Young Entrepreneur Spotlight: Tyler Marx

Date: August 02, 2016

Marx was inspired to combine his hobby with a niche opening in the skateboard market.

Young Entrepreneur Spotlight: Tyler Marx

Tyler Marx’s inspiration for his business, Broad Bay Boards, came from an idea to combine a favorite activity of his with a segment of his dad’s business.

“My dad runs a business that sells collegiate backpacks, bags, and fabric, so I’ve grown up watching him maneuver the industry,” he said. “I had always loved longboarding, and one day I asked him about combining my hobby with the college graphic part of his company. I researched the idea and found that there wasn’t a single company making collegiate longboards, despite the fact that longboarding is a popular mode of transportation on campuses.”

The next step was getting permission to use college logos for the boards from the Collegiate Licensing Committee. After many weeks of anxiously waiting, Marx received approval and Broad Bay Boards was launched in January 2013.

Marx, of Virginia Beach, who won an NFIB/McKee Foods Young Entrepreneur Award for his business, currently sells nine officially licensed college-design longboards and skateboards, but has the license to produce boards for more than 70 colleges. He recently found a method that will allow him to take a blank board deck and print any design onto the wood right from the warehouse, which will allow him to make boards for all 70+ colleges. He’ll also be able to downsize inventory by carrying only blank boards and putting the design on them once they are sold. In fact, he presented this idea to the Jacobson Institute at the University of Iowa for their BizInnovator business plan competition and won first place out of 170 entries. He’s currently using the $1,500 prize money to purchase the necessary equipment as well as a large shipment of blank boards, and he aims to have the new lineup of college boards ready by the 2016 holiday season.

In the meantime, Marx is working on automating as much of the business as possible before he moves into his University of Virginia dorm room in August, as well as recruiting and training some friends who can take on some of the responsibilities. Marx’s experience running the business during high school has prepared him well to keep it going while at college.

“Rather than a work-school balance with separate time for each, I’ve chosen to blend them together for a work-school harmony,” he said. “I utilized my study bells and free time in class to answer emails and update the website. At home, I often did my homework and worked on my business at the same time.”

In addition to juggling school and work, Marx said that, for the most part, the challenges he faced in building his business are the same that affect all entrepreneurs: budgeting, navigating regulations, and managing customer support.

“As a teenager, though, I tried involving my friends in the business, regardless of their unfamiliarity with business,” he said. “They were very enthusiastic when we’d all sit together to talk about plans, and I really wanted them to play a role in my company. Unfortunately, after meetings ended, things rarely got done. That taught me that while most people want to succeed, not as many will put in the work necessary to achieve their goals.”

Marx also learned that an important element of success is focusing on the tasks that are most likely to lead to sales, rather than on whatever might be most fun. For a couple months, he got into making Broad Bay Boards clothing, even though he had to sell 12 T-shirts to make the same profit as one longboard sale would bring in.

“Financial literacy is one of the most important skills in life, and it’s very poorly taught in school,” he said, sharing advice with other young entrepreneurs. “It’s very rare that young people know how to save money, invest it, and create a steady stream of income. It’s your responsibility to seek out this education and put it to use. If you do, your life is made.”

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