Top Grading by Bradford Smart

Now is final call for recruiting time: Internships, jobs, and maybe you want to start your own business. The well-known book Top Grading is a favorite in elite entrepreneur and corporate circles; namely because it’s a standard reference for recruiting on how to recruit A Players.

A Players definition: One who qualifies among the top 10 percent of those available for a position and is willing to accept a job offer in your sector, organization, and location.

Top Grading is a recruiting philosophy that looks for individuals with certain traits, and ends in an extensive interview process. In this post, we’ll give you a mini version of a Top Grading interview that can be used in a variety of environments:

• Use our mini Top Grading interview at school or home as a fun way to explore traits for success.
• Use the summaries below as inspiration to learn more, and employ Top Grading in your business.
• Are you being Top Graded? Find out below and prep for your interview.

First, let’s learn some basics…

Why Top Grade?

The thought is: “Top Grade first–once you do this, your organization can do anything.” This is a huge belief in the power of people. Finding them can be tricky – hence: Top Grading!

What is the “New Career Management” Way of Thinking?

Are you trapped in the old way of thinking? Better keep up. The gurus at Top Grading point out the new ways of the work place these days. Crawling up hill in the snow both ways is out, working smart is in, as indicated by the table below.

12 Essential Competencies Needed to Become an A Player

(and common failings of B/C players). The list below identifies the essential competencies and behaviors that would indicate that someone isn’t skilled in the competencies.

Entrepreneurial literacy and skills becomes essential to equip students for 21st Century opportunities, which means the American education system needs to include entrepreneurial teaching in the classroom and adults in the lives of young people need to begin talking about it outside the classroom too. Entrepreneurship education is a building block for a well-rounded education which promises to make school rigorous, relevant, and engaging, and creates the possibility for unleashing and cultivating creative energies and talents among students.

Let’s take a look at one unique way to encourage entrepreneurship education, by incorporating the Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work program. Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day occurs on April 25, 2013. But the NFIB curriculum (www.nfib.com/take-daughters-sons-to-work) can be used any day of the year. Check out the following activities and lesson plans:

• Small Business Scavenger Hunt is a great way to let young people explore a small business environment, while allowing them to ask questions about the things they see.
• What Makes an Entrepreneur? Lesson Plan gets students talking about what entrepreneurship means and what it takes to be an entrepreneur. It gets them thinking critically about the challenges and rewards of being an entrepreneur.
• Setting Goals Lesson Plan Setting goals is a life skill that everyone needs to learn. Doing so in the setting of a small business makes this lesson come to life for students.
• Budgeting Lesson Plan Financial literacy is important for all young people. This activity is a fun, hands on way to allow students to create a budget and put it to use.
• Marketing Lesson Plan teaches young people about communication, leadership, and persuasion. This activity allows the students to get creative and have fun, while learning.
• Interviews of Small Business Professionals Lesson Plan helps students learn about asking good questions and really listening to the answers. This activity will allow the students to learn life lessons from an entrepreneurial expert.
• Small Business Word Find will help introduce the idea of entrepreneurship to students, by showing them words that go into owning a small business.
• Small Business Crossword Puzzle will help students become familiar with the definitions of some entrepreneurial words.

For Small Business Owners and Employees
Small business owners or employees can use the NFIB Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work curriculum to host a group of young people in their business environment. The above activities are designed to be easy to facilitate for small business employees, with no teaching background. It enables young people to experience the work that small business employees do each day, and is a fun way to introduce the idea of entrepreneurship to young people. Invite a classroom/Boy or Girl Scout troupe/4-H club/ or any other youth development program into your place of business and help introduce entrepreneurship as a viable career option for young people in your community.

For Educators
Educators can use this curriculum to plan a fieldtrip for their group of young people, creating a hands-on educational experience. The above curriculum can help guide your class through a full day of entrepreneurial education within a small business. If going on a field trip to a small business is not a viable option, then you can create a small business environment within your classroom. All of the activities (except the small business scavenger hunt) could be recreated in the classroom. Some activities may be enhanced by inviting a small business employee to help facilitate the curriculum. All the activities are created so that educators, who don’t feel as comfortable with the idea of entrepreneurship, can facilitate it easily. Help your students learn the important life skills that go into being an entrepreneur.

