ALEX DICKMANN | Going Up Media

Some people wait most of their careers to own a business; Alex Dickmann didn’t wait to finish high school. He was just 16 when Two Guys With Mowers launched, and when he sold it, the proceeds helped him buy a duplex. He was soon in business as a founding partner in Polar Real Estate while still attending classes at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Last fall, he founded the digital signage company Going Up Media, where he serves as chief executive. And he topped all that off this spring, earning his bachelor’s in business administration with an emphasis on entrepreneurship. Last year, he won one of four venture challenge start-up grants from the Regnier Family Foundation for his development of Snap Bandage, a medical device designed to cut labor costs and improve productivity, and he holds a patent on it. All of that reflects Dickmann’s philosophy of entrepreneurship, which he says “is all about gathering resources to create something worthwhile. What the worth is measured in, (dollars made, carbon reduced, lives saved), does not matter.”

CHRIS EASTER | The Man Registry

The lightbulb went off for Chris Easter as his own marriage loomed. Weddings—and wedding gifts—were all about the bride. “An $80 billion industry was essentially ignoring half of its potential customer pool,” says Easter, 27. Like true entrepreneurs, he and his new brother-in-law, Bob Horner, co-founded The Man Registry while Easter was still in college. The on-line site is dedicated to making sure that the guys can look forward to more than a fondue pot when the gifts are unwrapped. Grilling gear, sports apparel, tools—all can be ordered on their Web site, with retailers handling the shipping. After catching some national exposure last year in Inc. magazine, the company continues to grow, fertilized with Easter’s philosophy of business ownership: Be prepared to work long, hard and cheap, network like crazy, secure winning experts and advisers, dream big and embrace failure. That last one is something many people don’t get about entrepreneurship. Easter does. “If you haven’t failed in some capacity of entrepreneurship,” he says, “you’re not trying hard enough.”

STEPHEN EUSTON | Bukaty Companies

In the business of employer benefits consulting, says Stephen Euston, “there are more brokers per capita in Kansas City than any other city in the nation.” You must overcome rejection daily, he says, and not be intimidated by the competition. It also helps to have in the toolkit what he calls “the essence of entrepreneurship: Taking risks and believing in yourself.” That has proven a powerful combination for Euston, a consultant with the Bukaty Companies in Leawood. “As a new entrant in the marketplace, I’m often competing for business against sales people twice my age and twice my experience,” Euston, 27, concedes. He has addressed by bolstering his command of the industry and going all-out on client service. “As an entrepreneur,” Euston said, “I try to differentiate myself in such a way that age and experience are no longer an obstacle.” He hopes to leverage his strengths into more than 100 client accounts, in part by focusing on underserved markets outside the immediate Kansas City area. Farther out, he plans to head back to business school to secure his MBA.

BLAKE FULTON | Mag Trucks/ Mag Capital

Blake Fulton was all of 21 years old when he partnered in the launch of Kearney-based MAG Trucks in 2007. For those keeping score, that was two years before he earned his degree in business from the University of Missouri. He’s helped steer the company’s growth as a refitter of step vans, building it into one of only two authorized vendors for Federal Express’ line of vans, with annual growth of at least 50 percent. Last year, he and co-principal Brad Carlson delivered $3 million in sales, and they’re on track for $5 million this year. Start-up capital for that venture: their own money and a small family loan that was repaid within weeks of their first sale. In his 45 years as advising businesses, says Paragon Capital President Howard Jacobson, “I have never seen such a successful start-up company.” Says Fulton: Entrepreneurship is, at its simplest form, creating new ventures for the good of society. An entrepreneur’s venture should be better than the current alternative.” That extends to his understanding of finance, which led to the formation of MAG Capital, the truck company’s financing arm. Now 25, Fulton has his aim set high: By the time he’s 30, he says, his goal is to make MAG Trucks “the largest provider of vehicles to the largest parcel-delivery company in the world.”