Entrepreneurship: When Passion Doesn't Pay the Bills

For most of us, becoming an entrepreneur and being able to spend our days making a lot of money around something we're deeply passionate about seems to be the professional goal. But what happens when we're unable to monetize our passions into something that sustains us financially?

The other day, I ran into a friend's adult daughter who was at this very crossroad. See, her passion revolved around music; she's well-versed in all genres, writes her own music and seems to be able to carry a tune as well as any American Idol contestant. (I'm tone deaf, but she sounds good to me.) She majored in music in college and had dreams of living comfortably off her talents. That is, until reality set in.

Today, at age 27, she works during the day as an office assistant; a job that pays enough to cover her bills. She still works on her music, but it's mostly on the weekends and she still hasn't made money from it.


The Mindset of an Entrepreneur



As a parent, I couldn't help but show her some empathy, after all we want nothing more than to see our kids happy all throughout their lives. What she lacked was the know-how to monetize her talents - the key component to being able to fully carry out one's passion as a career choice.

Like many young adults, the lack of knowing how to think like an entrepreneur and seize financial opportunities prevents them pursuing their passions. As a result, they are forced to take on jobs in careers of little interest because the reality of responsibility has come into play. They're disillusioned and rightfully so - their entire childhood has been spent honing those skills based on their talents with little consideration of how they will make a living at it.

The truth is, as a performer, she's replaceable. There are loads of people out there with comparable talents, some of whom get their 15 minutes of fame and many who don't. Those who do make it have figured it out. They know how to brand themselves, take necessary risks, spot opportunities and monetize their efforts. They've learned to think like an entrepreneur and apply those skills to their passions.

An Entrepreneur Monetizes His Passion

Socially, we tend to focus on building skill sets around our passions.  As kids, honing our talents provides an illusion that we will be at the top of our game and with good grades in school and a college degree behind us, who wouldn't want to employ our talented selves?  The reality is those who have learned the monetary value behind their talents and curb their ability to be replaced as a asset in the workplace will have a higher probability of having a career around their passions than those who don't.

It's delusional to think that the simple formula of grades, talents and a college degree is the ticket to the Professional Garden of Eden.  Like my friend's daughter and many of her peers, she followed that path because she was told that was the winning combination and right way to go.  Now, as an adult, she's realizing there was more to the equation and that the system failed her.  She's become dependent upon others for her financial survival as an employee as she watches her dreams of becoming a musical star slowly fade away.

An Entrepreneur is Made

Entrepreneurship spans all industries.  There isn't one career that doesn't involve an entrepreneur at the top.  And there's more to taking a product and asking people to buy it.  Other factors come into play and there are things people need to know (through formal and informal education) when starting and running a business.

Just like honing a specific skill around your passion, an entrepreneur hones his entrepreneurial skills.  Teaching a person to think like an entrepreneur takes time and practice; it's not something you just wake up one day and successfully do.  Sure, not everyone wants to become or is wired to become an entrepreneur, but everyone has the capacity to think like one.  For most, it's the difference between realizing and living out one's life doing what they love or working job because they have to.  Entrepreneurship is a necessary skill that compliments all others.

Find your passion.  Think like an entrepreneur!

Biz in a Boxx

Obama, You're Missing an Extra "E" in STEM

If you listened to President Obama's State of the Union Address on Tuesday, you probably caught a glimpse of his vague plans to improve our educational system by focusing on STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) subjects to produce a more skilled workforce able to compete globally.

Will STEM Education Will Produce a Competitive Workforce?

Certainly grooming future scientists, engineers and technologists will produce a skilled and competitive workforce that could innovate new products, but the other half of the equation is getting those products to the marketplace. There's an assumption that if we educate today's youth in STEM education, they will choose those corresponding careers and, when they enter the workforce, there will be jobs available. Yet, jobs are created by people who start businesses, no matter their background, and not necessarily by scientists, engineers and technologists. There's no benefit to educating a workforce in certain disciplines if we cannot provide an adequate amount of jobs. It's simply a matter of supply and demand.

STEM, in all its rhetoric, is missing an extra "E" for Entrepreneurship.

Focusing solely on STEM education is a bandaid; STEEM is a solution. If you read my 8 Things I've Learned About Being an Entrepreneur, you'll understand that putting STEM education and reform as a national priority is a result of needing a cure to solve our current perceptions of being less than globally competitive. At some point, when we possibly have too many scientists, engineers and technologists out of work because supply outweighs the amount of jobs available we will realize that we should have implemented that extra "E" into the equation.

