What Can You Teach to the Next Generation?

Every summer for far more years than I've been alive the same thing has been happening and will continue to happen. All those teenagers who are out of school for the summer go to work to earn some money. Many of them are going to get part time or full time jobs at department stores, and fast food restaurants, or at retail stores. But plenty of them are going to go for a more unique form of moneymaking.

These are the kids opening up their own business. The exact type of the business will vary widely depending on who the teenager is and what interest they have. Some will mow lawns, others will baby-sit children or take care of houses while families go on vacation. Others will find truly creative businesses that suit their particular skills.

But how many of these teenagers are going to do any extensive advertising when they start up these businesses?

I can't recall any huge marketing push on the part of my fellow teens back when I was younger. Most teens don't put a lot of thought to brochures, catalogs, postcards, or any other form of color printing. That's part of another world of corporate marketing. Maybe they'll make a few flyers themselves to put up somewhere, but mostly they probably go door to door letting people know that they're open for business.

This doesn't have to be how things go. Think about all of the things you know about marketing and guide your children, or any teenagers you know, towards the techniques that work.

The summer business is the foundation for a future small business owner. The skills they're developing are the very skills they'll need later on in life, and if you help them get a jump-start they'll be in a much better position for when the time comes to start up a larger company.

Go over the different forms of marketing that might help on a local level. Encourage them to save up a little money to get some basic advertising done, like printing postcards or flyers they can slip in people's mailboxes.

If you have a local newspaper help them to design an ad to place in the newspaper. By designing it themselves the only cost they have is that of placing the ad, and if the ad is small enough they should be able to afford it.

You might even suggest they have a few basic business cards printed up to hand to people. Just handing them to a person will impress them so much with the initiative the teen went to it will greatly help to generate more sales.

If you can help, there's no reason not to. Start passing on the skills you've developed to ensure the next generation will have the experience needed to succeed.

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