2011, Issue 5

FUTURE CEO STARS

Photograph By Tim OShei and Erika Taylor

Miranda Cosgrove
The Entreprenurial efforts of an Entertainer (pg 22)

Are You An Entrepreneurial GENIUS?

1 How can a persons career skills and experiences lead to becoming a successful entrepreneur? 2. What personality traits are more likely to lead to success as an entrepreneur? 3. Are there differences between a market economy, entrepreneurship, free enterprise, and capitalism? 4. What taxes do entrepreneurs pay? 5. What items are part of a firms operating costs? 6. How can an entrepreneur learn about what the customers want? 7. How can computer skills help with business operations? 8. How do entrepreneurs deal with risks? 9. How is personal financial literacy related to business financial literacy? 10. What factors determine where to locate a business? 11. Why is branding important? 12. How does competition affect entrepreneurship? 13. What percent of American firms have no employees working for them? Why is this important? 14. What are some sources of funding to start a business? 15. What can an entrepreneur do if business sales drop off ? 16. What should an entrepreneur consider when hiring employees for the business? 17. How does an entrepreneur work in a country that doesnt support capitalism? 18. What is tolerance of ambiguity and why is it important to an entrepreneur? 19. How might an entrepreneur use company profits? 20. Why do entrepreneurs say they are in charge of their own fate?

GET YOUR FREE GENIUS CERTIFICATE and Check out our ALL New Website at Go to www.Entre-week.org

FUTURE CEO STARS U TA TARS

4 Gaming, Its My Business TREP$ A Nutty Idea Generation E Squirming for Earnings Ignite Fresh Squeezed Success Holthouse Foundation for Kids Streaming Music Chip Lowe
Youth Innovation Awards.. Marketplace for Kids

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Illustrated Entrepreneurs Museum of Education LIVE! Starring Amanda Cosgrove LIVE! Starring You! Glambition! Rseau des CJE du Qubec @Flying The Lyles Center Our Sponsors

WORMS!!!! on page 8

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Published by The Consortium for Entrepreneurship Education 1601 W Fifth Ave. #199 Columbus, OH 43212 www.entre-ed.org mashmore@entre-ed.org Publisher: Dr. Cathy Ashmore Editor: Mike Ashmore Graphic Design: SPLASH Designs Student Advisory Board Chip Lowe, Claire He, Micah Toll, Kelly Rapp, Marcus Craft Web Page Design and Management CWD

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By Hunter Romanko

y name is Hunter and I am an 11-yr old entrepreneur from Cedar Grove Middle School. This was the rst year the TREP$ Marketplace took place at our school and lots of kids participated, so there was some tough competition. I considered opening several types of businesses before arriving at my nal decision. I originally thought I would brew and sell coee at the TREP$ Marketplace, but then I learned we were not allowed to prepare food or drinks on site. So it was back to the drawing board. I couldnt seem to come up with a business that I could get really excited about. Then my whole family spent one evening brainstorming dierent ideas to help me. My dad came up with one which I knew instantly was for me. He suggested I create and sell my own video games. We researched dierent websites that allow kids to create video games for free and found one that t our needs. To keep expenses down, my dad thought I could even email the games to my customers, but I thought customers would prefer a CD with the games on it and nice packaging would help sell the product. Thats how my business A.R. Games (A-Rated Games) was born! The most fun part of the whole process for me was making the video games. Among the games I made were a driving game, a game that resembled Pac-Man, and a game similar to Fruit Thief. The biggest challenge I faced was working on a game I called Alien Destroyer. I just couldnt get the spaceship to shoot lasers on a straight horizontal. It kept shooting them at an angle. It took me nearly a week to gure it out and make it work the way I wanted.
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It was much more work than I anticipated. It literally took a solid month to produce all the games because there were a lot of steps involved. After I created the games, I had friends and family play them and provide feedback on how they could be improved. I created help screens that players could access by pressing the F1 button while playing. There was one nal round of testing before burning the les to discs. We learned along the way that the les would not work on Macs. So that was something we needed to disclose in our advertising and packaging. I created original artwork for the covers of the CD cases, burned the discs, and put together the packaging for 100 CDs. To give my customers a really good value, I decided to sell 5 video games on a CD for $2.99. My total expenses were $31.22 for Slim CD Storage Cases and 100-Pack Spindle of CDs to put the games on. Since my CDs would sell for $2.99 each, my breakeven point would be 11 games sold. I told all my friends about my product and got a lot of pre-orders for the game. I was condent that I would be able to reach my breakeven point. The night of the TREP$ Marketplace it was really hot, and I was glad I was not selling hot coee that night! I brought a mini laptop computer with me so that I could demo the games for my customers. People who visited my booth said my business was a very cool and unique idea. That kept my spirits up, which I needed since sales were slow to start. As the night nigh went on, business picked up and at times I had a crowd of people gathered around my booth watching me demo my software on my laptop. Before I knew it, I surpassed my breakeven breakeve point. Half the people who stopped by said they were going to come back later, they but the didnt. I know I lost a lot of sales because many people use Macs these days, but I knew that going in. In the end, my sales revenue was $135. I sold 45 CDs and made a prot of nearly $104. One O of my teachers even bought a disc for her kids. I had a really good experience creating my own business and I plan on participating in TREP$ again next year. Im already thinking up ways to expand my business. Ill build upon what I learned this year to create even more exciting video games and/or expansion packs for my existing video games.