Further Classroom Discussion
After implementing these activities in your educational setting, ask the participants to discuss what they learned:
• Does learning about entrepreneurship make you want to start your own business some day? Why or why not?
• What kind of business would you start?
• Do you know anyone who owns their own business? What do you think would be the most challenging part of their job?
• What part of today’s activities did you enjoy the most? Why?
• How could you use the skills we learned today in your everyday life?
• Use any of NFIB’s Entrepreneur in the Classroom modules to take a more in depth look at entrepreneurship www.eitccurriculum.com.

More Information
The NFIB Young Entrepreneur Foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization promoting the importance of small business and free enterprise to the nation’s youth. More information is available at www.NFIB.com/YEF. The Foundation is associated with the National Federation of Independent Business; NFIB is the nation’s leading small business association, with offices in Washington, D.C. and all 50 state capitals.

Entrepreneur In The Classroom. The NFIB Young Entrepreneur Foundation Entrepreneur-in-the-Classroom (EITC) supplemental curriculum exposes students to entrepreneurship and the necessary steps to take an idea and turn it into a business. The free curriculum can be integrated into classes teaching a variety of subjects including music, art, fashion, business and many more. You must be registered to view the full Entrepreneur-in-the-Classroom curriculum.

Related links
Follow NFIB Young Entrepreneur Foundation on Twitter
Like NFIB Young Entrepreneur Foundation on Facebook
Follow EITC curriculum author Kathy Korman Frey on Twitter

If you’re a wannabe entrepreneur, an entrepreneur, a corporate climber, a professor, doctor, machinist or anything in between: This post is for you.

Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day  doesn’t work for everyone. Between missing school, company policies, and the nature of what you do, it may be downright impossible.

What do the Duggars do, for instance?

This post offers some ideas for how to start planning now so when Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day rolls around, everyone can participate.

Background.

Take your Daughters and Sons to work day is the fourth Thursday of every April. This year, it’s April 25, 2013. Originally called “Take Your Daughter to Work Day” it was expanded to be entitled “Take your Daughters and Sons to Work Day” in 2003.

Can’t Bring Your Child to Work? Three Ideas to Bring the Workplace To Them.

1. Make a video for your kids.

Here is a video of one entrepreneur – the founder of LillyU at a trade show in Las Vegas. She explains what she is doing from her booth to her kids.

• What video could you make from your workplace for your kids?

2. Have your kids make a video

Work environment not suitable for a child during normal “office hours?” Arrange to take them during off hours, and commemorate it with a video. Below a professor’s daughter takes over her classroom during off hours and gives a lesson in confidence, lectures the imaginary students on leaving trash in the classroom, and tries to teach another lesson!

• How could you video your child in action at the worksite? Show it over dinner to the family!

3. Do a work-related project

Are you a writer, an engineer? Do you make things with your hands? Are you a laborer? Teach your child about a job well done. Below is a sample cover from a mini Sci Fi novel by a nine year-old as a writing project. As a follow-up, he wanted to know if he could copy and sell his work, and was directed to this NFIB YEF post on trademarks, copyrights, and patents.

• The kids these days move fast! What is a way they could help you with your work? From deleting emails to stapling to adding up things on an excel spreadsheet to helping clean up.

What successful Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work experiences and ideas can you share?

Stay tuned for next month’s post with Take Your Child to Work real-time exercises!

More Information:
The NFIB Young Entrepreneur Foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization promoting the importance of small business and free enterprise to the nation’s youth. More information is available at www.NFIB.com/YEF. The Foundation is associated with the National Federation of Independent Business; NFIB is the nation’s leading small business association, with offices in Washington, D.C. and all 50 state capitals.

Entrepreneur In The Classroom. The NFIB Young Entrepreneur Foundation Entrepreneur-in-the-Classroom (EITC) supplemental curriculum exposes students to entrepreneurship and the necessary steps to take an idea and turn it into a business. The free curriculum can be integrated into classes teaching a variety of subjects including music, art, fashion, business and many more. You must beregistered to view the full Entrepreneur-in-the-Classroom curriculum.

