At 16yrs Ben Rings an Internet Fortune!

Small Businesses Ideas 074

Name: Ben Cohen.

Nationality: British.

Age: 18yrs.

'Foolish' Idea: A website for the Jewish community.

How Idea was Launched: Working from his own bedroom, Ben created the website, SoJewish.com.

Earnings: Unknown.

Stuck in his bedroom suffering from ME, 16 year-old Ben, came up with his idea of a website for the Jewish community, and called it SoJewish.com.

At 18 years, Ben is now chief executive of a group of search engines and websites, CyberBritain. His school friends, Daniel, Alex and Lucy have teamed up with him to help run the business. Ben, from North London, admits his youth can work against him in the business world. 'I went along to a meeting where the bloke was so tall I felt like I was some little schoolboy trying to do a young enterprise project!'

However, Ben does not often feel intimidated because as he says, 'I know as much as anyone else in the internet industry. There are no real rules, and I've been in the business for longer than most people.'

When a newspaper heard about Ben's website they printed an article about the teenager's enterprise. His dad told a journalist, that other companies doing similar things had been valued at £5million.

That proved to be a breakthrough for Ben's website. 'Suddenly my website was supposed to be worth £5million just because the newspapers said so!' From that point the website really took off and Ben soon began expanding his enterprise.

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