Raising Entrepreneurs

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A recent conference highlighted the growing power of under-age geeks in new enterprises.

In contemporary technology culture, those once thought of as geeks have become the people who pull the strings of the economy and of society. After computer wizards such as Bill Gates, Sergey Brin and Steve Jobs became millionaires who are even stars on the entertainment channels, more and more children are preferring them to pop and TV icons. Although having a good body is still far from being an obstacle, geekiness has taken shape as a real cultural alternative.

The nerdy children who until not long ago made do with high grades and late-night discussions of “Star Trek,” are being rebranded and finding themselves deep in the heart of prime time. If until recently the combination of mathematical formulas and thick glasses scared the franchisees and the advertisers, now reality shows are full of nerdy children. From “Revenge of the Nerds” to “Beauty and the Geek,” the image of the brilliant child is an obsession of the media, even if one of the shows still ridicules them.

However, along with public opinion, the geeks themselves have changed. Today’s gifted children are no longer only busy with solving logic puzzles and memorizing Latin verbs. They are thinking about business.

“The gifted children growing up in contemporary society are more tempted by successful professions from the economic point of view,” says Avinoam Ben Zev, the head of the program for teaching gifted students at Oranim College.

“They know that is where the big money is, and there they can get rich quicker. At the same time, the state also treats gifted children as a national resource. In the high-tech industry, for example, there is a limited number of very talented people, and they provide a very large contribution to the economy. The question is whether it is good that these kids are treated as a resource.”

Read the full story in Haaretz.

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

A 17-YEAR-old Dublin man who makes wooden lamps was recently in New York representing Ireland at a National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) competition, an organization which prevents at risk young people from disadvantaged communities from quitting and teaches entrepreneurship to them both in and out of school.

Glen Doyle, who lives in Harold’s Cross in Dublin, proudly traveled to New York earlier this month to attend the annual international competition, which was held at the New York Marriott Marquis on Broadway.

Doyle, who was accompanied by his mother Janet, told the Irish Voice he “couldn’t believe it” but “he was over the moon” when he was chosen to represent his country in such a prestigious competition.

“NFTE really gives us a chance to see that we can do it ourselves, that we can become something if we want to and I’m so grateful that I have had this brilliant opportunity,” said Doyle, who will continue with the Youthreach program for another year and a half.

Doyle said that there is nothing better than the feeling he gets when someone orders or buys one of his lamps. “I just hope it continues and my business will grow into a big one,” he says.

Read more at Irish Abroad.

Entrepreneurial thinking at an early age translates into success in any endeavor, not just in business. This story from the New York Times profiles a young entrepreneur whose goal-setting and initiative are carrying him toward success with sports and academia, as well as business.

Like most college freshmen, Art Forst enjoys sleeping in, but he usually cannot spare the time. He is a football player at Rutgers, and the alarm clock in his dorm room rudely reminds him that he needs to work out year-round.

“Sometimes, when I wake up at 4:20 in the morning, I say to myself, ‘I could be in high school right now,’ “ Forst, 18, said recently with a smile.

Instead, at the advice of coaches and others, he decided to get a leg up on his college education and his college career.

Forst is determined to become good enough at Rutgers to parlay his success into a career in the National Football League, but if that does not work, his father said he would not be surprised to see Art become an entrepreneur.

When he was a boy, his father, who is in the construction business, used to invite him to work — and Art would insist on working. When it snowed at Rutgers, Forst went to the maintenance shed and asked to borrow a shovel. He knocked on doors and made $105 shoveling driveways.

I promised you some great unusual ways to make money, and here are some ripper suggestions from Steve Gillman – if you’re not sure how to make a successful business out of these ideas, Steve recommends that you try the Cash-Smart Kids program to get you started.

Here are some money making ideas for kids. These simple businesses can be started with very little money, and grown into larger operations in time.

Make And Sell Painted Rocks

Where we live here in Colorado, many people have painted rocks they use for decorative doorstops or paperweights. If you live in an area where you can get nice smooth rocks, you can make them yourself and sell them. You can paint them with flowers, or with people’s names. Look around at what other’s have done for ideas. Ask your parents to help you buy the right paints, and how to price the finished rocks.

Now, if you want a bigger business, you’ll have to delegate. You can pay other kids for each good rock they bring to you, and then find an artistic friend you can pay to paint them. With other’s doing those parts of the work, you can get busy selling more of them. Maybe you can even get a gift store to sell them for you if you give them a good percentage of each sale.

Be A Computer Helper

There are many young kids who know a lot about computers. My own nephew was getting paid for programming by the the time he was fourteen. Even younger kids might get paid to show old folks how to use a computer for basic things, like setting up and using an email account and accessing the internet. Telling grandparents to spread the word would be a good marketing ploy.

Buy, Fix And Sell Bicycles

This one is for the older kids who like to fix things. You can get books that show you how to repair bicycles, and you can start by learning how to repair your own. Then you need to see what people are paying for used bicycles, by going to yard sales and looking at advertisements in the classified section of the newspaper. Take notes. Once you know what the bikes should sell for, you can start buying broken ones to fix.

Make sure you buy them cheap. Let everyone know what you are doing too. Sometimes people may give you old bicycles that they were going to throw away. During spring clean-ups in some towns people throw away bikes as well, and you can take these from the junk at the curb (if it’s okay with your parents). I once met a man who collected sixty bikes in one day in this way.

You’ll need to have a little money to buy parts and old bikes when you start. After the first sale, use the money to buy more bikes and parts. Wait until you have several sold before you start spending any of your profits. You can sell the bicycles in front of your home with a simple sign, or you can get your parents to help you place an ad in the paper if you have some expensive or popular bikes to sell.

Sell Fishing Worms

If you are near an area where people fish, you may be able to sell nightcrawlers or worms. Visit a bait shop or other place where they sell them to see how much you can charge. You can sell them at the lake or stream where the fishermen are.

To get the worms, check the lawn after a rain. In some areas there are hundreds of night crawlers all over the sidewalks after a summer rain. You can also dig under wet piles of leaves to find them. You can start without any money if you save plastic butter tubs and coffee cans to sell the worms in. Later you can use your profits to buy nice Styrofoam containers with lids.

The next step could be to invest your profits into a good book on how to breed night crawlers, and the equipment to start a little worm farm. If you can produce a steady supply you might be able to sell them to a bait shop. They will pay less than the fishermen since they need to make a profit too, but you may make more because you can sell so many at once and spend more time “farming” worms than trying to sell them.

By Steve Gillman. These money making ideas for kids were borrowed from the “Unusual Ways (To Make and Save Money)” newsletter. Get your free subscription at http://www.UnusualWaysToMakeMoney.com

, and for help getting your business started, check out the Cash-Smart Kids program – there’s a special offer on at the moment with incredible bonuses included at no extra cost.

Image: flattop341