Related links:
Follow NFIB Young Entrepreneur Foundation on Twitter
Like NFIB Young Entrepreneur Foundation on Facebook
Follow EITC curriculum author Kathy Korman Frey on Twitter

“Ideally, since 80 percent of your life is spent working, you should start your business around something that is a passion of yours. If you’re into kite-surfing and you want to become an entrepreneur, do it with kite-surfing. Look, if you can indulge in your passion, life will be far more interesting than if you’re just working. You’ll work harder at it, and you’ll know more about it.”

This quote, by Richard Branson, one of the most successful entrepreneurs of our time, brings to light one of the most important characteristics of entrepreneurs–passion.

Without passion, the desire to work hard, to focus your energy, and to succeed begins to fade away. With passion, an entrepreneur will be able to maintain the energy and enthusiasm necessary to make a living out of an idea.

So how do young entrepreneurs identify their passion and how can educators encourage young people to identify their passion? Here are a few activities that can be accomplished in any educational setting.

• Remember childhood—what games did you play? What activities did you love doing? How did you spend your free time? Remembering the things you loved to do at the very beginning of your life, helps one figure out what they are naturally drawn to.
• Get inspired—cut out pictures from magazines that appeal to you. Take a walk and see what catches your attention. Go to a library to browse the aisles and see what you are drawn to. By opening your mind and surrounding yourself with possibilities, you will begin to notice the things that you are passionate about.
• Journal—carry a journal with you for a week and write down anything you are thinking about. This could be conversations you have with others, foods that you eat, how you spend your time, what vacations you dream about. All of these things may spark an interest in your passion.
• Dream—if you could spend an entire week doing whatever you wanted to do, what you would you do? When someone is allowed to dream, with no restrictions, they begin to allow their mind to think about the things that they care most about.

Once you have done these activities, make connections between them. What common themes come through? Can you solve a problem based on your theme? Is solving that problem a way for you to make money?

If not, don’t give up. Continue to think about how you can turn your passion into a business. Be aware of everything around you as you engage in your passion. How could you make that activity, product, or idea better? Or how can you introduce this passion to more people? Thinking about these questions may help you turn your passion into a money-making venture.

When you have the opportunity to start a business, don’t rely on your passion alone. Be sure to focus on the details of your business and focus on making your passion a money-maker. But passion is still a characteristic that can help your business grow:

• Hire passionate people. Find people who share your passion and perhaps use their passion for a skill that you don’t possess. You can always teach skills, but you can’t teach passion.
• Connect with others who share your passion. This will help you grow your business by finding new clients. Not everyone who is passionate about something will be able to create a business out of that passion. So it’s your job to find those passionate people and help them grow their passion by providing them with a product or service.
• Don’t stop with just one passion. Continue to grow and experience new things so your passion can grow and expand too. You never know—it may lead to an expanded or new business opportunity.

Everyone is passionate about something. It’s now your job to figure out what your passion is and how you can take it from something you love, to something you can live off.

Further Classroom Discussion

• Beyond passion, what other characteristics do many entrepreneurs possess?
• Can you think of an example where being passionate wasn’t enough to be successful?
• What questions can you ask of yourself to prevent this kind of entrepreneurial failure?
• Check out NFIB’s Entrepreneur-in-the-Classroom Exercise 1-3 Characteristics of an Entrepreneur, for more classroom activities related to this topic.
• Check out NFIB’s Entrepreneur-in-the-Classroom Exercise 1-4 Entrepreneurial Passion, for more classroom activities related to this topic.

More Information:
The NFIB Young Entrepreneur Foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization promoting the importance of small business and free enterprise to the nation’s youth. More information is available at www.NFIB.com/YEF. The Foundation is associated with the National Federation of Independent Business; NFIB is the nation’s leading small business association, with offices in Washington, D.C. and all 50 state capitals.

Entrepreneur In The Classroom. The NFIB Young Entrepreneur Foundation Entrepreneur-in-the-Classroom (EITC) supplemental curriculum exposes students to entrepreneurship and the necessary steps to take an idea and turn it into a business. The free curriculum can be integrated into classes teaching a variety of subjects including music, art, fashion, business and many more. You must be registered to view the full Entrepreneur-in-the-Classroom curriculum.