Future CEO Stars 2011 Issue 5

A NUTTY IDEA
By Hannah Swank

ello, my name is Hannah Swank. I am in sixth grade, and I enjoy doing community service, being in nature, business and school. I am always looking for ways to reduce, reuse or recycle to help mother earth. I also feel that helping the community is very important.

I started developing my product a few months ago. I have started selling in the past couple of weeks. I got started through an elective course in school. It is a business/nance class. We learned some of the dos and donts of business. Then, we started to come up with ideas for our own business. We are now at the point of selling our products or services. At rst, I was not sure on what I should do for my business. I wanted something that others from my class would not think of for their business. I came up with multiple ideas, but I did not truly like any of them. I wanted to create something original. I thought of making rock pets and selling them but I did not think that they would sell, plus I was looking for something more original. One day my mom, dad, brother, nana and grandfather were painting acorns silver and gold because we had extra paint while we were camping. We had come up with an idea and we didnt even know it! I felt I wanted to use something from nature for my business, or at least the main part of my business. My family was brainstorming a couple weeks later on what I could do for my business. We talked about the pet rock idea, and then we came up with a new idea; acorns like pet rocks. I liked that idea a lot because it was not very expensive, plus there would be less risk if your business did not turn out. This was an original idea and it would also bring back one of the toys, the pet rock, in a completely dierent form. This toy is not commonly found in the hands of todays kids. I collected acorns with the help of my family. I had a lot to plan still, so I started working on that right away. I spent the next few days exploring ideas. A couple of weeks later my uncle, dad, brother and grandma were helping me. They started coming up with cool ideas. We roasted them in the oven, which helps the paint stick as it dries them. We thought of dierent designs and products. It was a very time consuming process. I used paint, glitter glue, glitter, nail polish and other items. It was becoming late fall and so I would need to collect all I was going to collect before it started to frost. (continued on next page)

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I have a couple of dos and donts that I have learned. First, I learned to start o with a reasonable price and if you are making a lot of sales, you can make adjustments in the price. I also learned that if you ask people for ideas on what you could sell it expands the horizon for your business. I got most of my ideas from suggestions. Do listen to the ideas people make on your business. You dont have to use all the ideas, but they may help you out in the end. Also, dont get disappointed if your product isnt selling; you may just need to change one little thing or try a dierent sales location. Lastly, I think this is the most important, DO NOT GIVE UP. If you give up, you may give up right before the product really takes o. My business is acorns that are hand painted and designed showing multiple characteristics of a variety of personalities. I have four main things that I am selling so far but they are all dierent. I have hazelnuts, butternuts, acorns and pinecones. Also around Christmas, I had pine needle miniature trees. As of right now, I have necklaces, small charms/ornaments and acorn pets. In the future, I hope to expand my business. I have learned a lot from my business already and it is still so new. I have learned to be more organized, to listen to what others have to say and to never give up. As I begin to make more prot, I plan to save some towards a college education, spend some of it to improve my business, and spend some of it to help others. I have had help from family, friends, customers and teachers. My teacher for my business class, Mrs. Jones, has helped me signicantly with my business. She has made some great suggestions to help me improve my business and helped me come up with designs. My customers have helped me to nd a reasonable price and helped me come up with more ideas. Thank you to those who have helped me along the way.