STEM Education Solves Half the Problem

In theory, STEM education leads to innovation, but STEEM allows for those innovations to be taken to the market successfully. That's where we can really shine in the global market.

Even Obama glorified his speech with tales of Brandon Fisher whose small drilling business aided in the rescue of the 33 Chilean miners and the Allen brothers of Michigan whose company manufactures solar shingles. These aren't just people who innovated products but entrepreneurs who took their ideas and inventions to the marketplace.

There are plenty of great ideas circulating the nation, many of which haven't come to fruition and never will. We don't teach entrepreneurship in our public school system. If we really want to flourish as a nation and be leaders in the global economy, we'll start implementing STEEM instead of just STEM into the equation.

Success to you!

Melissa

Biz in a Boxx

Why Every Kids Should Learn About Entrepreneurship

A myth behind youth entrepreneurship implies that your child will be ensnared in hours of tasks, taking away from his limited childhood. After all, he has time to learn the 8 to 5 role when he reaches adulthood and is forced to make his own way.

Lessons in Youth Entrepreneurship From a Lemonade Stand

There's more to youth entrepreneurship than your occasional lemonade stand that occupies little Jimmy's time for a few weekend hours. Sure it's adorable watching him craft his stand and signage and overly sweeten the lemonade that will make his customer's thirstier than when they arrived. But for those few hours, he's learning some very valuable lessons that he'll take with him the rest of his life.

Youth Entrepreneurship and the Value of Ownership

For most kids, having true ownership over something is rare. Sure, you may be teaching your kid about responsibility and financial management through delegating chores, but chores are a micro-managed activity. There's not a whole lot of creativity in emptying a dishwasher, making a bed or folding the laundry and putting it away. They are tasks that are dictated on performance and time. Though chores are necessary and an excellent way to teach important skill sets, but they are not activities that a kid has complete control over.

Part of what is so enticing about entrepreneurship is ownership - ownership over ideas and actions and the ability to make decisions. It's about freedom to call the shots and build something out of nothing. Over 700,000 people each year in the US take a stab at starting a business, partly due to the desire to be one's own boss. A sense of ownership doesn't begin at age 18; it's a powerful force than transcends all ages.

Youth Entrepreneurship Benefits Go a Long Way

Think back to when you got your first business card and the feeling that came from it. For some, it's a sense of accomplishment and a sign that you are creating a professional path for yourself. Think about what it can do for a kid who came upon an idea, acted on it and created something from it. He may not be bringing in a six figure income yet, but he did something significant all on his own.

There's nothing like true ownership. It builds self-esteem and self-awareness. From that sense of ownership, mixed with youth entrepreneurship, we find other life-long benefits emerge. That lemonade stand teaches financial literacy, decision-making, strategic-planning, creativity, mathematics, innovation, communications, accountability, risk-taking, teamwork and delegation. All this from mixing up some sugar and lemons and sitting on the sidewalk waiting for passerby's. What other activity will your child be doing that teaches all of these important skill sets?

Adulthood and Youth Entrepreneurship

The limited time your kid has to enjoy his childhood is undoubtedly valued; he likely won't see this carefree time in his life until he retires. Yet, the bulk of his life will be spent making his way through the world, independently taking care of himself and his family. All of the lessons learned from his childhood will carry over into adulthood and help steer him towards who he will become. Most will become employees who will work for those who possess an entrepreneurial mindset and took a risk to start something new. (Entrepreneurship: Beating the Odds.)

While as parents we don't know with certainty who our kids will become, we do know what they will need to know to get ahead and be competitive. And that's part of our job to teach them.

Get your kids involved in youth entrepreneurship by giving them the tools to have a positive first experience and watch how amazed you will become from the lessons they will learn.

Biz in a Boxx

Hey Mom...I'm Back!

Imagine the youth unemployment rate so high that after paying or borrowing tens of thousands of dollars on a college education, your kid ends up back home because he can't find a job and afford an independent lifestyle. Welcome Boomerang Generation.

There were three definite rules in our household while I was growing up - don't do drugs, call if you're going to be late and get out of the house when you graduate from high school. The latter may seem a bit harsh to some, but it really wasn't meant that way. It's was my parent's way of saying, "We've taught you to fly; now it's time you to start your journey."

And we did.