Related links:
Follow NFIB Young Entrepreneur Foundation on Twitter
Like NFIB Young Entrepreneur Foundation on Facebook
Follow EITC curriculum author Kathy Korman Frey on Twitter

Below we highlight the seven keys to success espoused by the most successful billion-dollar companies studied by Thomson.

Essential #1 Create and Sustain a Breakthrough Value Proposition

- Are we solving a compelling, unmet need (emotional, financial)? Are we providing value to the industry as well (streamlining, etc.)?

Essential #2 Exploit a High-Growth Market

- Is this market growing at a compounding annual growth rate? Are there few actual competitors because our product is so distinctive?

Essential #3 Marquee Customers Shape the Revenue Powerhouse

- Do we partner with our best customers, shaping our current and future offerings around their feedback? Involving them in many aspects of our business?

Essential #4 Leverage Big Brother Alliances

- Are we making friends in high places (with bigger companies) that have a measurable impact on our revenue / finances?

Essential #5 Become the Masters of Exponential Returns

- Are we setting financial goals, and consistently exceeding them?

Essential #6 The Management Team: Inside-Outside Leadership

- Company facing / Externally facing leadership at the C level.

Essential #7 The Board of Directors: Comprised of Essentials Experts

- Are there CEOs of other billion-dollar companies + alliance partners? Here’s how one company did it. It’s an equation, with some basic business tips strewn throughout.

Discussion

• What are your thoughts on the seven essentials?  Is it too much effort? Does it seem reasonable? Do you think anything is missing?
• More: See the free EITC Curriculum, Module 3 (Section on Writing a Business Plan). What section(s) would incorporate the information seven essentials? Discuss.

Related Links (Advanced)

• Slideshare presentation on Blueprint to a Billion
• Seven Essentials scorecard
• @JHK24 Book Review

More information

Know a Young Entrepreneur? Have them apply for a scholarship here. EITC: Three free PPTs to teach entrepreneurs. Click here. The NFIB Young Entrepreneur Foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization promoting the importance of small business and free enterprise to the nation’s youth. More information is available at www.NFIB.com/YEF. The Foundation is associated with the National Federation of Independent Business; NFIB is the nation’s leading small business association, with offices in Washington, D.C. and all 50 state capitals.

Entrepreneur In The Classroom. The NFIB Young Entrepreneur Foundation Entrepreneur-in-the-Classroom (EITC) supplemental curriculum exposes students to entrepreneurship and the necessary steps to take an idea and turn it into a business. The free curriculum can be integrated into classes teaching a variety of subjects including music, art, fashion, business and many more. You must be registered to view the full Entrepreneur-in-the-Classroom curriculum.

Find us on…

Follow NFIB Young Entrepreneur Foundation on Twitter

Like NFIB Young Entrepreneur Foundation on Facebook

Follow EITC curriculum author Kathy Korman Frey on Twitter

Entrepreneurship as a Path to Success

Introducing the idea of entrepreneurship puts young people on a path to success.

Why?

Entrepreneurship education prepares youth to be responsible, enterprising individuals who become entrepreneurial thinkers by immersing them in real life learning experiences where they:

• can take risks,
• manage the results, and
• learn from the outcomes.

But to engage in entrepreneurship successfully, we must have not only ideas…but skills. From problem-solving, to communication, to managing finances, entrepreneurship teaches young people not only career, but also life skills they need to succeed in the adult world.

But do the young people in our lives have an interest in acquiring these skills and abilities? The biggest factor driving individuals to a career of entrepreneurship is – you guessed it – ability. Today’s post will help make sure the youth in your life start early acquiring skills and abilities to match their interests, ideas, and active imaginations.

Not sure where to start?

Many adults don’t know how to begin talking about entrepreneurship to young people. This can be for a number of reasons. Some may not feel confident about their own entrepreneurial skills at times. The exercises below rev up the imagination, and then follow up with the matching of practical skills needed to problem-solve.

Let’s keep reading..

Take a look at a few ideas that enable adults – from trained educators to parents or grandparents – to introduce the idea of entrepreneurship to the young people in your life.

Activities:

During school breaks, on weekends, or even in the classroom, here are some simple activities that will encourage young people to be business minded.  How? By using every day scenarios.

