The young are in business: the boom of teenage entrepreneurship in Russia

Teenage entrepreneurship is actively developing in Russia. The number of sole proprietors under the age of 18 has increased by 700 since the beginning of 2025, to 13.2 thousand, Izvestia found out. For comparison, over the whole of last year, there were only 300 more in total. Now young people are actively working on marketplaces, engaged in science and tutoring. For example, an eighth-grader hockey player from Moscow invented a skate chip that improves the effectiveness of training, and later he began to develop his startup. Zoomers are encouraged to open their own business by vacant niches, digitalization and, in general, a more creative approach. What is more useful for teenagers: to engage in entrepreneurship or to prepare for the Unified State Exam — in the material of Izvestia.

How to start a business before the age of 18

The number of individual entrepreneurs under the age of 18 in our country has grown to 13.2 thousand people. For comparison, at the end of last year there were 700 fewer of them — 12.5 thousand, calculated for Izvestia in the SME Corporation. A year earlier, there were 12.2 thousand such people.

Girls and boys, in particular, are starting to run businesses in digital content, social media, marketing, streaming, and create educational and creative products (design and music), explained Anastasia Maslennikova, an expert at the Presidential Academy. In addition, young people actively use the opportunities of marketplaces for sales, engage in science and tutoring.

Most often, teenagers start in those areas that are closer to them, the expert noted. They prioritize everything related to self-expression and quick response from the audience.

For example, Daniil Makatrov from Moscow, while studying in the eighth grade, came up with the idea of a startup for the production of gadgets for sports, the National Priorities NGO told Izvestia. Initially, the young man wanted to make a smart skate for hockey players — he developed a chip that was initially embedded in shoes, and now it can be integrated into all athlete's equipment, puck, ball and other sports equipment. This idea led the student to create a company. Products help to make workouts more effective.

Courier ladder: drug shops have become more active in recruiting teenagers

How new schemes for involving children in criminal trafficking work - Izvestia investigation

Arslan Kurbanov, 17, from Ufa, together with his brother Amir, came up with the idea to launch a business project and create smart home systems - for example, automatic watering of indoor plants, indoor lighting control and a controller for recording the working hours of painters at a furniture factory.

Entrepreneur Vadim Kolesnikov from Astrakhan opened his own IT company Way11 at the age of 18. His business creates web platforms, corporate portals and websites, and his main clients include industry and real estate. Before starting his own company, the young man worked as a freelancer, and now has a team of programmers, designers, and project managers who develop software and fulfill orders in Russian, English, and Spanish. The young man was trained in the basics of entrepreneurship at the Astrakhan Regional Innovation Center. Similar centers are operating throughout the country under the national project "Efficient and Competitive Economy".

Why did teenagers start actively creating their own businesses

The sharp increase in the number of young businessmen in early 2025 is due, among other things, to the total popularization of such activities, said Viktor Ivlev, chairman of the Opora Russia Committee for the development of youth entrepreneurship. According to him, young people are attracted by several factors — prestigious status, independence from adults, the opportunity to do what they love and get paid for it.

— Now technology and the digital environment have made it easier to start — just a laptop and Internet access are enough to start your business. A value shift is also important — young people want to influence society, be part of the changes, and business is increasingly perceived as a form of active participation in the life of the country," says Anastasia Maslennikova from the Presidential Academy.

In addition, today the authorities themselves support young people who have decided to run their own business. For example, in Moscow, entrepreneurship classes have been introduced in senior specialized classes, and special disciplines are taught in higher education, regardless of specialization, explained Anastasia Melnikova, senior lecturer at the Department of Entrepreneurship and Logistics at Plekhanov Russian University of Economics.

She added: various national, international and local business plan contests attract schoolchildren and students more and more every year. Moreover, many guys are promoted through various organizations, such as the Movement of the First and Rosmolodezh.

Which is better: to launch your own business or to prepare for the Unified State Exam

According to Anastasia Maslennikova from the Presidential Academy, most teenagers do not want to make a choice — "either study or work." They are simultaneously getting an education and trying their hand at business.

— At the same time, exam preparation remains a priority — it provides a base for further studies and a career. But more and more young people are realizing that early entrepreneurial experience is not just about earning money, but training in responsibility, flexibility, and initiative. Many people learn how to plan, allocate resources, and find solutions, which means they gain skills that will be useful in any field, not just in business," she explained.

However, young entrepreneurs often lack knowledge, skills and experience, said Alexander Isaevich, CEO of SME Corporation. Many minors start businesses on an emotional wave, spending their start-up capital, says Viktor Ivlev from Opora Russia. But in the end, they face distrust — they are not taken seriously as partners or customers. And they can simply "burn out" and become disillusioned with their jobs, which is why young people now need not only to develop businesses, but also to enroll in colleges or universities.

Parental control: The State Duma in the first reading approved a ban on the independent opening of bank accounts by teenagers

The bill is designed to protect the younger generation from fraudsters

In addition, it is difficult for children to combine studies, projects and personal life, and there is not always support from parents or schools, Anastasia Maslennikova noted. Nevertheless, if there are mentors, if mistakes are perceived as part of the process, and not as a failure, this path becomes an important and valuable school for a teenage businessman, the expert believes.

Youth entrepreneurship is actively developing against the background of a scarce labor market. As Izvestia wrote, in 2024, about 2.7 million workers were missing in Russia. Moreover, the greatest shortage of hands is in the construction segment and companies providing road freight transportation services, rather than in the creative field.

Nevertheless, there are still very few teenage sole proprietors among all those employed in the country — only a few thousand out of tens of millions of employees. Therefore, there are no risks for the labor market from the fact that teenagers are actively trying to find their vocation in their own business.