DURHAM -- Instead of spending the summer flipping burgers or selling clothes, 13 local teens and 20-somethings have become CEOs of their own companies, with some help from the provincial government.

The 13 entrepreneurs applied to be part of the summer company program funded by Ontario Ministry of Small Business and Consumer Services.

The businesses they’ve created have a diverse range of offerings, from lawn maintenance to private swimming lessons, yoga classes to off-season training for hockey goalies.

Joy Lapps wanted to share her love for an uncommon musical instrument with kids in the community and the grant helped her do that, she said. With the money she received Ms. Lapps, 24, was able to start a camp to teach children how to play the steel pan drum.

Her camp promotes diversity and is “reflective of the changes in the community,” she said.

Her passion for the instrument was what motivated her to apply. Being in the program helped keep her business on track, she said.

“Sometimes you say you are going to do something and you don’t,” she said. “This way you have to do it.”

Ms. Lapps and her 12 fellow business owners were picked from 125 applications received from Durham area youth to be part of the program. Last year seven youth succeeded in creating their own businesses. This year there were more applications and more successful candidates, said Carol Ann Walker, executive director of the Business Advisory Centre Durham (BACD), the local association that runs the program.

As part of the program youth between 15 and 29 years old who are returning to school in the fall can get up to $3,000 to help with business startup costs. Participants take part in training sessions and have a mentor from the local business community to help with aspects of running a business, like marketing and finance management.

Chris Noble, a double major in computer science and entrepreneurship at Waterloo, started a web and graphic design company called Toga Systems. The program offered an opportunity to put what he is learning about into practice.

“It was a chance to learn everything entrepreneurship has to offer,” he said.

When Mr. Noble, 24, starts classes again in September he intends to keep running his business, he said.

Financially, participants did better than their minimum wage-earning counterparts.

Many of the businesses turned into lucrative operations, said Gail Carey, BACD’s Young Entrepreneur Program Manager. Participants managed to make about $20 an hour with a combined revenue of more than $53,000.