Problem Solving: Ask your kids to think of a problem that they and/or their friends experience on a regular basis.  Brainstorm ideas around solving the problem through a product or service.

• Advanced: Once they have the problem solved, help create a business plan and inspire their can-do attitude.

Persuasion through marketing: While watching television, talk to your kids about the commercials they see—would they buy the product/service? Why or why not? Begin a conversation about marketing and brainstorm ways in which the commercials could have been more persuasive.

• Advanced: Encourage them and their friends to create a commercial or an advertisement for a product or service and talk them through things they should remember about marketing.

Innovation: Take your child to work one day and have them help with your everyday responsibilities. Ask them how they think one of your tasks should be done, or how they might do something differently then you normally do.

• Takeaway: This encourages them to think outside the box and be creative in how to get things done.)

Finance and Budgeting: Use the idea of an allowance as a tool for teaching entrepreneurship. Figure out a payment plan to which you and your kids agree based on the chores they accomplish each week.  Discuss how they will use their money once they receive it—will they save for something big? Will they give any of it to charity? Will they use a little at a time for candy or small toys?

• In the classroom! Teachers can use this same idea in the classroom by providing students with fake money for doing specific tasks. At the end of each month, students could use this money to buy stickers, pens, or any other fun, small prizes that you can provide.

Discussion questions:

We’ve all been stuck in traffic or had to wait in line at the grocery store with a young person right there with us. Why not use this time to engage in a conversation about entrepreneurship? Here are a few sample questions you can use to begin the discussion:

• Passion and Innovation: What kind of business would you like to start if you could?
• Management: If you were the boss of a company, how would you treat your employees? How would you reward them? How would you address problems with them?
• Leadership and Personal Relationships: What kind of person would you hire if you were in charge of hiring employees to work in your business?
• Analyzing Risk and Reward: What do you think would be the best part of owning your own business? The scariest?
• Planning for Success and Failure: What do you think makes a successful business? What might cause a business to fail?

Continue to be aware of ways to use every day scenarios and circumstances to teach the youth in your life about entrepreneurship. By helping young people think like entrepreneurs, you open doors to making them successful adults, who are productive and engaged in positively contributing to their community.

More Information:

The NFIB Young Entrepreneur Foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization promoting the importance of small business and free enterprise to the nation’s youth. More information is available at www.NFIB.com/YEF. The Foundation is associated with the National Federation of Independent Business; NFIB is the nation’s leading small business association, with offices in Washington, D.C. and all 50 state capitals.

Entrepreneur In The Classroom. The NFIB Young Entrepreneur Foundation Entrepreneur-in-the-Classroom (EITC) supplemental curriculum exposes students to entrepreneurship and the necessary steps to take an idea and turn it into a business. The free curriculum can be integrated into classes teaching a variety of subjects including music, art, fashion, business and many more. You must be registered to view the full Entrepreneur-in-the-Classroom curriculum.

Related links:

Follow NFIB Young Entrepreneur Foundation on Twitter

Like NFIB Young Entrepreneur Foundation on Facebook

Follow EITC curriculum author Kathy Korman Frey on Twitter

First, a quick definition…

Q: What is social entrepreneurship?

A: Aside from doing well, and doing good, social entrepreneurs shift resources to address social issues.

Examples.

The following are all examples of acting in a socially entrepreneurial way.

• Think of the local convenience store that puts a collection can by the register.
• What about a school doing box tops for education?
• Have you ever donated an extra dollar on your bill at the grocery store to a charity?

Discuss.

1. Other examples: What are other ways you’ve combined business, school, and a charity or social cause?

2. Brainstorm: What is an interest area (music, fashion, writing, tech).

3. What are things that big companies or famous people in these areas do to give back to causes or charities? Are they combining business and charity?

Want more? Beyond the discussion.

1. Can entrepreneurs do “good” while doing well? What is an example in your community? Do a search for “social entrepreneurship” or “social cause” of “charity” and “business” and see what pops up. Post the links here and note what was interesting to you about the link you chose.

2. Check “Social Entrepreneurship” in the free Entrepreneur in the Classroom (EITC) Powerpoint. See a brief video here.

More information

Know a Young Entrepreneur? Have them apply for a scholarship here.

