Before she gets her diploma, this teen is already a CEO. NDCL 11th grader Sadie Skotzke is a 17 year old small business owner. At her business, Safe Sweatshirts, Sadie creates custom printed sweatshirt designs and sells them locally.
When asked to describe her business in three words Sadie said, “Developing, enthusiastic, and unique”. Sadie runs an increment based business that sells to individual buyers as well as creating designs for larger local organizations. Increment based simply means she produces her product incrementally not regularly. Sadie has designed CYO basketball jerseys, sweatshirts for the 2022 Saint Francis of Assisi School 8th grade trip, t-shirts for the Saint Anselm School volleyball team, and also sweatshirts for the NDCL Girls Lacrosse senior night. Skotzke balances her business along with many other activities.
After interviewing with Skotzke and reviewing her extensive resume it is clear that she is clearly a very driven young woman. Her drive is evident not only in her business but also in the many other activities she manages, including serving as assistant art director for both the MANE, NDCL’s student-run newspaper, and the NDCL yearbook. As assistant art director she creates graphics for the school newspaper and their instagram page. Athletically Sadie likes to work out and plays girls lacrosse at NDCL. Skotzke is highly involved in volunteering, serving at Labre, tutoring math, and working as an NDCL tour guide, in addition to her many other volunteer commitments. She has also participated in many fundraisers including the Feeding the Homeless Fundraiser, and the Car Wash Making Blankets for Kids Hospitals.
You may be thinking that balancing Safe Sweatshirts and her life must be insanely difficult for Skotzke. Well one of the most important attributes for a business owner to have is time management. Sadie says she manages her time by primarily working on producing her products on holiday breaks. She uses the money made by sales to further promote her business with things such as giveaways and discounts.
When asked if she still enjoys what she does after starting a business out of it Skotzke said she is not as passionate about it as when she started but still definitely enjoys designing and printing. Sadie provided that courses at NDCL; such as digital design and visual communications, have helped her to get to where she is today by building her skill set. She is unsure of what specifically she would like to pursue but Skotzke is certain that she would like to continue with graphic design in some way.
You can find Safe Sweatshirts on instagram under the handle: @safe.sweatshirts
Student business owners are all around us, reminding everyone that highschoolers are the future of entrepreneurship. Keep a lookout in coming weeks for the next feature in this series, Julia Martin.
