HOW IT ALL STARTED
When I was first asked to teach a fun class to a group of children grades one to five I struggled with a topic. It was open ended. I could teach anything I wanted for 50 minutes every Friday for six weeks.
I have several random skills like dancing and coding and history spanning years of school, hobbies and work experience.
One afternoon I was standing in the hall as parents picked up their children. They lamented the lack of “real skills” being developed in their own children and I was asked advice about how to encourage the development of these “invisible” skills.
I replied, “well…help them start their own business. Nothing builds those skills better than becoming an entrepreneur”.
And so I suggested just that for my next session: I would teach a simple method, based on my own experience as an entrepreneur. I’d simply show the children “how to start their own business” based on their own ideas, and sell that product or service for money at a planned children’s business fair at the end of the class.
To be honest I was not sure if it was going to work with such a young group, but then found myself shocked when six classes over 12 weeks went by in blur. And not only did it work brilliantly, but the resulting fair was such a success I was positive I had discovered a secret. I was clearly onto something desperately needed in the education space; a succinct method to build skills everyone needs, but struggles to develop through typical learning experiences.
I was asked to do it again the following year. And the next. News spread of the program and groups of all kinds reached out to me to come teach the program and help them host their own fair.
The rest of the story spans seven years with over 800 students as young as six learning entrepreneurship. I noticed over time teens 15 and up needed something different from what I offered - more ‘accelerator’ than ‘mentor’. The bulk of children attracted to my program were in the elementary and middle school years.
I learned that without a business fair at the end, the learning simply doesn’t take. They needed a place to sell their idea at least once. It is essential to the development of those skills.
As a result a business fair became a requirement for my engagement with every group. They had to plan and host a Children’s Business Fair within a week of the class. Otherwise it’s “pretending” to start a business and middle schoolers can smell “pointless” from a mile away. They would simply phone it in during class.
I also discovered the fair is where you get to witness, in real time, the transformative impact of starting a business. A business based in their own passion or interest, which they get to sell for money they get to keep.
In order for them to be ready to sell their idea at that fair:
They had to persevered through its development and failures. Those failures became ways to improve and try again.
The had to be creative in both their business idea and solving problems as they arose.
They had to work hard to meet that deadline without any guarantee it would sell.
They had to think critically about their idea and its genuine value.
And when they finally sell it at the fair, their self confidence is radiating from them in waves. They now see they can do anything they set their mind to. They have developed an entrepreneurial mindset. A growth mindset.
WHY SUBSCRIBE?
To be inspired by what’s possible. This is something anyone can facilitate. I’ll walk you through the process and give you ideas from my own curriculum design to build your own program. You will read stories from my many students, or podcast archives of young entrepreneurs I’ve interviewed. Plus some bits from raising my own children through homeschooling in an entrepreneurial household. My children know exactly what it’s like to live and be taught by entrepreneurs. They have experience every failure and every success first hand.
Through building an entrepreneurial mindset, they define themselves as useful, they see that they have value.
My hope is that here you’ll see the value in such a venture too.
I believe every child should be given the opportunity to start a business. Even for just one fair, and never again. The act of doing so builds skills for life.
—Stacey
