We love to see it. Young entrepreneurs paving the way for others who may get overlooked otherwise.
North Carolina native Camden Myers recently opened the first location of his coffee business, Cam’s Coffee Creations. While a 9-year old owning a business is impressive in itself, Cam actually opened the business so that other people with disabilities would have the opportunity to gain work experience and training.
When Cam was born he suffered a traumatic brain injury which led to him having some developmental delays. As someone who learned to overcome the challenges that life presented, he, in turn, wanted to help others like him.
The now 11-year old businessman trains his own staff, which is made up of students from schools in the Winston Salem area who also have various disabilities.
“What I enjoy most is the people, the coffee, and the mula,” he laughed during an interview with his local newspaper. “It feels great to know I can own a business even though sometimes I struggle. Owning my own business has helped my self-confidence, my anger issues and with math in school.”
What started out as a weekly hobby has now blossomed into a full-fledged business located at the Green Tree Community Center in Winston Salem. In addition to his delicious hot coffee and packaged coffee drinks, Cam partnered with Be Spoke Creations that sells baked goods made by those with autism.
“We originally started this as a hobby and it just snowballed from there, Cam’s mother Latasha Barr said. “We weren’t thinking that this would be a longtime venture. I figured we would do it for a few weeks, but it didn’t end there, and he really started to enjoy it.”
Cam’s dream is to open multiple locations and to one day compete with Starbucks. Keep shining young man. The world is yours!
To support this young boss, you can visit his website www.camscoffeecreations.com.