Raising Entrepreneurs

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Young entrepreneur, Rob Denomme

Seasoned entrepreneurs who have weathered an economic downturn may be more apt to concern about the detrimental impact current market forces could have on business.

But many of their younger — and arguably more naive — counterparts seem imbued with a sense of invincibility that typifies their age demographic.

While sales may be slower, young entrepreneurs relatively new to running a business have no precedent to measure against economic forecasts of doom and gloom.

They might also be able to troubleshoot problems more creatively because of a general lack of inhibition.

Rob Denomme has been running a custom wine cellar business, Winnipeg-based Genuwine Cellars Inc., for 13 years and is undaunted by the prevailing prognosis that a recession is imminent.

At the age of 17, Mr. Denomme and a friend who has carpentry skills launched the company. It counts celebrities, sports personalities and leading corporate executives among a largely American clientele list.

“We have seen a little bit of a slowdown and it’s the first time in our history we’ve not seen our sales skyrocket,” the 2007 Business Development Bank of Canada’s Young Entrepreneur of the Year for Manitoba says, referring to business since global markets began to plunge earlier this year.

“Our sales this year will still be more than last year.”

Mr. Denomme has no formal business training and has expanded his company, particularly during its formative years, solely by word of mouth.

He says his most tumultuous experience as a proprietor came several years ago when he decided to lay off a half a dozen people from a staff of nearly 50, because they didn’t exemplify dedication to the company mission.

“We always felt we needed every warm body,” he says. “But after that, we were able to do more with less people. I was shocked to realize that.”

He says he tries to learn vicariously through the experience of others. “I’ve never seen bad times but from what I’ve seen, it’s taught me to plan for the future even though I haven’t had to learn the hard way,” he says.

“The thought of having to sell your home to make ends meet, that scares the heck out of me.”

Genuwine Cellars recently opened a manufacturing facility in Nicaragua, and Mr. Denomme has no doubt the current downturn is just a blip on the radar of an otherwise resilient market.

“I think it will be quiet holiday season but that things will jump back to where they were and grow even more so,” he says without hesitation.

“You’ve got to keep a positive attitude.”

Read the full story in The Financial Post.

Rural America is witnessing a trend in our work with rural communities a growing number of high school and college students who would like to return to their rural hometowns if good career opportunities were available. The burgeoning interest in entrepreneurial careers combined with the desire to “come home” create significant opportunities for rural leaders to begin to reverse historic outmigration trends and revitalize their communities.

Who are young entrepreneurs? They range from an elementary school student operating a successful lemonade stand on a hot summer afternoon, to a recent graduate who starts a new venture or begins to revitalize an existing business. Young entrepreneurs exhibit a passion to create. When channeled and combined with entrepreneurial education and real world experience, they can found businesses with significant wealth and job creation potential. Engaging, equipping and supporting young entrepreneurs are keys to long-term vitality and sustainability of rural communities.

Understanding characteristics of young entrepreneurs is important because entrepreneurial youth often do not come to mind when we think about young people in our community. Instead, we might name the student body president, the star football or volleyball player, or the honor roll student. While some of these young people may be entrepreneurial, there is another group of youth that is less visible so you need to seek them out.

Why don’t these young people come to mind? They may spend their free time in Dad’s shop inventing or in Mom’s craft room creating, so they are “invisible” to you. They may work in their parents’ business after school because they enjoy it, or they may be busy operating their lawn care or Web design business. Young entrepreneurs enjoy the creative process so much that, while others are focused on sports and extracurricular activities, young entrepreneurs are focused on their business dreams.

Entrepreneurial youth may appear introverted because they know they are wired differently than their peers and, at this age, fitting in is a big deal. Remember, in the adult population, only one in 10 Americans is an entrepreneur. The percentage may be higher among young people, but they are still a minority among their classmates.

This article is an excerpt from “Energizing Young Entrepreneurs in Rural Communities” written by Craig Schroeder, Lisa Heinert, Lisa Bauer, Deborah Markley and Karen Dabson.

Young Entrepreneurs - Wayne Ramwell, Kevin Yap, Muhammed Saleen, Kaif Hussain and Mohtasham Qureshi

A TEAM of budding entrepreneurs are aiming to take the bite out of the credit crunch for young people.

