Most people haven’t made tens of thousands of dollars by their 19th birthday, but Marblehead native Evan Smith has done exactly that with a business he started in high school and is continuing to operate as a sophomore at Pace University’s Dyson College of Arts and Sciences.
Smith runs a series on TikTok where he rates clients’ Instagram pages and advises them on how to improve their posts and increase their number of followers.
At 16 years old, Smith started a series on TikTok to review and recommend changes to people’s Instagram feeds. He started the service for free but over the course of six months, he had so many requests he decided to start charging.
It started at just $3, then $5, then $7, then $10 as demand kept increasing. He is currently charging $15 for a review of a client’s Instagram page, which he does via TikTok.
“I have always had a following on TikTok, but now it is starting to pick up and I’ve begun to make a real business out of it,” said Smith. “It’s really cool to be able to pair the lessons I’m learning in the classroom with real-world applications to create a business. Social media is how many people present themselves to the world and it’s great to be able to help people get positive results in that realm.”
Smith, who is interning at a Newbury Street firm in Boston where he helps manage the brand’s social-media account, will return this fall to Pace to continue his studies in communications and media.
Upon graduating, Smith hopes to get a job in marketing in either the real-estate or hospitality sectors.