Still Making Bank: Students get creative about making money during the pandemic

Making money in the midst of a global pandemic is challenging for almost every job — but with non-essential businesses closed and babysitting jobs put on halt, it’s close to impossible for high school students to scrape up any money. Juniors Dom Zanone and Addison Carroll got creative to keep up an income.

With school being cancelled and his babysitting gigs placed on hold, junior Dom Zanone began working at his family’s business, Gus’s Fried Chicken, to lend a helping hand.

Having their employees’ health in mind, Gus’s allowed employees to choose whether they would continue to work during the stay-at-home order — leaving them short-staffed.

“My parents asked me and my older sister to work, but we already planned on it because we didn’t have school, but we’re stepping in and helping out with what needs to be done,” Zanone said.

Fresh sets of gloves, face masks and counter cleaning routines keep Zanone and his co-workers feeling safe while working and ensure their customers feel safe when greeted at curb-side pick-up.

Although other Gus’s Fried Chicken locations across the US have closed due to coronavirus, the Kansas City location has decided to stay open and to continue putting their food on customer’s plates with Zanone’s help.

Keeping up with the latest trends is never easy on the pockets — which is exactly what led junior Addison Carroll to create Tie-Dye KC, a tie-dye business on Instagram selling DIY tie-dye clothing. 

Carroll now runs the business with juniors Charlotte Lowe and Tess Barbeau and senior Malayna Vardakis. Together they tie-dye and distress their old clothing and sell it on their Instagram account. 

“I’ve just been seeing a lot of tie-dye sets, but when I go on to buy one, like Urban Outfitters or even Etsy sets, it’s super expensive,” Carroll said. 

The account was made after Carroll posted a poll on her Instagram story asking if people would buy their tie-dyed items. After getting positive feedback, the group was able to get their account up and running and start marketing their business. Although they haven’t made any sales yet, they are working on contacting retailers where they can get plain sweat sets in bulk to produce a larger quantity to sell.

Because coronavirus has left a lot of high schoolers unemployed recently, Carroll believes that Tie Dye KC will get more business once people are making money again.

“We can work on marketing more once we’re seeing people around the school and community,” Carroll said.

With a goal of quality and unique tie-dye sets, Carroll’s hope is to gain more traction as a business and possibly even carry it through college as a way to make money.