The Boomerang Generation and Youth Unemployment

The term "Boomerang Generation" has begun to emerge with Gen Yer's, so much that there's actually a Wikipedia page about it. CNN Money reported that in a poll conducted by Twentysomething Inc. some 85 percent of college students plan to move back home when they graduate, up from 67 percent in 2006.

A big part of the problem, of course, is the high, 15 percent youth unemployment rate amongst 20-24 year olds. Home seems like a viable option to many.

Youth Unemployment Has Long-Term Consequences

The high youth unemployment rate and the time spent out of the labor pool can be hazardous to both the parents who find they are financially supporting their adult children and the young adult who misses out on valuable time gaining work experience to build a solid career. While it may seem nice to have the kids home again, there are some long-term consequences to it all. If you're a parent who has to financially support your adult child, those expenses eat away at your retirement. If you're an adult child out of work for any length of time, it's time you have to make up when gaining and honing real-world skill sets.

Sure, large numbers of children, mostly single, have lived with their parents as adults for decades. But things were far different 100 or even 50 years ago. Women, especially, weren't abundant in the workforce and so they lived in their childhood rooms until they married and started a home of their own. No matter the statistics, the fact that kids are forced to move back in with their parents due to high youth unemployment rates and not social norms is significant.

Youth Unemployment Options

Bianca Fortis was a Boomerang Kid who found herself once again living with her parents after college while she tried to find a job in journalism. Bianca was dependent upon an economic system for her financial independence, a path most kids are told to follow. It seemed that if you went to college, those years of hard work would pay off in an immediate job, but the labor market is about supply and demand. If there's not enough demand for your skills and what you can bring to the table, then it's "hello Strawberry Shortcake comforter. It's so nice to see you again."

Kids will either grow up to be employees or employers, but never exposing them to both opportunities limits them as they venture down their career path. Even a kid who has developed an entrepreneurial mindset before he's reached college age has a much better propensity to adapt to these economic changes. Their financial survival skills are far stronger than those who have never been exposed. And if you think the current economic downturn won't happen again in your kids' lifetime, think again. It's cyclical.

As a parent, I'd love for my daughter to return home after she finishes college, but I don't want her to actually live at home. It's not because I wouldn't want her to be that close to me, but because she deserves to have a life of her own, to be productive, follow her dreams and accomplish her own goals. Preparing her now, before she leaves high school, is the best gift I can unselfishly give her.

Encourage your kids, of all ages, to get out there and make their own employment. Don't teach them to become dependent upon a system; this is America, home to entrepreneurship and because the youth unemployment rate isn't going to dip down low for quite some time.

Biz in a Boxx

It's a Matter of Numbers: Entrepreneurs and Job Creation

When it comes to participating in the workforce, we either work for entrepreneurs, are entrepreneurs or we work for the government. There's not much to it. We're either employers or employees.

Entrepreneurs

 
Although entrepreneurs make up just 11.5 percent of the population, ("Entrepreneurs: Beating the Odds") their ideas and abilities to take risks to form new ventures are the mechanisms behind job creation. If you're an employee, your paycheck is the result of someone recognizing an opportunity and taking a calculated risk to profit from it. If you're an employer, your drive and willingness to create a business helped put food one someone's table and a roof over their head.

The Jobs Entrepreneurs Create

According to the Kauffman Foundation, firms that are a year old create approximately 1 million jobs, while firms that have been in existence for 10 years create about 300,000 new jobs. Historically, from 1980 to 2005 almost all new net jobs came from companies that were less than five years old. These companies also innovate more new products than their older counterparts, which is a substantial benefit to consumers.

The Role of Future Job Growth and Entrepreneurs

The Kauffman Foundation also found that high-growth start ups like Groupon and Facebook are the most beneficial to both job creation and the economy overall. High-growth start ups not only invent new products that had not been largely commercialized, but they are rife with job opportunities. In less than 1.5 years, Groupon added some 350 people to its payroll.

Unfortunately, there are only about 15 high-growth start ups a year. At this rate, the GDP will double in about 24 years. If 45-75 high-growth start ups were formed each year, doubling the GDP rate would decrease to 18 years, according to Kauffman.

Training More Entrepreneurs

 
Entrepreneurs don't just emerge out of thin air. Even if you are an employee and wake up the next day, quit your job and start working on your idea and business plan, it's likely that you have years of workplace experience and skill set development behind you. Even then you may lack the knowledge and experience to actually run your own business.