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Squirming for Earnings

ORMCO is a youth operated business in Delta County, MI. This 4-H group has been maintaining worm farms for the past year. They originally only planned on selling worm castings (vermicompost) as their product and adjusted their strategies when they realized there was prot to be made elsewhere. They have been able to diversify their products and services centering on worms, their castings, and worm farming. The group has found teaching other people about worm farming and selling starter kits and worms in workshop settings prove to be quite protable and using power tools is pretty cool as well. WORMCO is a project we started, to learn more about entrepreneurship and creating a business. We went to the Kettenun Center for a workshop and got a grant to start our farms for selling worm castings. Since then our business has grown from one farm (where castings are made) to many. Our business goal is for each member to have three farms in our homes. We have recently sold at garden shows and the U.P. State Fair. We are now giving presentations to other people about worm farming and selling our worms to them. Our business is based out of our homes in Delta County, Michigan. We meet regularly. Sometimes to talk about business and other times to process our worm castings. It is a long, tedious process, but weve learned to make it fun. Our business has been in operation for little over a year and has been protable. We have also been attending seminars and networking with other youth businesses. During these seminars we listen to local successful business owners and have learned how to develop a business plan and how to become better entrepreneurs. WORMCO is unique, dierent and not a lot of businesses are like it. Our business has been thriving due to the talents each member brings to the table. The only way we could have possibly made it this far is with a lot of time and eort. We have all learned responsibility and work skills that are not only good for us now, but will help us in the future. During the making of our business we all had to commit. Teamwork was not optional. We still have to be responsible, and thats how we will continue to expand our business. (continued on next page)

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We all agree that the adventure of being an entrepreneur in WORMCO has its pros and cons. Even though we all agree creating our business plan is sometimes boring we are gaining skills that will help us in the future. Some of us think its gross and disgusting, while others dive right in. We had a lot of fun creating our mascot costume, but its not so fun to be inside. The cold, hard cash from our sales isnt bad either. Our journey has not been without obstacles. We have had many casualties that have turned into learning experiences. Ericas worms escaped, Pierces dried out, Francis grew fruit ies, killed another, and is now on his third farm, Jordyn smothered hers, and Shania was hesitant to even take them home. Our experience as a whole has proven what others have told us, Learn from every mistake and never give up.

The WORMCO TEAM

Erica Baker, Jordyn VanPortiet, Pierce Mayville, Francis Eagle, Shania Miller

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Bring Lemonade Day to your city!

Build a Stand...

SPARK A DREAM!

Free, Fun, Experiential Learning

This year 100,000 kids across the nation will start their own lemonade stand business

In on May .2. By 2013, Lemonade Day will reach 1 million young entrepreneurs in 100
cities. We want to bring this community-wide event for kids to YOUR city!

or Great project for business schools, foundations, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, youth sports ol and after-school programs!

Lets talk!
Contact Executive Director Julie Eberly at 713.626.KIDS or jeberly@prepared4life.org.

Lemonade Day FAQ

What is Lemonade Day?
Lemonade Day is a FREE, community-wide, educational initiative designed to teach children how to start, own and operate their own business a lemonade stand.

How does a child register?

Beginning in the spring, a child can register by completing a printed application available through participating partners, such as schools or youth organizations. Youth can register online at www.LemonadeDay.org. They can also sign up and receive a backpack at numerous events in the spring in each city.

How did Lemonade Day get started?

