Image owned by Rex F. May, via baloocartoons.com
What better time than summer to encourage your kiddo’s budding entrepreneurial efforts? Opportunities abound for learning about financial literacy, entrepreneurship, scarcity, branding and marketing and so much more. And learning on your toes is paramount.
With women holding less than 5 percent of Fortune 500 CEO positions in 2013, fostering young girls’ entrepreneurial pursuits in particular is extremely important. We supported our little one’s pursuit, a snow cone stand, and what brainstorming she had to do…ice without electricity; balancing costs of goods sold versus ingredient cost, plus the effort and time for standing apart by making organic homemade syrups… The lessons learned were well worth with the time.
Young entrepreneurs must be creative, organized, financially literate and articulate in order to be successful—extremely valuable skills that should be encouraged and developed in our high potential youth.
Join a Network
Being a part of a network of like-minded individuals with amazing role models for your young entrepreneur to look up to is key to inspiring their growth. Check out these awesome communities and make sure to sign up for more information.
HEART OF GOLD GIRLS
A fun and interactive website with great articles and resources for you and your child to explore together. Sign up for their newsletter, learn about other young female entrepreneurs and watch their Vlog series that gives tips on how to start and maintain a blog – a great way to build social media literacy!
Enter a Contest
There are some amazing opportunities out there for young entrepreneurs to showcase their talents and compete alongside other new innovators. Some PALNYC picks for contests with upcoming deadlines include:
THE RUBBER BAND CONTEST FOR YOUNG INVENTORS
A great contest if your child loves to build and create new things. This contest challenges students (grades 5 through 8) to make a new invention incorporating at least one rubber band. The possibilities are endless in this fun competition where students can win up to $2000 in scholarship money.
KED’S BRAVE LIFE COMPETITION
Up to 50 girls who share their brave career dream will be selected to receive a $1,000 Brave Career grant each. This contest is open to young women, age 13 through 24 years-old as of March 21, 2014.
Check out these titles, sure to be interesting reads for you and your child.
Cool Women, Hot Jobs: And How You Can Go for It, Too!
Get your child excited about different career paths with this book that profiles the careers of amazing women who make a living designing theme parks and producing travel shows.
Centsibility: The Planet Girl Guide to Money
Encourage financial savviness with this fun and appealing “girls guide to money.” A part of the Planet Girl series.
Girls and Young Women Entrepreneurs: True Stories about Starting and Running a Business, Plus How You Can Do It Yourself
Although dated, an interesting and relatable read with stories from young girls who have created their own businesses.
PALNYC would love to hear about your young entrepreneur and how you encourage her to create and innovate. Leave a comment below and join the conversation.