Not magnets...Magnates!

How I started my business at 13....Great businesses for kids to start this summer....What small business can you start as a 12 year-old?....

Just a snippet of the online searches school-kids are making right now to find out how they can become entrepreneurs. And why not? We need to feed that passion, grow that curiosity. This is where the potentially life-changing trio of children, educators and employers comes into play.

Over the years I've been lucky to meet hundreds of children who've been part of a scheme in the North East of England aimed at showing Year 8 pupils that running your own business is a viable career choice. Kids from a diverse range of socio-economic and cultural backgrounds get the chance to delve into this world, and develop their own business ideas.

The seeds of entrepreneurship were planted on the Future Business Magnates programme. From them grew therapy gardens, activity trackers, cyclone-style school recycling facilities, aromatherapy bracelets, an ocean waste collection app, lifestyle journals, an item location system for visually impaired people and one of my favourite environmental business ideas: biodegradable party bags with eco-friendly contents. Imagine that...no more single-use plastic tat in single-use plastic party bags at the million soft play parties you go to very year! A game-changer!

Alongside dedicated teachers, each school group meets away from the classroom to come up with their idea for a product or service. There's a different theme each year. 2022 was about solving problems in an ever-changing world. Very apt for this cohort as Covid meant the entire programme had to be shortened to fit the reduced school time and all the modules had to go online. Site visits to manufacturers and locations like NETPark and Beamish had to be via videos instead of donning the usual hard hats. But that didn't deter the business mentors who took the lead from this generation of adaptable, resilient children and went with the flow to digital.

So how do you learn about entrepreneurship, in practice? Well it's a checklist that sole traders like me could do well to follow....

• Create a business plan. The pupils learn how to make sure all the right resources are in place.
• Develop a prototype. 3D printers are at the ready for physical products, as is Intellectual Property expertise for protecting their designs.
• Create an effective marketing concept. They learn to promote their product, sell its innovation, as well as design logos.
• Getting investment ready. They're taught how to access funding to get started and to scale-up financially, alongside legal challenges.
• The value of considering the environment and social responsibility.
• The magic ingredients of a great pitch.
• The key to building an effective team.

I feel this last lesson- teamwork- is one that stays with all the children I've met over the years hosting this competition. Generally, the kids who choose to do this programme don't know each other at the start. They have preconceptions about their own strengths and challenges, and of their classmates. Yet by the end, they've spent so much time together after school and at weekends, that close new friendships are forged. They learn together. They work together. They uncover skills and passions they didn't know they had. I believe this type of self-knowledge for 12 and 13 year-olds, especially in this post-Covid world, is invaluable. As are the lessons they're teaching us. Long may this trinity of pupils, educators and employees reign.

#FBM2022 #entrepreneurship #education #careersadvice #northeast #inspire Business Durham Sarah Slaven Leon Howe Andrea McGuigan Shaun Fooy Pete Batten David Foreman Caroline Taukulis Durham County Council North East LEP North East Ambition