YOUR children have been glued to every episode of Dragons’ Den and one day rush home from school in great excitement telling you they would like to be entrepreneurs and start their own business.
They are certainly not alone. According to a survey of 1,500 young people aged between 14 and 30 by the not-for-profit Make Your Mark campaign, which promotes young enterprise, 89% said that running their own business was the most appealing career choice.
The good news for parents is that even if you have no idea how to advise your child, there is a lot of information and support out there for budding entrepreneurs under the age of 18 if you know where to look. And much of it is free.
The first port of call for your child should be this year’s Enterprise Week, a series of events running from November 13 to 19 and aimed at giving teenagers the inspiration and opportunity to put their entrepreneurial ideas into action.
Details of events during Enterprise Week are on the website www.enterpriseweek.co.uk. The week is organised by the Make Your Mark campaign. It is also worth checking out its website www.starttalkingideas.org, which has lots of information on starting up a business.
The next step should be Young Enterprise, Britain’s largest enterprise education charity, which has more than 40 years of experience in delivering entrepreneurial courses for young people.
It works by using the skills of volunteers from local businesses who work alongside teachers and students. Last year it helped 320,000 young people in 5,500 schools and colleges.
The charity offers lessons for children from as young as four, all the way through school and university, and is supported by a range of big businesses including Oracle, Cadbury Schweppes and Citigroup.
The mix of classes on offer includes a daytime Entrepreneurship Masterclass programme that lasts an academic year.
This year, Young Enterprise ran 23 pilot summer schools, giving hundreds of 14 to 16-year-olds the chance to learn about everything in business and commerce.
If your child’s school does not currently offer access to a Young Enterprise scheme, you can ask it to become a Young Enterprise Registered Centre. This is done by contacting the nearest Young Enterprise office, which will provide details of the programmes.
Another useful organisation to check out is the Enterprise Education Trust, an umbrella charity that has established several programmes to help build knowledge and offer support for up-and-coming entrepreneurs. These include Business Dynamics, Blue Skies and the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE).
David Millar, chief executive of the Enterprise Education Trust, said: “There has been a huge upturn in interest in business. And it is quite different to how it once was when kids thought business was dull and boring. The media have played a big part in this, with business television programmes such as Dragons’ Den and The Apprentice. They are corny but they are also compelling television.”
What has also changed is the reason many youngsters want to get into business.
Millar said: “Quite often, money isn’t the key motivator. It’s a bit different from the 1980s when there was the idea that greed is good. Now there is an attitude among the young that they want to have more control over their lives.”
NFTE was started in New York in 1987 and came to Britain in 2000. It aims to encourage young people to be entrepreneurial by teaching them the basics of starting and operating their own business.
Under the scheme, which is mostly run through schools either as part of the curriculum or through after-hours clubs, children aged between 14 and 16 produce a business plan and start up and run their own real business. They receive mentoring and support to develop the business and will run it for the duration of the course.
Teachers can follow a 50-hour or 90-hour curriculum, which is accredited in a similar way to a BTEC course, and both courses are free for students. Millar said: “It’s like a mini MBA for kids.”
Francesca Grier, 16, took the NFTE programme as an extracurricular activity at Walthamstow School for Girls, in East London, and was quickly enthused by the idea of starting a business: “The more people I spoke to, the more passionate I became about it.”
Through NFTE, Grier and four friends started a company called Tagz, designing graffiti-style images for T-shirts and other clothing which they spray paint on. They have since sold dozens of designs to friends and now hope to interest a local businesss.
“It is something we really want to expand,” said Grier. “The NFTE course was a life-changing experience for me — I’m a lot more confident and I’ve met a lot of interesting people. It was really inspirational, and now I want to go forward and do more stuff in business.”
Getting the young enthused about business is the main idea behind Blue Skies, a roadshow whose approach is unashamedly like a television show, with three or four entrepreneurs on stage, DJs and a chat show.
Millar wants Blue Skies to make starting a business a realisable objective, so the organisation enlists local business people to talk to the young people rather than well-known successful entrepreneurs, saying this gives a more realistic picture of what it is like to start a business.
“We don’t use people like Sir Alan Sugar or Sir Richard Branson because it would be like telling the kids that you can win the lottery,” he said.
The format is clearly working because more than 50,000 young people have so far attended Blue Skies events throughout Britain.
Business Dynamics is the third spoke of the umbrella and is in the process of merging with NFTE. It is also clearly hitting the spot — last year, 80,000 budding entrepreneurs aged between 14 and 19 went to Business Dynamics for guidance.
Finally, Business Link can be a useful website for children to explore as it not only gives advice and assistance but also acts like a signpost to other organisations.
Business Link adviser Yvette Moores warns, however, that starting up a business at a young age is not an easy option. “They may have to give up their social lives, they may wonder where to turn next, and they have to be really persistent,” she said.
But Moores believes that young people’s interest in business will continue to grow provided that industry is able to provide support “There needs to be more engagement from industry, both putting the ideas forward and giving young people the courage to do it. And there needs to be more awareness for young people about what is possible.”
Where your child can find help
Young Enterprise
This is a charity made up of 12 regional organisations. It brings volunteers from business to work with teachers and their students. www.young-enterprise.org.uk
Enterprise Week and Make Your Mark campaign
www.enterpriseweek.co.uk and www.starttalkingideas.org
Blue Skies
Interactive multimedia roadshow designed to bring students face to face with successful, young entrepreneurs. www.blue-skies.uk.com
Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship
One of the primary entrepreneurship-education organisations in Britain. Teaches the basics of starting and operating businesses. www.nfte.co.uk
Business Dynamics
A business-education and enterprise charity that aims to bring business to life for young people aged 14 to 19. Volunteers from companies introduce students to the opportunities and challenges of business and also improve their skills in preparation for the world of work. www.businessdynamics.org.uk
Business Link
This has a section for young people starting a business. www.businesslink.gov.uk/young
