Today we are talking about skills that kid entrepreneurs can develop! To all the kid entrepreneur’s out there this podcast is for you! To all the parents listening to today’s podcast make sure to share this with your kid – they’ll love you for it!
On Instagram, I get lots of questions from teenagers who want to know how to start a business, and so I wanted to kind of share with you how I would develop entrepreneurial skills if I was a kid entrepreneur. These are skills every kid can develop to become an entrepreneur.
Let me share with you this quote. This is original, this is mine, and this is when I knew I was an entrepreneur, in that I really didn’t know what an entrepreneur was but I knew I wanted to own a business.
I’d rather make 50% doing nothing than 100% doing everything.
Let me say that again:
I would rather make 50% doing nothing than 100% doing everything.
When did you learn this?
I used to have a lawn care business. We lived in a townhouse and I was a good salesperson, and it was easy for me to get people to want to allow me to mow their grass, and time, I think it was like $5 to move the grass, but I didn’t want to mow the grass. I could get a friend to mow it for three! I was more excited about the $2 I made not having to do anything, other than establishing the accounts than I would have ever wanted if I had to mow all myself. There’s what’s called a worker bee, and that’s the person who goes out and mows every grass. I’m glad I made it. I made this much amount of money. I was actually more impressed that I made 40% and I didn’t have to do any labor. That’s when I knew that I was different.
I had a job selling Cut Co. knives in graduate school, and you started out at like 10% commission, and then you could get up to 50% commission. When I saw that spread, I knew that I had to get to 50%, not because I wanted to make 50%, because I knew once I got to 50%, then I could have other people sell the knives. I could pay them 20%, which is still 10% more than what they get if they started out themselves, and I could make a 30% override.
Think about that. So every time somebody out there selling knives, I was making 30%. These knives were typically from $200 a set to $1000. It was actually really good money. That’s when I knew my brain worked differently. I was much happier making a percentage doing nothing than 100% doing everything.
So I think if you’re wanting to become an entrepreneur and want to know the scales required, there is something a little different in you. You’re the one who starts the lemonade stand, always trying to figure out how to make it die. My son, I knew he had it. I remember when he used to make little business cards and try to sell them. He was always trying to sell something. He had that innate business mindset.
So what are the skills that every kid can develop to become an entrepreneur?
How to Initiate the Start of Something From Scratch
Hey, I don’t care if it’s a club, I don’t care if it’s a baseball collecting card club, I don’t care if it’s a fantasy football league. Maybe it’s a neighborhood clean up program, but you need to learn how to initiate the start of something from scratch. That is a critical skill to be an entrepreneur, the ability to get a group of people excited about doing something. I was the one who always created neighborhood football games and got everybody to play. When I moved to my new area, I started a softball team from scratch
Look for Leadership Opportunities
Somebody’s going to be leading your company. Might as well be you!
So throughout your lifetime, and I’m guessing, let’s say middle school and high school, look for leadership opportunities. There are constant organizations within schools. You can either be a follower leader. Try to lead it. Look for leadership opportunities.
Develop Your Speaking Skills
Take speech classes. Read How To Win Friends and Influence People and other books on speech. Look for opportunities to speak and learn about the ability to communicate. There is no skill I have that has paid me more money than that ability. It helps you negotiate.
Learn How to Sell
Get an opportunity to sell something. I don’t care what it is. If you’re selling Girl Scout cookies or you’re selling something as a fundraiser for your school, look for opportunities to sell and become great at selling. You’re going to be constantly selling your ideas. You’re going to be hiring people and sometimes need to sell them on a position with your company.
I sell nearly every single day, even if I don’t think I am.
Launch a Business
Something with low finance costs like a lemonade stand. Launch something. Launch something online. That’s the only way you’re going to learn how to be an entrepreneur is to actually launch something. You just gotta go do it. Find something that you think people want and create a business. I don’t care if you sell at your county fair, but launch something, sell it. Recruit people to help you. That’s putting it all together.
So these are the skills that every kid can develop to become an entrepreneur, let me take you through the five again.
- Learn how to initiate the start of something from scratch.
- Look for leadership opportunities.
- Develop your speaking skills.
- Learn how to sell.
- Launch something, get something off the ground.
That’s going to teach you the whole process, you’re going to sell something, you’re going to receive revenue, you’re going to have to maybe pay your friends to help you, you might have to market it a little bit. That’s where you tie everything together.