EITC: 3 free PPTs to teach entrepreneurs. Click here.

The NFIB Young Entrepreneur Foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization promoting the importance of small business and free enterprise to the nation’s youth. More information is available at www.NFIB.com/YEF. The Foundation is associated with the National Federation of Independent Business; NFIB is the nation’s leading small business association, with offices in Washington, D.C. and all 50 state capitals.

Entrepreneur In The Classroom. The NFIB Young Entrepreneur Foundation Entrepreneur-in-the-Classroom (EITC) supplemental curriculum exposes students to entrepreneurship and the necessary steps to take an idea and turn it into a business. The free curriculum can be integrated into classes teaching a variety of subjects including music, art, fashion, business and many more. You must be registered to view the full Entrepreneur-in-the-Classroom curriculum.

Related links.

 Unofficial Student Guide to Social Entrepreneurship at Harvard and Beyond

Top 5 Resources for Young Social Entrepreneurs.

Follow NFIB Young Entrepreneur Foundation on Twitter

Like NFIB Young Entrepreneur Foundation on Facebook

Follow blog author Kathy Korman Frey on Twitter

The EITC (Entrepreneur in the Classroom) curriculum is comprised of three downloadable Powerpoints and has been taught to approximately 40,000 students a year for the past six years.

As mentioned in first and second parts of this series, we’ve recently updated this entrepreneurship curriculum, and here’s a post to give you a quick 30 minute exercise – a personal favorite of  EITC curriculum author, Kathy Korman Frey.

30 minute exercise #3 (for a class, family, and more)

Prep step: Free registration. Register for the free EITC curriculum here.

Part I: Watch this video  featuring Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Ernest L Arbuckle professor, Harvard Business School, and HR Most Influential 2012 International Thinker.

Rosabeth Moss Kanter – “Kanter’s Law”

Part II: Discuss

Optional (additional 30 minutes to 1 hour):

• For groups: Each participant presents for 30 seconds to one minute on their own experience with “Kanter’s Law.”
• For individuals: Write up a one page (max) “case study” on their experience with Kanter’s Law including: Setting goal / plan, middle, end, their thoughts at each step, and a list of one to three key takeaways or things they learned from the situation.

What is covered in EITC Module 3?

• Learn the Basics of Business Planning
• Understand Funding Landscape and Options
• Map out Government Agencies and their Relationship with Business Owners

The bottom line of this 30 minute exercise - “If I am going to face challenges in life, and my career, or in starting a business some day – How can I get through the middle where ‘everything seems like a failure?’ Why is this ability to overcome challenge important?” 

Are you an educator? Be sure to see our EITC Educators Corner.

More information

Know a Young Entrepreneur? Nominate them here.

EITC: 3 free PPTs to teach entrepreneurs. Click here.

The NFIB Young Entrepreneur Foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization promoting the importance of small business and free enterprise to the nation’s youth. More information is available at www.NFIB.com/YEF. The Foundation is associated with the National Federation of Independent Business; NFIB is the nation’s leading small business association, with offices in Washington, D.C. and all 50 state capitals.

Entrepreneur In The Classroom. The NFIB Young Entrepreneur Foundation Entrepreneur-in-the-Classroom (EITC) supplemental curriculum exposes students to entrepreneurship and the necessary steps to take an idea and turn it into a business. The free curriculum can be integrated into classes teaching a variety of subjects including music, art, fashion, business and many more. You must be registered to view the full Entrepreneur-in-the-Classroom curriculum.

Related links:

Follow NFIB Young Entrepreneur Foundation on Twitter

Follow NFIB on Twitter

Follow NFIB on Facebook

Follow blog author Kathy Korman Frey on Twitter

The EITC (Entrepreneur in the Classroom) curriculum is comprised of three downloadable Powerpoints and has been taught to approximately 40,000 students a year for the past six years.

As mentioned in the last post in this series, we’ve recently updated this entrepreneurship curriculum, and here’s a post to give you a quick 30 minute exercise in each module that is one of my personal favorites as an intro. I am the curriculum author, Kathy Korman Frey, and teach a nationally award-winning entrepreneurship course at the George Washington University School of Business.  So scroll down, dig in, and have fun.

