Raising Entrepreneurs

Welcome back!

Back in sunny Sydney (although San Francisco and Washington were pretty sunny, too) – tired but still buzzing from all the great people I have met and the exciting business discussions we had.

I visited the offices of HubPages.com in San Francisco, which was a lot of fun. There are some great new developments happening there.

In Washington, I met Shonika Proctor – watch for more blog posts from her, and videos of her young Renegade Entrepreneurs! I also had a great time at the Focus Marketing Seminar – and I won a cruise! So it will be back to the US with us some time next year to enjoy that bonus.

But what I really wanted to talk about today is something that happened just a few days ago. Chris told me over Skype just before I left San Francisco that Erin and a friend had started a new business. The first he knew of it was when a woman rang him and said “I have just booked your daughter to babysit for us, I hope that’s OK with you?”

Apparently Erin and her friend had printed up some flyers, walked around the nearby streets and distributed them, had their first enquiry call, and made their first booking, completely without adult involvement. She’s still only twelve!

After that, she and Chris had a good chat about the difference between having a job and having a business, and she’s already thinking about how she can outsource the actual babysitting to other kids and take a percentage for making the bookings.

Meanwhile, she and her friend are meeting these kids this weekend, and babysitting them next weekend.

I was just so happy – clearly all the teaching we have done over the years has sunk in and stuck firmly. Already, at twelve, she’s self-reliant and enterpreneurial.

But that’s not the only piece of news.

Our place is a bit of a gathering point – we’re quite close to the school, so lots of their friends come into our place before school. Some even have breakfast. One – the partner in the babysitting business – wanders in without knocking and heads straight for the fridge!

Yesterday morning, I had just got back from the airport, so I got to observe the milling crowds. I noticed another one of their friends gathering up a pile of printed pages from the printer. Not only the fridge – they also use the computers. At least this time it looked like homework instead of playing computer games. She and Rachael headed off about half an hour early.

Just out of curiosity, I wandered over to the computer, and lo and behold, Rachael and this friend are starting their own business, too – in pet care. The flyer had prices for washing, walking and feeding (including discounts for purchasing two or more services), and their contact details, and was decorated with animal footprints.

They came back about 20 minutes later to print out a few more, and were off again. They are both twelve, as well.

Rachael still has money coming in from her online businesses – she made another sale this week of her information product at thatinternetgirl.com, and she has made a few dollars in Adsense revenue on her witchcraft site this week, too, making it a profit centre even though the e-book is still not ready for release.

She doesn’t need to start another business, but she has obviously decided that this would be fun. Or maybe the attraction is doing it together with a friend, or just that she likes animals. Whatever the reason, it’s something she is doing because she wants to, not because she has no money coming in from anywhere else.

It’s a nice feeling, knowing that no matter what happens in the future, they already have the skills they need to succeed financially, whatever the economy is doing.

Image: The Jamoker