Houston Seventh Grader Runs His Own Business, Supports Honduran Village With Profits

HOUSTON – A young Houston student is climbing the corporate ladder. A business coach taught him everything he needed to know to start his own business. Today, 12-year-old Anthony Alvarado runs his own business selling snacks through vending machines.

It all started with the dream of becoming the first millionaire in his family. He is the eldest of two boys with a single mother and wants to take them to the next level, setting up projects when he was only 9 years old.

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“I started with a box of chocolates that my mother gave me. After that, I participated in events that taught me how to start a business, save money and manage my money,” Anthony explains.

“That’s how he started financing his money. Just with chocolates, he was doubling his budget by selling chocolate and candy, so he got to the point where he had a lot of money. He went to the event and they showed him how to start a business. They taught him how to manage his money, and on top of that, they taught him how to invest his money. That’s how he was able to do it, when he was taught how to invest his money. So he had a clearer and more global vision of the vending machine, and one vending machine led to another, and so he bought his first vending machine in February. Two weeks later, he bought two more vending machines,” explained his mother, Iris.

This vision was born after working with Carmen O’Quinn, an entrepreneur who grew a $700,000 business into a $9 million company in two years. She is a business coach with a passion for helping the next generation of entrepreneurs.

“We met with Iris, Anthony’s mom, and Anthony, they came to one of our Steps to Success events. And I, when Anthony came with his mom, Iris, he was like, ‘Okay, I’m going with my mom, but as he went to the events, he started getting inspired.’ On Thursday nights, before the event, we meet with our next generation, which is any of the kids, from 8 to 20, and that night we taught them about money management. So no matter how much money you make, you know how to tithe, how to put it into your wealth account, and just the principles of building wealth. Because so many times, I was like, man, what if I had this when I was his age? How much further would I be? “At the end of that session, he went home with his mother, Iris, and said, ‘I want to split my money,’ and that’s where it all started,” Carmen says.

She helped Anthony understand that he could go from selling candy in his mother’s business to buying three vending machines and letting the candy sell all day long, while he’s at school.

“We meet people who have in their hearts the desire to do more, to be more, but they don’t know how. They don’t know, okay, I have this dream, but how? So we help them connect the dream to the how and so it becomes their reality, just like Anthony and his mother, Iris, who recently started her own business,” Carmen said.

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Carmen travels the country encouraging and teaching entrepreneurs how to successfully make their dreams come true.

“Destiny Global is a training company that helps equip everyday people, from the next generation, eight to ten year olds, all the way up to 60 to 70 year olds, to transform their lives, from bankruptcy to starting a business, to healing and repairing relationships and increasing business. We have been around for over 30 years, training and equipping people to improve their lives, increase their income, pay off debt and everything in between,” Carmen explains.

It worked well in her own family, with her children running their own successful soap and bracelet businesses. Their company offers online training, but also three-day immersive training sessions, all over the country. Again, that’s how Anthony met her, and then started investing money and building his business.

“She teaches me how to manage my money. There is money that you keep, but with which you can’t buy anything. Then you take another percentage of money, you invest it or save it, and then you give the rest to others,” explains Anthony.

He now donates 10% of his profits to the village of Matagorda, a flood- and poverty-stricken community in Honduras.

“I want to bless others, like other people have blessed me, because it makes me really happy and I really enjoy helping people overcome these difficulties,” Anthony explains.

All this makes a mom a grateful mom.

“He was born that way, he was born brilliant! He’s very good at business. I have a deli and he goes there and gets the biggest tips! I’m so proud of him. I feel like he’s got a head start and I see a bright future for him,” Iris says.

For more information: https://www.destinyglobal.com