30 minute exercise #2 (for a class, family, and more)

Prep step: Free registration. Register for the free EITC curriculum here.

Part I: Watch this video by Daniel Pink (Play through minute 3:03)

Daniel Pink on Motivation

Part II: Discuss

Optional (additional 30 minutes to 1 hour):

• For groups: Each participant presents for 30 seconds to one minute on their problem, and creative solution.
• For individuals: Write up a one page (max) problem and solution summary, and share it with another person for feedback (maybe even the organization or topic for the suggestion themselves!)

What is covered in EITC Module 2?

The bottom line of this 30 minute exercise - “How do I make an idea  - e.g., a solution to a problem or gap in the marketplace – a reality?”  Start by taking time to conceptualize and articulate the idea. 

Stay tuned for 30 minute exercise #3 in this series.

Are you an educator? Be sure to see our EITC Educators Corner.

More information

Know a Young Entrepreneur? Nominate them here.

EITC: 3 free PPTs to teach entrepreneurs. Click here.

The NFIB Young Entrepreneur Foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization promoting the importance of small business and free enterprise to the nation’s youth. More information is available at www.NFIB.com/YEF. The Foundation is associated with the National Federation of Independent Business; NFIB is the nation’s leading small business association, with offices in Washington, D.C. and all 50 state capitals.

Entrepreneur In The Classroom. The NFIB Young Entrepreneur Foundation Entrepreneur-in-the-Classroom (EITC) supplemental curriculum exposes students to entrepreneurship and the necessary steps to take an idea and turn it into a business. The free curriculum can be integrated into classes teaching a variety of subjects including music, art, fashion, business and many more. You must be registered to view the full Entrepreneur-in-the-Classroom curriculum.

Related links:

Follow NFIB Young Entrepreneur Foundation on Twitter

Follow NFIB on Twitter

Follow blog author Kathy Korman Frey on Twitter

We’ve recently updated the curriculum, and here’s a post to give you a quick 30 minute exercise in each module that is one of my personal favorites as an intro. I am the curriculum author, Kathy Korman Frey, and teach a nationally award-winning entrepreneurship course at the George Washington University School of Business.  So scroll down, dig in, and have fun.

30 minute exercise #1

Prep step: Register for the free EITC curriculum here.

Part I: 15 Minutes – Exercise 1-3 Characteristics of an Entrepreneur.

• Starting on page 10 of Module 1, discuss the entrepreneurial traits.

Part II: 15 Minutes – Exercise 1-4 Your Entrepreneurial Passion.

• Starting on page 12 of Module 1, watch the video and lead a discussion using the questions on the following page as a guide.

Optional (additional 30 minutes to 1 hour):

• Each student presents for 30 seconds to one minute on their passion area.
• Advanced: How they could see their passion area as a business, product, or service (or social service / aka social entrepreneurship).

The full module teaching points.

• Understand perceptions and definitions of entrepreneurship and small business.
• Identify major characteristics of an entrepreneur.
• Learn about the role small business plays in the U.S. yesterday and today.

The bottom line of this 30 minute exercise – “Do I know any entrepreneurs or small business people? What are they like? Do I have any of those traits? About what am I passionate?”

Stay tuned for 30 minute exercise #2 and #3 in this series.

Are you an educator? Be sure to see our EITC Educators Corner.

More information

Know a Young Entrepreneur? Nominate them here.

EITC: 3 free PPTs to teach entrepreneurs. Click here.

The NFIB Young Entrepreneur Foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization promoting the importance of small business and free enterprise to the nation’s youth. More information is available at www.NFIB.com/YEF. The Foundation is associated with the National Federation of Independent Business; NFIB is the nation’s leading small business association, with offices in Washington, D.C. and all 50 state capitals.

Entrepreneur In The Classroom. The NFIB Young Entrepreneur Foundation Entrepreneur-in-the-Classroom (EITC) supplemental curriculum exposes students to entrepreneurship and the necessary steps to take an idea and turn it into a business. The free curriculum can be integrated into classes teaching a variety of subjects including music, art, fashion, business and many more. You must be registered to view the full Entrepreneur-in-the-Classroom curriculum.

Related links:

Follow NFIB Young Entrepreneur Foundation on Twitter

Follow NFIB on Twitter

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