Michael Holthouse, a Houston entrepreneur and philanthropist, co-founded Prepared 4 Life (P4L), a nonprot that provides fun, proactive programs infused with life skills, character education and entrepreneurship. Inspired by the lessons he was able to teach his young daughter and her friend when they set up a lemonade stand, Holthouse launched Lemonade Day in Houston, Texas in 2007. It has now become P4Ls number one outreach and educational priority.

What do children learn?

The objective of Lemonade Day is to teach youth how to start and run their own lemonade business. Children learn the entrepreneurial skills necessary to be successful in the future and become contributing members of their communities. The best part of the program for kids is that after covering their expenses and paying back their investors, they can keep what they earn. With this in mind, children are encouraged to open a youth savings account so their prots can continue to grow as well as give a portion of their earnings to charity.

When is Lemonade Day?

Lemonade Day takes place the rst Sunday in May. It will be on May 2 in 2010.

Who can participate?

Youth of all ages, from pre-K through high school, can register for an ofcial Lemonade Day stand. Adults are needed to participate as mentors and volunteers. In addition, community support from schools, churches, businesses, and youth organizations is essential to the success of Lemonade Day.

Who can get involved and how?

Anyone and everyone can be involved in Lemonade Day. Young entrepreneurs with lemonade stands need mentors, investors, employees and customers! Sponsors and volunteers are also needed to make Lemonade Day a success. All money raised through local donations and sponsorships is used directly to support Lemonade Day in your city. To get involved, please visit your local Lemonade Day website at www.LemonadeDay.org.

How does it work?

Each child that registers for Lemonade Day receives a bright, yellow backpack with an informational workbook for the child and another for a responsible adult. The workbooks outline the steps needed to start a business, from setting a goal, creating a business plan, forming a budget and nding an investor to saving money and donating a portion back to their community. (Materials are available in Spanish.)

How can I bring Lemonade Day to my community?

To learn how to bring Lemonade Day to your community, call 713.626.KIDS (5437).

www.LemonadeDay.org

Lemonade Day is the perfect opportunity for the entire community

to come together and train the next generation of entrepreneurs.

Whats All This About Streaming Music?

Technically Speaking
By Chip Lowe

ith so many options on the market today to buy, rent, and subscribe to music services how do you know which one to use? In this months issue of Technically Speaking, we will cover the dierences between several popular music services.

The rst, major player in the market is iTunes. Until last month, when you bought a song on iTunes, it downloaded immediately, and you were responsible for keeping up with the le. That le is an unprotected high quality audio le, a new feature from a couple of years ago when only 5 computers could be simultaneously authorized to your Apple ID to play music purchased with iTunes. But now, with their new iCloud service, anyone with an iOS device will have access to their music to be downloaded as many times as they like, once they have purchased it. Though iTunes is the world leader in music sales, other services, such as Pandora, Grooveshark, and Spotify oer solutions for music streaming, which is generally enough to meet the needs of many music listeners. While all of these services oer a free level of use, they also oer paid membership that allows such features as unlimited playback, local music storage, and full access to their music libraries on mobile devices, such as Apple iPhones, iPod touches, and iPads, and Android mobile devices as well. 12
Future CEO Stars

See you next year in Chicago at IIEEs Young Entrepreneur Conference!!!

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2011 Issue 5

So what is for me? You might nd yourself asking that very question. It all depends on how you listen to your music. If you are on the go and dont necessarily have time to wait for music to stream, or you are in places where you dont always have an Internet connection, iTunes or a similar storefront is probably your best solution, since you can download your music and have it physically stored on your device for playback. If you are looking for some good music to listen to in the oce, at home, or rarely, on-the-go, a streaming solution will most likely t your needs, and be signicantly cheaper than making a music purchase. The bottom line is, whatever you choose should be simple and allow you to enjoy your tunes without being worried about the technology involved. Good technology is not noticing its there. Thats what we are lling you in on in this months issue of Technically Speaking! Be sure to catch the column again next month.

Have questions or ideas on subjects I should write about!? Email me at clowe@entre-ed.org We love your feedback!

