LEARNING BY DOING

Investing in Youth Entrepreneurship

The entrepreneurial edge

You’ve heard about young people washing cars, mowing lawns, babysitting, or having a paper route to make a few bucks.

But what about youth who rent digital cameras at weddings, install wireless Internet systems in residential buildings, buy and sell wholesale goods, or write quirky greeting cards?

Young entrepreneurs today are finding more and more creative ways to earn money. And their enterprises may do more for them than adding dollars to their piggy banks. Many people believe that starting and running a business—or just learning the skills to do so—can give youth an advantage in life.

Though further evaluation of youth entrepreneurship programs is needed, some research suggests that these programs allow young people to connect with caring adults, to learn about career options, and to build leadership skills and self-esteem. A Harvard Graduate School of Education study commissioned by the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship found that participating in an entrepreneurship program increased youths’ interest in attending college, their career aspirations, and their belief in their ability to achieve their goals.

Experts on entrepreneurship say starting a business has risks and rewards—a combination that may energize some youth more than others. Still, the ability to “think like an entrepreneur,” combining creativity, problem-solving, and long-range vision, can boost the fortune of any young person, regardless of career and life goals.

Tips for engaging youth in the arts

• Invite local entrepreneurs and businesspeople from a variety of fields to speak about how they got started and how they run their businesses.
  
  
• Visit nearby small businesses or work with business owners to arrange job shadowing or externships for youth. In job shadowing, a youth follows an adult on the job for a day. In an externship, the youth spends a week working at a job site.
  
  
• Plan activities that help youth identify their interests and translate them into business ideas. A young person who likes yard work might start a landscaping business. A budding chef might start a catering business. Youth with computer skills might build Web sites, design software, or offer technical support to other businesses.
  
  
• Organize a group project in which youth work as a team to choose a business idea, come up with a plan, raise seed money, purchase equipment, and market and sell their product. For instance, a class in Florida started a cookie-baking company that helped them raise the money for a spring break trip to New York.
  
  
• Lend youth a small amount (for example, no more than $50) to invest in a business idea, such as selling products bought wholesale. Youth must pay the loan back after a set amount of time.
  
  
• Show young people how solutions to problems can become business ideas. A young man who recognized families’ need for childcare started a company that employs college students as tutors and nannies. A young woman whose grandfather suffered from heart disease makes gift baskets filled with heart-healthy snacks and pamphlets about good nutrition.
  
  
• Encourage young people to mine their cultural backgrounds for ideas. A young woman from California teaches girls a traditional Latin American dance performed at the quinceañera coming-of-age ceremony. A young man from Harlem started a cable access show providing inspirational role models for inner-city youth.
  
  
• Demonstrate the importance of academic skills (reading, writing, research, math, and computer knowledge) through hands-on exercises such as writing a business plan, conducting market research, balancing books, and creating an inventory database.

Resources

Learning by Doing was developed for the Family and Youth Services Bureau; Administration on Children, Youth and Families; Administration for Children and Families; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, by the National Clearinghouse on Families & Youth (NCFY). For more information on ways to engage young people, please go to ncfy.acf.hhs.gov, or contact NCFY at (301) 608-8098.