A 17-year old in Lake Park, Iowa, is making his way as an entrepreneur

LAKE PARK, Iowa (KTIV) -Deciding what to do after high school can be stressful for teenagers. But a 17-year-old, in Lake Park, Iowa, is already making his way as an entrepreneur building his snowmobile apparel business.

”It was always kind of a nickname for me,” said Chase Hibma, owner of Steep and Deep Sled Co.

“We like to ride our snowmobiles in the steep hills and deep snow out in the mountains,” explained Hibma. “I always loved going to those places.”

They say if you do what you love, you will never work a day in your life. And 17-year-old Chase Hibma is doing just that.

“A Sunday on the way home from church my mom was like, ‘hey we could make a business out of that if you wanted to.’ And I was like yeah that would be really cool,” Hibma reminisced.

That got the ball rolling. At the time, the then 14-year-old had no idea what was in store for him as a new business owner.

“We launched it at like 5 o’clock at night or something, and I just put the phone down and was like ok we will see where it goes,” said Hibma. “And then orders started coming in like nothing, and I think in the first five hours we probably had like 20 orders, and I was just shocked.”

That was just the first of many surprises for Chase.

“I didn’t expect to be as busy as I am,” Hibma explained. “And like, leaning you have to do things this way, you have to package an order this way, you have to fold it this way so it doesn’t get all wrinkled, and just a whole bunch of stuff that I never would have thought would be a part of anything like this.”

His challenges are ever changing as he tries to source the best merchandise for ‘Steep and Deep.’

“Finding something that people will like, because people’s interests will change every year. It is just kind of hard to find a new good thing every year. I’m just trying to make a good product for people who love snowmobiling,” Hibma explained.

But there has been plenty of fulfillment along the way as Chase has traveled to sell his product at large snowmobile shows and found success at home in Lake Park.

“I remember even just a few weeks ago, there were like six kids in school that were wearing one of my sweatshirts and nobody planned it,” said Hibma.

The high school junior doesn’t know what he’ll do after graduation, but there’s no end in sight for his dreams for his business.

“As I get older, I would like to grow it a little more,” explained Hibma. “Maybe become bigger at what I’m doing. And just see where it goes from there.”

To learn more about “Steep and Deep Sled Co. check out this link.

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