BUSINESS & ENTREPRENEURSHIP

The multiple intelligences identified by Howard Gardner encompass most kinds of intellectual function, but if we were to add another it might be the intelligence of The Dealmaker. Some individuals seem to have a gift for making good decisions around material objects, a knack for trading and leveraging that plays itself out in schoolroom transactions well before it may pay off in business or social realms later on.

Conducting transactions around material objects seems to be hardwired into the human spirit, and even in non-materialistic cultures there is still the need to make decisions about allocation and accountability. Where elders are in charge of these matters, it is because their longer experience has given them a certain perspective and wisdom, a perspective and wisdom that we believe can be gained even at a young age when children are given the opportunity to participate in a culture’s economic activities.

A part of some of the suggestions in the BUSINESS AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP section involves “giving back” to the community by contributing a percentage of any profits made to come worthy charitable cause of the child’s choice. If the object here is to strengthen the youngster’s capabilities as a businessperson, it is also about building a sense of social responsibility.

Lately we have encountered the term “social entrepreneurship,” which reminds us that the skills and habits of mind of that we think of as characterizing successful businesspersons can also be harnessed in making social change and working toward goals of equity and justice. We do not explicitly address this concept in these suggestions, but we encourage young people and adults alike to envision analogues in the service of making the world a more equitable and pleasant place.

B&E 1. Earn a sum of money with a simple business you think up and can run all by yourself from your own  home while observing stay-at-home orders and social distancing. Then find a charity you believe in and contribute a tenth (or more) of what you earned.
The one-person street corner lemonade stand (absolutely inappropriate for the current COVID-19 crisis) is the classic first business, and the young entrepreneur can learn a great deal from even something so simple—material costs, price-setting, inventory control, even labor costs. Whatever the nature of the business, the essentials remain the same: to keep income ahead of expenses and to find ways to keep customers satisfied.

The major decision to be made, of course, is the nature of the business itself. Perhaps it plays to the strengths of the child, either as something that can be made and sold or a service based on a particular interest or ability. Is there an interest in the product, a probable customer base? Can the product be created and sold at a price point that ensures profit? What are the possible pitfalls and problems that could arise?

Once the business has been decided on, the next steps are to determine details such as the nature of advertising,  quality and quantity of materials needed, when the business will actually be in operation, and how the product might be distributed safely. Once these  things are decided on, the business can open.

NOTE: Certain kinds of businesses, and children of a certain age, will require a certain amount of adult monitoring. Unforeseen issues may arise with customers, local regulations, and losses—to name a few—and the youngster may need some adult back-up to assist with troubleshooting. If the business seems to be headed for a total loss, some adult wisdom will be necessary to determine when to pull the plug and to reflect on what went wrong. In business as in so many areas, failure is one of the very best teachers.

(ALSO: Service and Helping Others)

B&E 2. Try selling a work of art or literature that you have created. The internet will have resources on how to sell your writing and illustrations, or perhaps a local artist or art dealer (contacted online or by phone) will be willing to give you advice about marketing a painting or a piece of sculpture.
This activity combines the challenges of creativity with the sometimes greater challenge of finding a market for one’s art. There are vast numbers of low-circulation poetry and literary magazines that will accept work submitted by amateur or unknown authors (usually, alas, without payment, but look hard), and there are probably at least as many magazines, books, and websites dedicated to publicizing ways for authors to get work published. The chances are good that your public library will have at least one of these “how to sell your work” books, which may also have information on selling illustrations and fine art work to the same kinds of literary magazines.

There may be other markets closer to home. Some small-town or community newspapers will happily accept fiction, poetry, and even art work from local creators. There may even be local or regional literary magazines whose existence is unexpected; the library might be a good source of information here.

If you have written or created in the style of a particular author or artist, look for a fan fiction site to which you could post your work. (Some fan fiction sites are likely to be a little more adult in content, so perhaps some adult guidance would be good here.)

As far as the marketing of visual art goes, when the pandemic has ended many communities resume summer arts fairs where local artists can show and sell their work. Some of these are juried—that is, artists are selected by a committee to participate—but some are open. There is likely to be at least one art dealer nearby who might be persuaded to handle good-quality work by a rising young local talent, or there is always the equivalent of the lemonade stand: put up a booth on the curb.

If the youngster has a few friends with creative urges and a pile of poetry or paintings, why not suggest that they pool resources and publish their own literary magazine or start their own gallery? A few advertisements from local merchants or friends would pay to photocopy a few dozen copies, which could also be sold. Or perhaps a local business has a small spare room that could become gallery space. And there’s always a website: many blogsites are free and could be used to post poetry, short stories, or paintings or photographs, although it’s hard to make money on a blog.

It is easy to find people who will maintain that art does not pay, and often they are kind of correct. But an ambitious artist (and friends) might be able to raise at least a few dollars in the art market, and along the way there will be opportunities to learn about both the creative self and the art market.

(ALSO: The Arts and Creative Expression)

B&E 3. Earn a sum of money with a business that you organize and run with friends. Then find a charity you believe in and contribute a tenth (or more) of what you earned.
This activity builds on IDEA #63, above, with the added complexity of partnership. Here is a valuable opportunity to learn interpersonal skills around management and compromise, with the new wrinkle that the joint participants are friends—working safely together at a distance.

