10 tips for starting a business from junior entrepreneurs
While some children are happy to fill their leisure time with their favourite TV shows and computer games, others are already starting a business that may change their lives.
In this Money Box special, Felicity Hannah meets three young entrepreneurs – or 'kidpreneurs' as they are known – to find out what makes them tick. Joining her to explore how a young mind can apply itself to business are Julian Hall, the CEO of Ultra Education, which teaches entrepreneurship in schools, and Zoe Bennett, Managing Director at Training Personified, who has advised schools and parents on entrepreneurship.
Here are 10 things we learned about success from these 'kidpreneurs'.
1. Do something you love
Getting enjoyment out of your business – particularly at a young age – is a key driver for success. "Business can be very serious and very boring," says Julian Hall, "but doesn't have to be."
It wasn't really about having a business – it was about helping people, which turned into a business.'Kidpreneur' Precisa
Julian's organisation tells young people that an entrepreneur is "someone who does what they love, and they make money from it". The children that Julian's team meet are asked questions that could easily apply to anyone interested in starting a new venture, including what their dreams and passions are, and then they are shown how they can "wrap a revenue model around" them.
Centring a business around something you are passionate about is, Julian says, a way of ensuring an entrepreneur can "have fun throughout the process".
2. Do something that's useful
Ten-year-old Precisa started her own deodorant business after recognising that people with eczema and sensitive skin needed kinder skin products. Her thought process was suitably organic. "To be honest, it wasn't really about having a business – it was about helping people, which turned into a business," she says.
3. Put money back into your business
Setting out to solve a problem has meant Precisa can help her mother with food shopping costs, and her efforts have been rewarded by outside organisations too – she is the winner of the West London Kidpreneur of the Year Award and was awarded Black Entrepreneur of the Year by Ealing Council. One of the secrets of her success has been re-investment. "I save a lot and I put most of my money into the business."
One of the biggest things that our children need to do is to be confident in speaking up.Zoe Bennett, Training Personified
4. Be a details person
Of the many lessons Precisa has already learned, attention to the smallest detail is one of the most important. She says that in the early days of running her business, she didn't know a lot about the labels she used on her products. For example, she didn't know if they were oil-proof. "They turned out not to be and they kept smudging, even if you had just a bit of water in your hand," she recalls. "So you do have to pay a lot of attention to detail."
5. Perfect the art of public speaking
The ability to effectively communicate to others is relevant to so many business pursuits and spans all generations. Zoe Bennett advises parents to role-play with their budding kidpreneurs, asking them questions about their business pursuits. "One of the biggest things that our children need to do is to be confident in speaking up and maybe debating or pitching for things," Zoe says.
What's the motivation for setting up a business at a young age?
Felicity Hannah meets teenage entrepreneur Max to ask about his car-washing business.
6. Be determined
There's pretty much no substitute for sheer determination. Teenage entrepreneur Max from Warrington gets up at 5.30am to start his day and fit his gym trips around his car-washing business. He started with a bucket and sponge, aged just eight, but now is fully kitted out for a professional operation and has a client list running into the hundreds, cleaning 20 to 30 cars each weekend. He does all of this without his own form of transport.
"Don't give up, keep trying" is Max's advice to anyone wanting to follow his example, adding "a lot of people will say no, but you've just got to keep going."
7. Be responsive
As well as doing a good job and being polite, one of the reasons Max has experienced such an upsurge in demand for his car washing business is his responsive communication. "As soon as you message us, we try and get back to you as quick as we can," he says.
"Social skills are so important," observes Zoe, "and teaching and articulating real values [like social skills] is really important too."
8. Just a small investment of time can make a big difference
Social entrepreneur Louis Johnson started fundraising when he was just five years old. He's now 16 and has raised more than £63,000 for 18 different charities, with activities including charity walks and abseiling. Louis' time-management skills allow him to balance his fundraising with some regular downtime.
"I've still got plenty of time to do what everybody else does, like Xbox or going out with my friends," he says. "It just takes that extra, maybe, two hours you have a day, and to put it to something useful and get the satisfaction of knowing that you're helping people."
9. Allow yourself to fail
Accepting failure and a temporary defeat is a hard life lesson to learn at any age but so crucial to success.
If things don't go to plan, use it as a learning experience for the next business.
As Julian points out, kidpreneurs are generally in a "safe environment" and don't have "all the stresses and strains of bills and commitments and responsibilities". However, if things don't go to plan, the lesson is the same – use it as a learning experience for the next business.
10. Understand your value
Perhaps the most impressive aspect of kidpreneurs is that they know what impact they can have at such a young age.
This is vital to their business. "The top tip is understand what value you bring to the world or what you want to bring to the world," says Zoe, "and then, if you understand that, it will translate effortlessly into your business."
To hear more from these 'kidpreneurs', listen to the episode of Money Box in full.
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