Issue date: Dec 12, 1999

In this article:
Facts on teen Webmasters

Need expert Web site advice?
Consult a kid Companies court teens in their race to conquer cyberspace.

By Courtney Rubin

T'S COME to this: Corporate America, desperate to get on the Internet, is enlisting kids. From Washington state to the suburbs of New York and in between, businesses large and small are hiring Web-savvy teenagers as freelance consultants.

In some ways, it seems only logical that the first generation of Americans raised with the Internet would be in demand among those who weren't. Besides, qualified college grads are too busy launching their own Internet businesses to bother simply freelancing for other companies. Plus, teens are simply better at this stuff than adults are, their employers say.

Ask James B. McCarthy, president of Chicago's Gemini Consulting Group. He had rejected two Web-design firms when his teenage son suggested a classmate, 18-year-old Robert Postrozny, for the job.

"I thought, 'You've got to be kidding. He's a high schooler. We want a real Web site,' " says McCarthy, who paid Postrozny $5,000 and referred him to six other companies. "But I was so impressed with this young man and his ability to tell me what we needed and how he'd develop our site."

Jonathan Sharp, 17, of Bellevue, Wash., has so many clients lined up that losing two because of a big exam doesn't bother him.

"I told them up front that school's my priority," shrugs Sharp, who spends 20 hours a week on Sharpmedia, his business. "There are plenty more customers out there."

Technically, kids under 14 -- such as Sam Roberts, who landed his first client at age 11 -- can't work for a salary. They can, however, be paid in video games, the 13-year-old's preferred currency. "It's cool,'' Sam says of his work as CEO of Webman Inc. (His baby sitter answered the phone when a reporter called.)

Robert Entenman of Kent, Wash., has the edge when it comes to experience. At 16, he's been working with computers for a decade. His parents bought him a computer at age 6. By age 9, he was fine-tuning his skills at special Web classes for kids at the University of Washington. Three years later, he launched his Web design and consulting business. Now, although he has enough money to buy a car, he's so pressed for time he hasn't even gotten his driver's license.

Eric Lupton of Boynton Beach, Fla., a 17-year-old with cerebral palsy, has been tapping away on a PC Junior since age 3. Now he has a business card that reads "Cybersurgeon" and has pulled in $12,000 this year. "It didn't matter how old he was," says Maria Millares of GM Fence, who hired Lupton to put her Miami pool-fence company online. "I saw another site Eric had done, and I had complete confidence I could leave ours totally up to him."

Courtney Rubin is a staff writer for Washingtonian magazine.

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Teen Webmasters

How many are there?
The computer industry snapped up 22,000 16- to 19-year-olds in 1997 -- four times as many as three years before, says the U.S. Department of Labor.

What are they paid?
It depends. Some get the going rate, $50-$75 an hour. One boy told us he prefers to be paid in video games.

What laws apply?
Legally, kids of any age can be paid for odd jobs, such as baby-sitting. 14- and 15-year-olds can work only 18 hours a week during the school year. They can work 40 hours when school is not in session.