landscaping business, with a number of significant commercial accounts adding to the bottom line this year.

With a $5,000 loan from the centre, he invested in the required big-league gear and accumulated an arsenal of equipment valued at about $7,000 that he can bring to any job.

This summer, he was turning away business.

Mike Brennan, executive director with the Association of Community Business Development Corporations in Nova Scotia, said the organization has loaned more than $1.3 million for about 110 young participants since the Students in Business program started in 2004.

Students younger than 35 who plan to attend high school or a post-secondary school during the next year are eligible. Information on the program is available at www.studentsinbusiness.ca.

Kathy Murphy, president and CEO at the center, said the basics of operating small businesses can be effective and sometimes profitable learning exercises for young people in all sorts of circumstances.

The Halifax-based non-profit agency, located on the Internet at www.ceed.info, is providing advisory services for about 300 young clients, she said.

Arlene Dickinson, with the CBC program Dragons’ Den, was keynote speaker at the event, which attracted about 300 student entrepreneurs and advisers to the World Trade and Convention Centre in Halifax.

Ms. Dickinson said few entrepreneurs will allow the depressed state of the economy to dampen their spirits.

"We’re all going to have to begin thinking differently about how we fund growth and how we prepare for growth."