I’m high school dropout who left home at 16 – now I run own company raking in £1million a year & it’s job anyone can do
AN AUSSIE high school dropout who left home aged just 16 now makes a whopping £1 million a year as a tech entrepreneur.
Harry Edwards, 20, from Melbourne, who has always had a knack for business, got so caught up in it he dropped out of school.
At school, the keen filmmaker started flogging CDs of a film for around £5 a pop and by 13 he aimed to save up enough to bag a PC, driving him to make money online.
The high school entrepreneur then used leftover birthday and Christmas money totalling $300 AUD (£152) to pursue e-commerce and dropshipping.
He later started a company creating video ads for TikTok and Facebook on Fiverr – a global freelancer marketplace – and now turns over more than $1 million AUD.
Harry told 7News: “This limited budget meant that I would follow every organic marketing method available to sell my e-commerce products, such as using Instagram theme pages and joining Facebook groups to promote my products.”
Despite his unstable financial grounding, his business started to thrive and expanded so much within two years that he felt financially comfortable dropping out of school.
He even had made enough to move out of the family home.
The practical teen opted to use influencer advertising which only set him back between $10 and 50 AUD (£5-10).
He said: “From this, I was able to consistently generate profit, as I might pay $10 for the ad which would result in three sales of my $20 product, earning $60 in revenue.
“I did this consistently for some time until I had over $1000 [£507] in my bank account.”
He then dipped his toe into running Facebook ads and broke even on one of his online stores within just one month.
Harry then sold his business for $8000 AUD (£4060), leaving him with over $11,000 AUD (£5582).
But Harry admitted that running a business is not always smooth sailing and suffered huge losses until early 2020.
This motivated him to start his own video editing business and he sold some necessities like his laptop and headphones to do so.
He decided to learn how to edit video clips himself rather than pay a freelancer on Fiverr around $50 (£25) per ad.
In the month of July alone, he made a staggering $31,000 AUD in revenue (£15,730) but admitted net profits are low after paying his team and investing in other software businesses.
The tech-savvy man explained: “If I stopped investing in the software businesses, however, my profit on this $31,000 would be roughly 50 per cent.
“From January to May we had an average monthly revenue of $40,000 a month.”
He confessed that busy weeks see him work from the minute he wakes up to the minute he sleeps.
Harry urged other business-minded young people to get stuck in the world of e-commerce.
It comes after a woman revealed that she made £70,000 in 90 days from her side hustle – and said she gets AI to do the work for her.
Bellah Roze took to social media to share details of her money-making scheme.
In a TikTok video, she said that she has earned over a million pounds from selling digital products.
Digital products are intangible goods, such as music, ebooks, and online courses.
Bellah said that selling digital products is great because there’s a “94% profit margin”, as it costs you nothing to make.
She added that they are “easy to promote” and you never run out of inventory.
Meanwhile, Jenna Kutcher managed to leverage the power of social media to grow her business, and now it’s more successful than ever.
After deciding the corporate world wasn’t for her, Jenna decided to take a risk and become a wedding photographer, something she excelled in and loved until she realised it lacked opportunities to make more money without working more hours.
After shooting her first wedding in 2011, Jenna said she kept her head down and worked hard until 2018 when she went viral online for the first time.
Then slowly transitioned from being a full-time photographer to a business owner.
Since Jenna created her photography business from nothing she knew she picked up a few tricks along the way others would find helpful too.
“I realised I had done something really interesting to be able to start a business and within three years make six figures shooting photos.
“So I wanted to start teaching other people that, and basically it’s exploded since – I started the Goal Digger podcast which has over 100 million downloads, I’ve written a book, I’ve done all different things,” she explained.
On her website, she explains how she started with a $300 (£230) camera bought on Craigslist and built a “million dollar empire”.
It’s all about working smarter, not harder, according to the entrepreneur.
Do I need to pay tax on my side hustle income?
MANY people feeling strapped for cash are boosting their bank balance with a side hustle.
The good news is, there are plenty of simple ways to earn some additional income – but you need to know the rules.
When you’re employed the company you work for takes the tax from your earnings and pays HMRC so you don’t have to.
But anyone earning extra cash, for example from selling things online or dog walking, may have to do it themselves.
Stephen Moor, head of employment at law firm Ashfords, said: “Caution should be taken if you’re earning an additional income, as this is likely to be taxable.
“The side hustle could be treated as taxable trading income, which can include providing services or selling products.”
You can make a gross income of up to £1,000 a year tax-free via the trading allowance, but over this and you’ll usually need to pay tax.
Stephen added: “You need to register for a self-assessment at HMRC to ensure you are paying the correct amount of tax.
“The applicable tax bands and the amount of tax you need to pay will depend on your income.”
If you fail to file a tax return you could end up with a surprise bill from HMRC later on asking you to pay the tax you owe – plus extra fees on top.