Sumter Business Owner Advice to Youth Wanting to Start a Business

Jerome Robinson is a local business owner and member of Sumter Black Chamber of Commerce. He owns a fitness center, and his wife is a nurse. Besides being a local celebrity in his own right, named one of the Top 20 Under 40 Young Professionals, and repeatedly ranking in the Best of Sumter year after year, its safe to say “Team Robinson” is here to stay and their brand is only growing stronger around the state.
Robinson’s favorite thing is teaching folks how not to be a victim of violence. Whether it is bullying or a domestic dispute, Robinson loves teaching folks to be confident and live safely. When asked what advice would he would give a child who may dream of one day owning a business he said, “Regardless of your circumstances and your environment it’s important you find something, or someone to look at and model yourself after.”

“A lot of times kids see a celebrity like Lebron James or Dababy and that’s what they like, and that’s fine, but they should also try to find a local person they can go to for advice. They don’t have to be 18 to open up a t shirt company,” Robinson shares.

Robinson became an entrepreneur around the tender age of 7 or 8 picking up aluminum cans from Palmetto and Dillon Park. Robinson had a few side hustles as a child including “cutting my neighbor’s grass. I would iron my dad’s postal uniforms for $5 a week.”

Once Robinson got a little older, his opened a business he named ‘So Fresh and So Clean Car Wash.’ For $20 he would wash and wax cars. As a young adult he began working at a local Food Lion. Robinson thrived in real estate working for long-term community leader Carl Holmes, Sr., at Integrity Group.

Robinson gives credit to his mother who has always been his biggest supporter.
He advises kids not to wait until an “acceptable” age to start their own side hustles, before they can turn it into a legitimate business.