Pennsylvania native kid sisters discuss young entrepreneurship and their business

• Aniya Faulcon
  BioRecent Stories

  

  Aniya Faulcon is The Spark Host/Producer for WITF. She has a passion for shining a light on unique people, experiences, and perspectives within the community.
  
  Previously she worked as the People and Social Trends Reporter/Video Anchor for LancasterOnline | LNPNews. During her time there, she created video packages, provided Facebook Live coverage at community events, and wrote data-driven stories with census data and feature stories on local leaders, non-profit organizations, events, and people with unique talents and experiences within Lancaster County.
  
  Aniya also worked at WMAR ABC 2 News as a Sales Assistant and at the AFRO American Newspapers as an Executive Assistant and Media correspondent. Aniya interned at WEAA Gospel Grace 88.9 and worked at her alma mater’s radio station, WWPJ at Point Park University, where she gained skills and a passion for radio.
  
  Aniya grew up in Baltimore, Maryland and attended the Baltimore School for the arts for high school with a concentration in acting. She continued to hone her skills and passion for storytelling and later graduated from Point Park University in 2018 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting and Broadcast Reporting. Aniya is eager to continue her journey with storytelling in her role with WITF, as she aims to shed a light on real people and real stories within Pennsylvania in a variety of mediums.

Airdate: Tuesday, October 18, 2022

According to the center for entrepreneurs, young people are more entrepreneurial than ever, starting twice as many businesses as the baby boomer generation.

Reign and Taij Saunders, who started their business at the ages of 9 and 11 in 2019, are a part of the younger generation of entrepreneurship, as they own Reign & Taij’s Homemade Lemonade.

The Saunders sisters joined us on Tuesday’s Smart Talk to tell us about their experience as young entrepreneurs and their business.

Reign and Taij said their Mom’s cake and decorating business and the customer service that she provides inspired them to start a business of their own.

Reign also was inspired to start their business to take her mind off of the flair ups and medical treatments that she was facing with with asthma, allergies and severe eczema.

Taij said at first it was a challenge running a business with her sister but things got smoother along the way.

“At first it was like get out of my way, I’m trying to do this. Let me deal with this customer; you do that customer,” Taij said. “But I think we just know, it’s just kind of like a vibe feel where we know you deal with the money and I’ll make the drink or the other way around.”

Since starting their business, Reign and Taij have made modifications to their ingredients and lemonade making methods to make their product a perfect balance between sweet and tart.

Their lemonade can now be found at events, Od’s Fish House in Harrisburg, and Hampton Inn on Union Deposit rd. in Harrisburg. Reign and Taij, who were also featured in The Burg magazine, said they received some of these opportunities by simply asking for them.

“I hope it just makes other kids my age and my sister’s age realize that you don’t have to be an adult to actually get up and do something,” Taij said. “I just really hope that they look up to me and realize that you don’t have to be older, have a license, and all of this experience to actually start a business and actually run a business.”