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Youth Innovation Awards Program

T
his year Marketplace for Kids was pleased to announce a new awards program to further acknowledge our young entrepreneurs. The Youth Innovation Awards Program is designed to give special recognition to past winners of the Bright Ideas Showcase and Contest at their regional Education Day where they rst presented their project. The Bright Ideas Showcase and Contest, held in July of 2010, had some fantastic and innovative projects which resulted in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners in each grade level. Among those talented winners, the following students were recognized at their local Education Day throughout this past year:
From Region 1 Williston on April 19, 2011: Ruthanne Erickson, co-inventor of the Kernel Katcher Wilkinson Elementary School, Williston, ND Ashley Fagerland, inventor of The Flip Frame St. Josephs Elementary School, Williston, ND From Region 2 Bottineau on March 15, 2011: Austin Suchan, inventor of the Bobcat Trailer #2 Bottineau Middle School, Bottineau, ND Jacob Blessum, inventor of Bunnie Bites Little Flower School, Rugby, ND From Region 2 Minot on April 12, 2011: Hunter Benjamin, inventor of the Super Storage Dog House Edison Elementary School, Minot, ND Aspen Lenning, inventor of The Goat Bar Lewis & Clark Elementary School, Plaza, ND Hudson Roness, inventor of the Bag Binder Perkett Elementary School, Minot, ND (continued on next page)

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From Region 7 Bismarck on May 2, 2011: Ian Ridenhour, inventor of the Animal Attack Trading Card Game Home School Student, Bismarck, ND Alex Harris, inventor of the Helmet Airbag Wilton Public School, Wilton, ND From Region 8 Dickinson on March 16, 2011: Caden Tuhy, inventor of the Come Along Caller South Heart Public School, South Heart, ND

While projects displayed at the regional Education Days are not judged, and all participants are awarded a ribbon, the Bright Ideas Showcase and Contest allows those students who want to take the next step in developing their project the opportunity to meet with judges and talk to professionals from various backgrounds. Encouragement and competition with other students from around the state allows the student to further improve and expand their vision for their project. By recognizing these student winners at their regional Education Day where they rst began, other students will be encouraged to realize the full potential of their own ideas.

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Our Mission...
The National Museum of Education seeks to celebrate the learning, insight, creativity, and workmanship of America's students, teachers, administrators, and all those who have made a positive contribution to the educational process by recognizing and preserving their accomplishments for the inspiration of future generations.

Visit us on the Web at: www.nmoe.org

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Photographs By Tim OShei and Erika Taylor

Starring miranda Cosgrove

By Tim OShei & Lauren McDaniel

LIVE!

hen you hear the name Miranda Cosgrove, what do you think of? Most people see her as an actress which, of course, is correct. Miranda is the star of Nickelodeons smash-hit show, iCarly. You could also correctly think of her as a singer: Miranda is a Columbia Records recording artist who is on tour this summer promoting her latest album, High Maintenance. Entertainer, celebrity, role model there are lots of labels that t Miranda. But when we interviewed Miranda recently, another description became clear to us: Shes a savvy entrepreneur. Miranda, whose career started at age 3 when a talent agent saw her sing and approached her mother, has been strategically building a business around her skills for the last 15 years. One of the keys to success for Miranda has been maintaining a steady, diverse set of supporters. That came through clearly in our conversation with her, which happened backstage this summer before her concert at Darien Lake Theme Park Resort in New York.