Former Manchester Academy pupils Wayne Ramwell, 16, Kaif Hussein, 17, Kevin Yap, 16 and Muhammed Saleem, 16, have just published a guide to managing money for teenagers.

Easy Money was written as part of a Young Enterprise scheme at their old school,.

And, in keeping with its message of spending and saving wisely, the finance-savvy foursome are investing the proceeds to fund their university careers.

Easy Money was inspired by a news article that claimed more than half of all teenagers have been in debt by the age of 18. The boys received help and funding from professional mentors, but researched the content and structure of the book themselves.

To date, 500 copies of the book, which is packed full of tips on everything from employment contracts, to mortgages and ISAs, have been sold.

Read the full story in The Manchester Evening News.

When Blaine Mickens was 13, his mom hired a carpenter from their church to rebuild the front porch of their Cleveland house. The entire first day, Blaine watched the man work. On Day 2, the man asked him if he wanted to help.

“The rest is history,” says Blaine, who’s now the owner of Estate Groomers, a landscaping business, and Young Picasso Painting, a residential painting company. He has five employees and plenty of big plans. Best of all, the 2008 grad of Whitney Young High School is only 18. He recently chatted with PDQ’s John Campanelli.

When did you realize that you were an entrepreneur?

It might have been second or third grade. My mother bought me a whole lot of pencils for school. I had an abundance of pencils. And I really didn’t use pencils. I was mainly a pen person. Everybody kept asking me. “Can I use a pencil?” “Can I use a pencil?” “Can I use a pencil?” When my friends asked me, I gave them to them. Then some other people asked, and I said, “Give me 10 cents.” I think that’s when it all started. I racked up a lot of money.

Is it a problem being younger than a lot of your employees; do they call you “sir”?

No, they call me Blaine. I try to keep it as informal as possible. I want everybody to be relaxed. My whole thing is, age should not be a factor as long as everybody is making money and getting the job done.

Has your age ever been a problem?

The only problem I really ran into was that I employed my brother. It was like double-edged sword. I was his younger brother and his boss. Sometimes we argue, because we’re only a year apart. It’s not acceptable on the job. At the house when we’re at home, it’s no problem. But on the job I told him we couldn’t go through that, so I actually had to fire him.

You fired your brother?

He told my mother and everything [laughing]. I eventually hired him back. I did it mainly for the theatrics of the whole situation.

Do you think he has more respect for you now?

No, not yet [laughing].

How has running businesses helped you in other parts of your life?

It gave me a lot of responsibility: Being responsible for cutting people checks and making sure the job is on schedule. It helped shape my leadership skills and helped give me a perception on life where I don’t think of everything as a consumer. I understand business.

Read the rest of the interview in the Cleveland Society News.

On Tuesday, Dec. 16, the Indiana Humanities Council and the Office of the Governor honored 12 recipients of the sixth annual Governor’s Award for Tomorrow’s Leaders.

Lt. Gov. Becky Skillman recognized the recipients and presented them with $1,000 cash awards to use as educational scholarships or donations to charities of their choice.

Among the recipients was a young entrepreneur with a social entrepreneurial bent.

A sophomore at Haverford College in Pennsylvania, 20-year-old Daniel Kent has been active in Student Council, and he co-founded the Rufus M. Jones Institute for Leadership. He has interned at the White House and Community Development Law Center.

When he was a 14-year-old middle schooler in Carmel, Kent founded Net Literacy, a nonprofit created to increase computer access to all. He funded the organization with $4,000 he had saved to buy a car. Five years later, Net Literacy had attracted more than $1 million in grants and in-kind donations, increased computer access to more than 90,000 individuals, refurbished thousands of computers, and engaged more than 1,000 student volunteers. It has expanded into dozens of Hoosier communities and helped 90,000 Hoosiers cross the digital divide. Kent recruited U.S. Senators Bayh and Lugar to serve as honorary co-chairs, and successfully lobbied to pass Indiana’s Net Literacy Resolution.

Kent has served on local and national youth boards, including the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, America’s Promise Alliance, the U.S. Public Service Academy and Do Something, Inc. He has received numerous awards, including being twice named a National Point of Light honoree. He is donating his $1,000 award to the Net Literacy Project.