Enterprising brothers Raziah and Jalair Trott-Richardson were determined not to be among the students who sat around twiddling their thumbs all summer — and their shared sense of initiative is paying off.

The Berkeley Institute students, aged 16 and 15 respectively, approached The Royal Gazette with an offer to hit the streets and sell newspapers to the public in return for a small cut.

After experimenting with different approaches and locations, they have now found that they can comfortably sell about 50 papers every day.

Vivian Sailsman, the circulation manager for The Royal Gazette, was so impressed with the boys’ hard work that he made them an offer they have happily accepted.

They will now be approaching residences to promote, market and sell the newspaper’s home delivery subscription service, and will be compensated for their efforts. Asked what spurred them to approach the paper, Raziah said: “Our mother gave us the idea but we didn’t want to sit around and do nothing all summer. We thought this would give us some good experience.”

Jalair added: “We have always liked entrepreneurship and watch programmes like Shark Tank and The Profit.”

They started the job in August but had a little difficulty shifting papers in the early days.

Jalair explained: “We started off at East Broadway but only sold seven papers — we had bought 100.

“We decided that walking around town was the best way to make money. Then we met a man who bought ten papers every day and we sell to them Jamaican Grill. We found a base of selling 50 a day and never come home with any returns.

“It’s good to be working for ourselves. We were nervous to do it at first, our confidence wasn’t that high, but it’s a lot easier now.”

Mr Sailsman said of his new recruits: “They have their own entrepreneurial gig going on, selling the newspapers even though they are now back at school. They cash in and make whatever they can make during the school week.

“Now we are embarking on something totally different and taking it a step further as they will promote, market and sell our subscription service. Fortunately for them the compensation will be more lucrative. It is worth their while.

“They have shown the initiative. I saw their commitment and thought they would be the perfect people to be the face of the Gazette in the neighbourhoods.

“In two years they might be working here in a full-time job — they have already invested their time, so the sky is the limit for these guys.”

Asked what they aspired towards, both boys had similar dreams.

Raziah said: “I enjoy working with computers so it will definitely be in that realm.”

Jalair added: “I like coding. I do it at school and take a class for it right now.

“I do it in my free time and have started trying to make games from scratch. It takes a lot of time and money so I am just doing it for fun right now and for the experience.”