A big part of students at Benilde-St. Margaret’s summer is finding a summer job. Many students go searching left and right and end up finding a job that they aren’t happy with. Either they don’t like what they do, they work difficult hours, or they get paid poorly. Some students have taken matters into their own hands and have started their own small businesses. These small businesses range anywhere from lawn care to photography and videography. Starting your own small business can be beneficial because you are your own boss, you work when you want, and you do what you want with the money. Students at BSM think they will start to see more people start small businesses and continue to grow them.
BSM senior William Bransford has started to take off with his business, Cinema Cereal. Cinema Cereal is a photography and video production business that focuses on making highlights for athletes, small businesses, and personal brands. Bransford started to elevate his production in the fall of 2023 when he started making highlight videos for the BSM football team. Viewers were really impressed with the quality of Bransford’s work, which only helped him continue to grow. Bransford continued his work with BSM athletics this winter, where he was seen at multiple Basketball and Hockey games filming highlight videos. The quality of Bransford’s work continued to improve, and he started to expand his work outside of the BSM community. He has been seen filming for other local high schools and for other people’s personal brands. “I like to make money for myself and I really just enjoy making these videos. As long as other people are still interested, then I’ll keep them coming,” Bransford said.
During the summer, people are always needing yard work. BSM senior Xavier Lumpkin takes advantage of this opportunity. Lumpkin has started Lumpkin Lawn Care, which is a yard work company. Lumpkin started his business in the summer of 2022. He started putting ads on Nextdoor and started receiving messages left and right from different people asking him to do yard work for them. Lumpkin started getting to the point where he had so many clients that he could not do it all by himself. Lumpkin started to hire some friends to assist him on the job. Lumpkin says that is a key part of keeping his business going. “Big reason why I keep it going is because I love being outside, and I’m also able to hire my friends and help them make some money,” Lumpkin said.