Andrew Mason, the founder of Groupon, didn't just spring out of bed one morning, develop software and market it to the masses, despite his seemingly short rise to business success. Mason started on his entrepreneurial journey at age 15 when he opened up his food delivery business. The idea for Groupon didn't start out as a bargain, daily deal website either. The initial idea was to gather people to voice and fund relevant causes. And it was Eric Lefkofsky, the serial entrepreneur Mason worked for, who saw the monetary potential in Mason's ideas.

Having an entrepreneurial mindset can be taught, but it's this training that the majority of kids won't get in school. In order to increase entrepreneurial activity in the US, there needs to be training, formal and informal, and the earlier the better. It's those kids who are in the midst of their primary education who will determine whether the economy and job growth will flourish in decades to come. Grooming entrepreneurs and instilling the entrepreneurial mindset is the key to continued prosperity and success.

Success to you!

Melissa

Biz in a Boxx

Entrepreneurship: Beating the Odds

There's no other country in the world that praises entrepreneurship like the US. Our history books are full of inventors like Henry Ford, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Edison who not only took risks to bring new innovations to the market, but carried out the belief that free enterprise was at the cornerstone of the American Dream.

Few countries take advantage of the entrepreneurial culture like the US. According to The Economist, Europeans have less to gain from entrepreneurship because of higher tax rates and risks outweigh rewards. In Germany, the law prevents people who have filed for bankruptcy to hold a CEO position. Not so in the US where failure is a motivator for getting back on the horse (despite the sting.)

American entrepreneurs don't become successful businessmen and women overnight despite the shortened tales of their rise to the top that are depicted far more often than the long road it took to get them on the Fortune 500 list. Yet, the contributions these entrepreneurs of our largest and smallest companies provide are astounding when you really look at the figures.

Entrepreneurship: What Are the Odds?

There are approximately 237 million adults (age 18+) in the US in which 11.5 percent are considered entrepreneurs. (Thailand tops the entrepreneurial chart; 19 percent engage in entrepreneurial activity.) Some 29 million small businesses represent 99.7 percent of all employer firms and employ over half of the private sector. These small businesses are responsible for 93.7 percent of all exported goods as well as the majority of all new innovations. Rather amazing accomplishments from such a small sector of the population.

To put it in perspective, half of all kids under the age of 17 (41 million) play an organized, competitive sport in the US. By the time they reach the age of 13, nearly 70 percent have stopped playing. Today, there's approximately 4 million professional athletes, representing only 10 percent of those kids who first started playing a sport in their younger years. Hence, the odds of your kid becoming an entrepreneur is roughly the same as him or her becoming a professional athlete.

Beating the Entrepreneurship Odds

There are similarities and differences between venturing down the small business path and donning a high-priced uniform. Entrepreneurship can be learned, but like playing a sport, there's plenty of practice involved. If entrepreneurship just happened overnight, it would be akin to changing out a light bulb and calling yourself an electrician.

Most small businesses today are started by older Americans; 36 percent are between the ages of 55-64 while those 20-34 years old only account for 26 percent of new firms. The average age for those starting technology companies aren't your recent college grads either; the average age in that start-up sector is 39. Education, skill development and experience are key components to entrepreneurial activity in the US.

Entrepreneurship Training

From 2008 to 2009, entrepreneurial activity amongst those 6-19 years old actually fell by almost 40 percent. More troubling is that those under the age of 20 represent just over a quarter of the total US population - 85 million to be exact. Knowing how important entrepreneurship is to the economy, job creation and innovation would suggest that training is vital to the health of free enterprise. What would happen if business acumen was taught at the K-12 level? How many kids would have a leg up on the competition once they reached adulthood? How many more firms, jobs and innovations would be created in a shorter period of time? Will the next generation continue in their entrepreneurial efforts that made the US so great?

I'm still betting entrepreneurship.

Melissa

Biz in a Boxx

Youth Entrepreneurship: What's the Big Deal?

The benefits of teaching youth entrepreneurship go well beyond the obvious practice of taking a product and selling it in the marketplace. There’s not only a plethora is life skills learned through the practice of entrepreneurship, but for some kids, especially at-risk kids, entrepreneurship can show them that their future can be different.

Life Skills

There are a wide range of skill sets needed to run a business: decision-making, calculated risk-taking, financial management, creativity, strategic-planning, teamwork, leadership, mathematics, communicative (oral and written), etc.

