Digital-savvy child entrepreneurs climb the business ladder
A plastic table cloth is unfurled. A pitcher of sparkling, ice cold juice set upon it. A sign promising refreshment at 50 cents a cup is strung up. Two kids drag kitchen stools out to the sidewalk, and wait for thirsty customers to stroll by and support their summer money-making venture.
The classic lemonade stand. It is a fading phenomenon as children today spend more time hanging out on social media and gaming platforms. In this online world, kids realise that there are other ways to make money in which customers need not be neighbours and products need not be seasonal, let alone tangible.
Using online platforms, children and young people are earning extra bucks by hawking their own used wares and handmade goods. In some cases buying and selling collectibles, offering e-services and even starting their own businesses. Most of these under 18s are involved in IT-related deals, which can prove quite worthwhile. For example, Nick D'Aloisio, 17, sold his Summly news application to Yahoo for $30m. While this is an extreme case, profits from even modest kid-driven ventures can exceed parents ́ salaries. These young people are also surpassing their parent's business knowhow. Ten year olds talk about financial plans, venture capital and return on investments. Just how are they learning all of this?
Digital learning
The internet-savvy kids of today are, in part, learning their startup skills in virtual worlds. Several online programs and multi-user gaming applications teach young kids the ins and outs of business. The virtual experiences are not created by big businesses, but rather by leading entrepreneurs who value supporting innovation in young people.
The Secret Millionaires Club is one of these online business tutorials, cloaked in the form of a Saturday morning cartoon. Geared towards seven to 11 year olds and hosted by Warren Buffett, the self-made billionaire business magnate, the Club ́s online cartoon webisodes are designed to help kids "understand the business of life and encourage them to develop healthy life habits from an early age," explains Amy Heyward, co-creator of the series.
Thirteen year old Kei from Washington State, who together with two friends won the Club's annual (and monetary) competition for best business idea, says the online webisodes helped them to identify their target audience and market and give them business skills.
Her advice to young entrepreneurs: "The first thing you have to know is how to handle accounting. You need ledgers and other ways of tracking your money. The second thing is you need to not be afraid to ask others for help and get advice. It's also important to not be scared to present and promote your ideas."
Teens hungry to climb the virtual ladder will do well to play the Discover Entrepreneurship! multi-player game application. Designed by Alberta Distance Learning Centre for 14 to 18 year olds, players are challenged to build a lemonade stand into an entire empire. The app's content, based upon interviews with hundreds of leading entrepreneurs, teaches concrete business and financial skills. Gary Frederickson, an education specialist at the Centre, explains: "What's beautiful about this app is that it simulates reality in that teens can interact with anyone who has the app and naturally form and break business partnerships."
Frederickson adds that he is expanding entrepreneurial education into the real world by partnering with Canada's tourism industry. The idea is for hotels to take on young interns who have successfully built their lemonade empires and give them a chance to put their virtual skills to the real test. This type of investment by industry to nurture young people's entrepreneurial learning is quite innovative, as companies are not widely engaging with children on this. Intel has an entrepreneurship program, but like many, it only caters to 18-30 year olds, while Accenture partners with Youth Business International to provide entrepreneurial training for kids under 18 – but only if they live in a developing nation.
Why the lack of big business presence?
"There is a false dichotomy between business and social good," explains Steven A. Gedeon, professor in the entrepreneurship and strategy program at Ryerson University. This dichotomy, Gedeon reasons, is due to people in civic society resisting the idea that "there is nothing evil about exchanging value for value." That is, that profit in exchange for a product or service is inherently not immoral. If business could be viewed in this purest form and collaborations then developed with schools and other organisations, the educational impact could be exponential.
Big business could help nurture young entrepreneurs by providing all of the hard and soft business skills any entrepreneur needs. This includes financial literacy, how to raise capital and mastering "communication, problem-solving, and persuasion and negotiation skills," lists Gedeon.
When a business does blend profit with doing social good, it is known as social entrepreneurism, a concept touched upon by The Secret Millionaires Club. Bill Gates appears in an episode proffering that: "We need to invent clean and cheap energy sources – that don't destroy the environment, and that everyone can have access to. Energy makes it possible to improve education, nutrition and health. All kids should have that, no matter where they live, don't you think?"
While the lemonade stand has for the most part gone virtual, young entrepreneurs are showing compassion for their real communities, too. Children like Kei sometimes start business ventures based on solving a social problem, while other kids are primarily profit-seekers who then integrate corporate social responsibility or the idea of giving back to society into their business models. These kids are balancing their thirst for success with a can-do attitude and a conscience – good role models for us adults over 18.
The children and finance series is funded by Unicef. All content is editorially independent except for pieces labelled advertisement feature. Find out more here.
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