One of the best ways to forestall problems among the partners—even with an elementary schooler’s lemonade stand—is to make a simple chart that defines and allots tasks and responsibilities, doing what’s possible to draw on strengths and interests. With the chart completed and literally signed off on by all participants, the next step is to build a timeline of jobs to be completed. Careful, open, and clear pre-planning of the work to be done is essential in making the operation, and the relationships of the partners, run smoothly.

A note for interested parents/guardians: Incidentally, this same system—an established business model—can be used to help kids organize and complete collaborative academic projects, where workload inequity and individual shirking often lead to disaster among even close friends. Even if the teacher does not help students by assigning such a system, urge or even guide your child to set things up in this way—a clear list of tasks, a clear allocation of responsibility, a clear timeline—whenever a group project is starting. The plan should impress (and perhaps inspire) the teacher, and the work will go much more smoothly.

(ALSO: Service and Helping Others)

B&E 4. Invent something or come up with an original idea for your own business, and then find someone who can help you write a business plan for putting your invention or idea on the market. When your plan is done, figure out how to put into practice.
Of course this suggestion presupposes a certain inventive strain in the young person, as coming up with an idea for a successful business is a major challenge even for the most original of entrepreneurial minds. But let the imagination run free, even if the idea is flawed, because the point here is for the child to consider all the steps required in establishing a business and bringing a product or service to market.

The internet can provide reference materials including actual templates for business plans. The exercise is to apply specific, intentional thought to the business idea and to imagine each segment of the actualization plan. There are opportunities here to consider such matters as mission—the larger intent of a business—and the ways in which businesses find and pull together the resources necessary for production. Marketing is the final aspect to be considered, and perhaps the student can analyze some of his or her own experience as a consumer to come up with ideas as to how a product can be made appealing to a particular group of people.

One aspect of this project is to imagine what people want and need—to make the consideration a business idea an exercise in empathy. Another part is to consider the kinds of companies and products that truly and consistently deliver in terms of quality and service. What makes Coca-Cola a successful company, or Microsoft, or Old Navy? How do such companies become so successful—is it luck, or planning? What companies has the child seen fail—what fads and “must-have” items have completely disappeared within his or her lifetime? What is the secret of business success, in other words?

If the plan seems sound and exciting, there is no reason that the young person cannot try to connect with some adult resources who might help turn the dream into a reality. After all, how old was Bill Gates when he started Microsoft or Mark Zuckerberg when Facebook took off?

(ALSO: STEM; The Arts and Creative Expression)

B&E 5. Find a product or company you are interested in, find it on the stock market, and follow its fortunes there
Imagine that you have bought 100 shares of a stock, and track it—write it down!—at least once a week on the internet or in the newspaper. Keep track of how much you win or lose in a month, or two months. Are you happy or sad that you didn’t invest real money?

Stock market reports feature prominently in the news, and investment is the cornerstone of capitalism. The child who learns to understand the system and who can begin to see the relationships between the urge to buy and the urge to sell can at least begin to develop a sense of society’s values as well as how day-to-day events influence the economy.

The first order of business is to help the youngster understand what a “share” of a company is, and how the rising or falling value of the share is a function of the perceived future value of the company. The simple fact is that a stock sale represents a fundamental disagreement between buyer and seller as to whether the value of the stock will rise or fall, a fact with profound implications for the economy as a whole and, of course, for the immediate future of the company.

The second step in this activity is to choose a stock for the hypothetical purchase. Youngstr like to invest in things in which they believe and with which they are familiar—a company that makes a favorite possession, like a computer or a game, or that provides a service the youngster enjoys, like a particular restaurant or television network. It should be fairly easy to find out if the company is listed on one of the major stock exchanges—New York or NASDAQ—and what its trading symbol and current share price are.

Imagine one share at X dollars, and then imagine a hundred shares. This is the initial investment cost (and a simple multiplication problem). For the duration of the activity the young investor can track the share price; does it rise or fall? Older children may want to track several stocks, perhaps keeping a graph or table of daily value and perhaps also noting the state of the market in general, up or down.

At the end of the period, total up the value of a hundred shares and then compare it to the initial cost. If the investment “made” money, especially more than a percent or two, the investment was sound and perhaps spectacular. If there was a paper loss, then all involved should feel relieved that the investment was not real, but even a significant loss might not signal disaster. The question might be, What would explain the rise or fall in the stock’s price? Were there news items relating to the company and its business, or did the fluctuations in price seem to have little relationship to anything obvious?

The real lesson of the stock market is to look at long-term investment and to see how a company might do over an extended period of time. Another wise investment strategy involves diversification, investing in several or more different kinds of businesses. Many people do not understand the importance of the stock market as a principal investment of pension and retirement funds, insurance companies, banks, and even college and private school endowments—not just individuals.

It should be possible to locate a stockbroker—try an online search—who would be willing to discuss the market and its vagaries and processes with an interested young potential investor. Of course, this exercise could be performed with real money and real shares, although perhaps a very small amount of stock would be a safer way to start.

(ALSO: STEM; The World and Its Cultures)