Aside from these life skills, there are also intrinsic benefits to teaching kids entrepreneurship. For most, it can be the one thing in their lives that they truly own and have complete control over. They can see the cause and effect of hard work and the importance of accountability. Youth entrepreneurship builds self-esteem and self-awareness. It is also the one course in which failure is a component to learning. In other words, the business world accepts mistakes as part of the path to success.

In a report by the D.C. Children and Youth Investment Corporation, other positive outcomes include:

• improved academic performance, school attendance; and educational attainment
• increased problem-solving and decision-making abilities
• improved interpersonal relationships, teamwork, money management, and public speaking skills
• job readiness
• enhanced social psychological development (self-esteem, ego development, self-efficacy), and
• perceived improved health status

21st Century Skills and STEM Education

While we can see how teaching youth entrepreneurship relates to 21st Century skills, there are increasingly vast opportunities to incorporate STEM education into the mix.
Traditional courses simply teach students how businesses run by studying large established businesses. While this is a necessary component of case study, it’s unrealistic for the student to actually apply the knowledge in his or her own setting. Most businesses in the US are considered small and how the small business operates, grows and succeeds is different from its large corporate counterparts. To instill 21st Century skills so that the student knows the relevancy and how to apply it takes real-world practice.

Traditional business courses also do not incorporate STEM education, which is a vital component to product development and innovation. Typically STEM education and entrepreneurship are kept separate when in fact they are skill sets that should be married. For example: Our SciPreneur program is aimed at getting young girls interested in science by showing them the relevancy of their innovations. The girls spend time creating beauty products using their own formula by understanding what each ingredient does when mixed with others. When their products are formulated, they learned how to properly package them and start a business. The outcome is that they not only see how their scientific skills relate to innovation, but they also get to experience marketplace opportunities. And the results do not simply stop when the course is over.

If we turn the table, we can show students the relevancy of STEM education if entrepreneurship is a partner in learning. It’s easy to compartmentalize coursework in relation to future career choices. For example, I have a cousin who is a math major at Boston College. While she loves math and excels in the subject, she believes the only viable career choice for it is to become a math teacher. She hasn’t learned how her mathematical skill sets can transfer over to a variety of career options. If a student loves chemistry but doesn’t want to become a chemist and work in a lab, have we shown him or her other career options in which those skill sets are valuable? Have we shown them that innovative ideas have value in the marketplace and that they are necessary for the well-being of communities?

Community and Workplace Preparedness

Businesses keep our communities sustainable. They provide jobs, skill training and revenue. New businesses that enter the market keep prices competitive and offer products that solve problems. Yet, in order to keep these businesses viable, talent must be produced.
Teaching entrepreneurship does not always translate into creating entrepreneurs; but it can provide for an entrepreneurial mindset. This is advantageous whether the student becomes an employer or an employee.

Job preparedness must focus on more than writing a resume and learning how to interview, especially in today’s environment. Approximately, 17 out of 100 teens are gainfully employed, leaving the majority of kids inexperienced when trying to enter the workforce. Couple that with the fact that 15 million jobs need to be created to support the influx of the existing and future labor market makes delaying one’s career a definite reality.

Teaching Youth Entrepreneurship: Why Start Them Young?

Most students leave high school with little or no knowledge of the business world and those wishing to learn more will simply wait until they enter college (if they do at all.)
Kids see the world far differently then their adult counterparts. When young, their perception of risk isn’t thwarted by the financial responsibility to raising a family, paying a mortgage and saving for retirement. They are natural problem solvers who have yet to be jaded by the complexities of adulthood. Entrepreneurship can and should be taught beginning at the elementary school level.

Teaching entrepreneurship isn’t a complex subject that requires extensive knowledge of business acumen. No two businesses run the exact same way and there’s nothing written in stone that to be successful, one must think inside the box; 2+2 can equal 5.

Biz in a Boxx

Biz in a Boxx was developed to provide kids with an experiential education in entrepreneurship. Unlike traditional coursework, the system is designed for students to take any idea and create a business around it whether in a school setting, afterschool club or in their home. It’s not dependent upon a teacher with business knowledge to teach it, rather someone who will guide his or her students through the process. It enables students to take complete ownership over their ideas because it’s through that ownership that students learn those vital skill sets best.

Entrepreneurs aren’t created overnight. Like playing a sport or musical instrument, it takes practice.