When Emily Flowers began taking public speaking lessons through Florida 4-H, she never imagined she’d use those skills to grow her own business.
But years later, the 14-year-old finds herself regularly talking with customers at markets and sales events, promoting her two bee-based businesses: Awesome Blossom and Wrap Em.
“Personally, I think it makes me feel really proud to own my own business, especially at the age that I am,” she said.
Florida 4-H has been a business catalyst for scores of youth across the state. From public speaking and leadership courses to hands-on experience running agricultural small businesses, at least a dozen 4-H youth have begun their own companies in recent years. Some have even made enough profit to sell their businesses.
Taylor Thigpen, an 18-year-old Florida 4-H alumnus from Green Cove Springs, Florida, had been in the program since he was an 8-year-old at 4-H camp. A decade later, he sold his house plant business, PlantKingUSA, after building it with skills he learned in Florida 4-H.
“Florida 4-H prepares you to be able to be comfortable in an ever-changing world and how to communicate effectively with your peers and adults. It helps us find solutions to the problems that our communities face,” he said.
A Florida 4-H entrepreneurship program accelerated Thigpen’s business concept when he won a $1,000 grant prize from the Florida 4-H Gator Pit program.
Within four years, his small personal project blossomed into a profitable business selling houseplants to all 50 states online within four years.
Stacey Ellison, state 4-H program leader, said Florida 4-H strives to prepare youth for the future, including their careers.
“4-H is preparing a future-ready generation and helping youth transform their passions into purpose,” she said. “For some, that includes creating businesses that impact their lives, families, community and futures.”
Abigail Padon, a 19-year-old University of Florida educational sciences major, started her business, Blessed Boots Boutique, as a Florida 4-H member.
“In Florida 4-H, you learn by doing, and that’s exactly what building a business is,” she said. “4-H teaches you how to learn from your mistakes and how to keep going when situations get tough.”
Padon, of St. Lucie County, said she started creating trinkets for fun at home, but after being introduced to craft fairs and art shows through Florida 4-H, she began to realize that many of the items sold were products she could make, too.
But building a business is much more than just making interesting products, she said. She had to learn to build a customer base, which she did by leveraging her public speaking and leadership skills that she cultivated as a 4-H youth.
“4-H has instilled that perseverance in me,” she said.
Flowers, of Gulf County, agreed that Florida 4-H gave her the soft skills but also the practical hands-on experience she needed. The organization provided her first exposure to bees and taught her – through experiences like the UF/IFAS Bee College – how to reach a profit safely and sustainably with her bee businesses.
She now sells two types of honey and honey-added products, as well as beeswax wraps, through her two businesses.
“Florida 4-H is the reason I’m even in beekeeping,” she said.
Thigpen, now a freshman at University of Notre Dame studying global affairs and social entrepreneurship, agreed that Florida 4-H taught him skills like public speaking and leadership, but the exposure to horticulture through his club gave him the essential skills to get his plant business growing – literally.
“I credit 4-H for many of my life’s successes because it’s given me a broad variety of skills to be ready for life,” he said.
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ABOUT UF/IFAS
The mission of the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) is to develop knowledge relevant to agricultural, human and natural resources and to make that knowledge available to sustain and enhance the quality of human life. With more than a dozen research facilities, 67 county Extension offices, and award-winning students and faculty in the UF College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, UF/IFAS brings science-based solutions to the state’s agricultural and natural resources industries, and all Florida residents.
ABOUT FLORIDA 4-H
4-H is the youth development program of the land-grant university system and Cooperative Extension System. The program provides hands-on educational programs and experiences for youth ages 5 to 18 with the objective of developing youth as individuals, and as responsible and productive citizens. In Florida, 4-H is administered by University of Florida/IFAS Extension and Florida A&M University.
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