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October 15, 2006

Why Entrepreneurship is the Way out for 90% of African Americans And UK Kids?

“A staggering 90 percent of African-Americans earn wages or salaries in jobs with limited opportunities, rather than creating jobs as entrepreneurs”, said Business Development Economist Louis Huff as he went over the nuts and bolts of how residents of West River and other neighborhoods could open a small, community-based business.

This statistics came as a shock to those attending "Small Business Days" seminar at Hill Regional Career High School.

Young budding entrepreneurs in attendance included Juan Hernandez, age 13, and brothers Sameir Rankins, age 10, and Samod Rankins, age 14, with aspirations to manufacture cool sneakers and sportswear.

As part of the seminar, the sponsors announced their partnership in an entrepreneur program for youths. Program coordinator, professor Tony Carter, said high school students who register would be divided into teams, and each team would develop a business concept and present a business plan in March to a panel of judges.

"We’re going to expose high school students to the realities of small business operations and entrepreneurship," Carter said.

What's interesting about this event is that although this seminar took place in a USA neighborhood, in the UK the government has hinted at a program that would be run in schools to teach kids about entrepreneurship and running a business.

The UK scheme is a drive to create “a culture of enterprise for young people”, partly through a sharper focus on the subject in schools.

The major difference is that people who have very little experience at running a business could well run the UK scheme. Teachers teaching entrepreneurship to kids rather than entrepreneurs won't cut it. Business is less about reading; it's more about doing.

In fact most of what's written in textbooks about business is written by academics that have never had to sell anything or run a business.

I agree that kids should be taught how to run a business but they should be taught by entrepreneurs who are also mentors... they can provide practical (real life) input that reinforces what running a business is all about.

Mr. Steele, chief executive of Enterprise Insight, a Department of Trade and Industry –Sponsored body, was critical of traditional business studies, which he described as “a ghetto. He said he heard “horror” stories” about lessons where “the first thing [children] are taught is the difference between companies limited by guarantee and companies limited by shares. That must be spiritual death.”

Building a successful business is not an exam, it's about sweat and tears, hard work, passion, disappointment, common sense plus intellect, taking risks, innovation, getting on with people, leadership, being ruthless but fair... and more, much more.

As in the USA example, kids should be encouraged to demonstrate practical skills such as developing a business concept and present a business plan as a precursor to one day starting a business of their own.

David Small Business Resource

Posted by David at October 15, 2006 12:56 PM

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