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Here are some pointers we took away from the conversation with Miranda, along with ideas on how you can develop a similar support team:
Family Any successful businessperson will tell you that having family support is key. Dierent Family: family members tend to play important roles dierent points in your career. For example, in your 20s, 30s and 40s, the key supporter may be your spouse, who allows you the time and exibility to build your business. Later in life, those supporters may be your grown-up kids, who begin working with you and may even take over the business. But early on especially in your teens the number 1 supporters will hopefully be your parents, whose roles will range from transporting you places to just being there in case something happens.Thats the case for Miranda. My mom travels with me everywhere, she said, and both my parents are always there helping me.Weve seen it. One year ago, when our Live! Starring You! team was covering a meet-and-greet event that Miranda did for a radio station, her mom was there too, quietly standing o to the side. While Miranda signed autographs and posed for pictures, her mom watched, quietly and proudly and available if needed. Mentors: Being the lead performer on a show is similar to being the CEO of a company. Youre the face of the organization, and everything you do reects on your entire team. Miranda comes across as a pro at handling that responsibility and she is. But she learned from two mentors: actors Drake Bell and Josh Peck, who were the leads on Nickelodeons Drake & Josh. Miranda played a supporting role as their little sister on that show. It sort of prepared me, she told us. I got to watch Drake and Josh have a show and see how they handled it.Miranda still keeps in touch with Drake and Josh, calling them frequently and meeting for dinner every couple of weeks. Friends: Whether you sell quilts, detail automobiles or act and sing, running a business is tough. The long hours and constant demands can easily dominate your mind to the point where you have trouble even thinking about other things.Thats typical, but its not healthy. Even the most dedicated entrepreneurs need a break from business. One of the best solutions is to maintain a set of friends who are interested in you for you, not for your business .Miranda told us shes worked hard to do that, keeping in touch with her best friends though texting and video chatting. My two best friends are from elementary school Ive known them forever, she told us. I talk to them every day. At the end of the day, she added, her thumbs actually hurt from texting so much! Customers: Your customers or in Mirandas case, fans are the key component of your support team. Without them, youll have no business at all. Its important to treat them well and stay in touch. Theyll know you care, and youll know what they want as their tastes and needs change. Directly after our interview, Miranda spent a half hour chatting with fans. I have a really good time meeting them! she told us. But from a pure business view, its about more than enjoying the interaction. Every time Miranda or any entrepreneur meets with her audience, she gets to know them a little bit better. Over time, that kind of feedback helps her create entertainment and you create products or services that the audience wants

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Tim OShei is the founder of Live! Starring You!, a pop-culture education organization, and is a member of the National Honor Roll of American Entrepreneurs. Lauren McDaniel was a student in the Live! Starring You! program at Mount St. Mary Academy in Bualo, New York, and is entering her freshman year at SUNY Brockport in New York. For more information on Live! Starring You!s school programs, or to see Laurens interview with Miranda Cosgrove,

www.LiveStarringYou.com Building YOUR team

Here are some questions that will help you build your own support team: Family support can come from parents or others. Who are your biggest family supporters? How do they help you? Mentors are people who have built successful businesses before you. They understand the challenges youll face and can help guide you. Who are your mentors? Who could be your mentor, if you asked? Friends help you maintain a sense of normalcy when youre chasing after big, allencompassing dreams. Who are your friends that help you escape work for a while and just relax? Without the support of your customers, you wont have a business for long. What do you do to make your customers feel special? How do you keep in touch with them?

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THOUGHT YOU COULDN'T AFFORD A WEBSITE? DIDNT THINK VIDEO PRODUCTION COULD BE AFFORDABLE? never had the time to setup your company to take advantage of social networking?

THINK AGAIN!
find us on facebook
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Visit www.cwd.me today! Email us at go@cwd.me call us at (352) 575-0055 25

ovember 18th, 2010 marked the beginning of what promises to be a long lasting tradition for youth entrepreneurship training in Quebec. Glambition was a one day event in Montreal for girls between the ages of 12 and 15 which oered eight dierent interactive workshops lead by successful, female entrepreneurs aimed to give girls a feel for entrepreneurship and the opportunity to interact with women in the eld rst hand. The girls that participated seemed to have enjoyed themselves immensely and also felt that they beneted a great deal from the experience of participating in a workshop given by a strong female entrepreneurial role model. Here is what a few of the participants had to say about the event: Tenaiya from Orchard Elementary School said that when she rst heard about the event she was very excited and couldnt wait to go. Immediately after participating in the workshop about starting ones own magazine she began discussing with her friends the idea of having an online magazine where they would like to post pictures of themselves and their friends with funny and informative captions underneath.
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Meghan from Beurling Academy begged her teacher to let her go when she heard about the event. She believes that these types of events aimed specically at girls teaches them that they can do anything they want. After attending the jewelery making workshop she felt truly inspired and would like to make jewelery herself. She said if Glambition was oered again next year she would denitely attend and bring all her friends with her. Savannah from Collge de Montral found these workshops particularly useful because she has already started taking the steps towards opening her own travel agency. She collects pamphlets and brochures about dierent places that she has visited in Quebec and distributes them to her friends and advises them on where to go and what to do while they are there. Any money she raises she donates to charities doing work in Haiti. What she found most useful about the workshops was the guidance and tips that the presenters provided her on how and who to approach to raise money, how to network, which websites to consult and books to read.

