STARTING A

MONEY MAKING OPPORTUNITY

Whether you want to make a product you've got to jump right in and do it. Y( a bit and thought about a plan. What' begin. Here are a few things to think your business.

Do You BEST!

Your product or service must be the B Put in time and make your best effor not worth your best effort, why both

about it. If you don't put your best effort into your busi­ness, your product or service won't be any good and you won't have any customers. "Nothing beats a quality prod­uct or service and pleasing your customers," says Doug Miller of the Kauffman Center of Entrepreneurial Leadership in Kansas City, Missouri.

MAKE MISTAKES

When starting your new business, you're bound to make some mistakes. Give yourself permission to make them. Mistakes can be turned into valuable lessons. Many suc­cessful businesspeople think of mistakes or failures as learning opportunities and chances to try again.

Elise Macmillan and her brother, Evan, learned valuable lessons from mistakes they made when their business was new. "When we started sending our chocolates all over, we learned that chocolate melts really easily. So we started

30 EARNING MONEY

using ice packs. We made a mistake—and then made a change that helped our business!" says Elise.

ASK FOR HELP

Mistakes can help. So can family

TALK

MONEY "Failure is the chance to begin again more intelligently." —Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company

members and friends—if you let them.

tO0

With the help of her parents, thirteen-year-old Mary Catherine Catherine Lindsay of Atlanta, Georgia, turned a

school project into a stationery design company called Grasshopper Press. She knew she was on to something when she sold her stationery at school. Mary Catherine earned more than eight hundred dollars the very first day. Soon she had a booth at the Atlanta Gift Show. Then she started selling her stationery—which comes in more than two hundred designs—to several stores. It's hopping off shelves and being sold on the Internet. And it all started by asking her parents for help. "Don't be afraid to ask for help from family, friends, and especially your parents," saysGrasshopper

 e Press

With the help of her parents, Mary Catherine Lindsay turned her talent for making

stationery into a booming stationery business called Grasshopper Press (logo above).


STARTING                                                                                     UNIFY        31

Text Box: something or realize BANK First Lady ON IT Martha Washington (1731-1802) is the only woman to appear on U.S. paper money. Her face appeared on the paper one-dollar silver certificate in 1886, 1891, and 1898. Silver Text Box: certificates could be exchanged for silver coins.Text Box: Mary Catherine. "If you don't know that you can't do something your­self, ask for help. It's no big deal. It's part of life."

BE HONEST

Being honest is also a part of life. You've probably heard the old saying "Honesty is the best poli­cy." It's the best business policy too. To succeed in business, you must say what you mean, mean what you say, and stand by your word. Your word needs to mean

something. Tom Ehrenfeld suggests, "Be honest, be fair, do what you say, and be mindful of others. The same rules in life apply in business."

Doug Miller agrees. "Remember that your business goals should never be more important than your values," he says. "It doesn't matter how much money you make if you break values." Everyone knows that cheating on tests, lying to friends, and breaking promises are bad things to do. Well, the same goes for business practices. You should never cheat, lie, or break promises you make to your customers. It's not only wrong—in the business world, it's also illegal.

BE INVENTIVE

Businesspeople are always trying to invent new products and services to sell. That makes things more interesting

32 EARNING MONEY

and increases sales. Remember Allie and Maggie Cawood-Smith? After doing some research, they found that there were few products for people with body art. So they are expanding their product line with another balm for tat­toos and body piercings. Allie and Maggie plan to call their new body balm Steel Heal.

Chocolate Farm's Elise and Evan Macmillan received lots of requests from customers who wanted to learn how to make their own chocolates. The Macmillans met their customers' needs by offering chocolate-making kits, sup­plies, and cookbooks.

WORK HARD

Both Allie and Maggie Cawood-Smith's and Elise and Evan Macmillan's big ideas came from hard work. They did the necessary research and listened to their cus­tomers. You, too, will have to work hard to become as successful as they are. "We live in a country where if you work hard, you can make money, be

MONEY Inventor

independent, and be successful," M

says David S. Chernow, president Makers Thomas and chief executive officer (CEO) Edison (1847-1931) once

said, "I've not failed. I

of Junior Achievement, Inc., an have just found 10,000 organization that teaches kids about ways that won't work." money and business. With that attitude, Edison

went on to invent the

BACK

GIVE                                                          lightbulb, talking pictures (movies), the phonograph

Many successful businesspeople (record player), and more give back to their communities. They than one thousand

other devices!

VALUE ADDED

Junior Achievement, Inc., is a
nonprofit organization that
teaches schoolkids about the
value of money and running a
business. It serves as a bridge
between education and business.
The organization has about
785,000 student members. In the
Junior Achievement Company
Program, an after-school
program, high school students
form, manage, and operate their
own companies to sell small
products or services.

donate their time and money to help the earth and the people on it. Twelve-year-old Devon Green's business, Devon's Heal the World Recycling of Stuart, Florida, is all about giving back. Her company collects pounds and pounds of aluminum cans and other recyclable goods. Each week Devon and her father take the "recycling trailer," pulled by the family van, to more than one hundred area homes and businesses. Then

Devon trades the goods for money at a recycling center. With the money she earns, she pays herself and gives 30 percent of her earnings to charity. Her reason? "If you own your business and give back to your community, you will always get back ten times more than you gave as long as your heart is in the right place," says Devon.

Through Devon's business,

she's been able to save money DOLLARS Franklin D.

& S

for her future and help people                 SENSE Roosevelt

Text Box: (1882-1945), the thirty-second president of the United States, said, "Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money, it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of the creative effort."and animals in need. She's also received a variety of honors, attention from newspapers and TV shows, and a feeling that she's making a difference in the world.

34 EARNING MONEY

Devon Green helps heal the earth through her recycling business.

Some would call Devon a "social entrepreneur." That's because she's making money and helping society and the environment. But whatever you call her, she's trying to do what founding father and inventor Ben Franklin tried to do—"to do well by doing good."
 


Text Box: Him FUN

Devon has fun helping the earth, and she also makes

money at it. Your MMO should be fun too. If you're not having fun, you might get bored and not keep working at your MMO. If and when that happens, look at your ideas list and think of something else that you enjoy doing. If you like what you're doing, keep doing it. If not, try some­thing new. "Try different things to help you decide," says Doug Miller. "Knowing what you don't want to do is just as important as knowing what you do."