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ello, my name is Connor Alstrom and this is my business, @ Flying. I am a Junior at Bullard High School and I am 16 years old. That exact statement was the beginning of my business plan presentation to my NFTE class during April 2010. I went on to compete against ten other schools and won rst place and the title of 2011 NFTE Regional Champion. I never would have guessed the magnitude of applause and support that would soon follow. The idea of @ Flying originated during 2009 when I was getting my brand new (to me) 69 Nova painted at Maaco in Fresno, CA, where I live. My father and the owner of Maaco were trading law enforcement stories while my car was being painted. The owner told a story about how they once used a large remote controlled helicopter to allow him to see what an armed man was trying to do, which allowed his team to safely defuse the situation without the loss of any lives. After that story and a little bit of research, @ Flying was born. For non-emergency medical situations, a life-sized chopper isnt economical. Helicopters are limited on the space that they can land on, require a trained pilot and a huge amount of money to operate. @ Flying is an aerial video and photography service that allows remote controlled helicopters to get closer and are more economical than full size helicopters would be able to do. The goal is to make @ Flying available to law enforcement agencies for surveillance of high-intensity situations that would risk an ocers life. Currently, I am in the process of raising sucient funds to build a larger helicopter that would allow me to start this business. I hope that competing against 32 other NFTE students at the National Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge in New York in October will
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help me gain exposure to raise even more funds. Once started, philanthropy is something that I want to instill with @ Flying. I plan to volunteer time and resources for the Fresno Search and Rescue Team. Hence the tagline; We will always nd you. Many companies in my local area have expressed interest in using my services, even though I am still using my current, smaller helicopter. To date, I have lined up an aerial video for a real estate rm, a ranch, a vineyard and a music video. With the correct marketing and word-of-mouth, I expect it to take o at an astronomical speed. The reason that @ Flying is becoming so popular is because there is no competition in or around my city. There are other companies in the United States and abroad using RC helicopters to take video and photographs and I use their data on what has worked and what has not worked to my advantage with an outside target market. By doing this, I have been able to cut my research expenses while gaining knowledge and data from a similar market. The demand for such a cost-cutting business keeps me focused and constantly improving my ideas and goals. The support that I have received from family and the NFTE program has given me the condence to get my business up and running very soon. Many have heard the phrase, Its not what you know, its who you know; this statement has stuck to me while I have been building my business. By knowing the right people and networking, you open up a whole new window of opportunities that may have not been there in the rst place. By building a network, personally and professionally, it has allowed me to get advice when I need it the most, has helped me get my business idea o the ground and has oered me so much for my future.

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2011 Issue 5

The COLEMAN FOUNDATION Holthouse Foundation for Kids Buchholz Academy of Entrepreneurship Delaware Financial Literacy Institute IL Institute for Entrepreneurship Education Marketplace for Kids NFIB Young Entrepreneur Foundation The National Museum of Education Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship CWD Ignite - MI State University Georgia REAL Enterprises TREPS Quebec RCJLQ FFA Cal State U Fresno, Lyles Center LIVE! Starring You! TREPS Empower Youth Entrepreneurs Inc.

www.colemanfoundation.org www.lemonadeDay.org www.spiritspotbhs.com www.DFLI.org www.IIEE.org www.marketplaceforkids.org www.NFIByef.org www.NMOE.org www.NFTE.org www.CWD.ME www.primacivitas.org www.gareal.org www.TREPSED.com www.cjereseau.org www.ffa.com www.csufresno.edu www.livestarringyou.com www.trepsed.com

Future CEO Stars 2011 Issue 5

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