How to grow a CEO.

WHEN CHILDREN PROM HARLEM'S

Institute for Youth Entrepreneurship (IYE) had trouble selling the greeting cards that were a product of New York Colors, their own company, one youngster simply refused to take "no" for an answer. If he couldn't sell the box of 10 cards for $10, he would try

Steve Lawrence, executive director of IYE, calls this kind of ingenuity "thinking outside the box," and says it's one of several identifiable characteristics that distinguish a child with entrepreneurial potential. Other qualities that are equally important are high achievement, motivation and the ability to take risks. Vision, self-confidence and perseverance are also high on the list.

Where do these characteristics come from? Is a child born with them, or can they be learned? Science is still puzzling over the answers to these and other questions such as why first-born children are overrepresented in the population agree that while certain traits evident in entrepreneurs may be dispositional, entrepreneurship, as both a goal and a skill, can be learned.

Indeed, whether they're running a lemonade stand or a lawn mowing business, children today are gaining in entrepreneurial savvy. And for good reason.

With the future of affirmative action in doubt, the pervasiveness of the glass ceiling and the continued downsizing of corporate America, job security is no longer the sure thing it used to be.

START WITH EXPOSURE AND ENCOURAGEMENT

"We have to give our kids a realistic option," says Pamela Foster-Grear, president and CEO of the Foster Corp., a 12-year-old uniform and safety supply company located in Columbus, Ohio. "Some of our kids will not get jobs," she continues. "They will not fit in. So we have to show them that sometimes you have to make a path of your own." For children to see the benefit of that world view, however, parents must be willing to work with their youngsters, providing both exposure to and encouragement of entrepreneurial endeavors. They have to want to educate their children about business.

That process, according to experts, can begin as early as age four by introducing children to money in its various forms, including coinage, and allowing them to make small purchases. As they grow older, the level of exposure should get increasingly more sophisticated, with the introduction of business newspapers and magazines and participation in activities that mix business education with entertainment. Examples include board games like Monopoly or software programs like Theme Hospital (Electronic Arts/Bullfrog Productions), SimPark (Maxis) and Zapitalism Deluxe (Ionos Software) and computer programs that help develop the child's financial acumen, such as Money Making 101 (Digital Impact).

"Require that your child read the business section of the newspaper at least once a week," Lawrence advises. "Have them look for articles on products that they actually consume." Doing this, says Lawrence, helps children understand the relationship between the real world and the marketplace, and to recognize that their own buying habits make them a force in the marketplace.

"Talk about business and business ownership," he continues. "Take your child on a walk through the neighborhood, explain the difference between goods and services, look at who owns businesses and why, and help your child identify the skills it takes to run a business. Take them to seminars and expos, any place where economic development is the focus."

Finally, Lawrence advises using the Internet to search for famous inventions and their inventors as well as biographies and autobiographies that will pique your child's interest.

ENLIST THE HELP OF ROLE MODELS

According to Paul Roitman Bardack, vice president of One to One: The National Mentoring Partnership, based in Washington, D.C., entrepreneurial role models who can "engender personal self-confidence in the child and afford the youngster the opportunity to see what the business world is actually like" are also important. Foster-Grear agrees, believing that "children become what they see."

She and her husband, Lance, who is the general manager of Foster Corp., expose their six-year-old daughter Noni not only to the operation of their business, but also to friends who are business owners as well as to other vendors. Often the little girl travels with her parents on business trips and to trade shows and networking events such as the Entrepreneurs Conference sponsored each year by Black Enterprise Unlimited and NationsBank.

This year, for instance, Noni was enrolled in B.E. Unlimited's Kidpreneurs Konference, a three-day program that teaches the fundamentals of entrepreneurship. Because it parallels the Entrepreneurs Conference, children can engage in meaningful activities similar to, but separate from, what their folks are doing.

The Kidpreneurs Konference is broken into four sectors: Weepreneurs, for children ages four to six; Futurepreneurs, for ages seven to 10; Junior Executives, for ages 11-13; and Future CEOs, for 14-17-year-olds. "Each group learns the basics of starting and running a business, but in age-appropriate ways," says Pat Crocker, B.E. Unlimited's director of project development and strategic planning. In addition to hands-on activities, attendees get firsthand pep talks from successful role models such as Earl G. Graves, chairman and CEO of Earl G. Graves Publishing Co.; Karl Kani, president and CEO of Infinity; and Les Brown, motivational speaker and consultant.

James P. Comer, M.D., who consulted on the development of the Kidpreneurs Konference, feels the program addresses the fundamentals of effective learning. "The child is with someone who cares--the parents--and sees what they are doing--the modeling. The child also engages in self-expression through activities planned just for her, and receives constant reinforcement, again from her parents," he says.

As further reinforcement, a companion newsletter, Kidpreneur News, published quarterly, showcases child-owned enterprises, offers ideas for seasonal and holiday businesses and explains the stock market and other facets of entrepreneurship.

"This level of exposure helps to change the mindset of young people to want to become owners and not just consumers, says Melvin Crenshaw, program manager of the Kidpreneurs Konference. "As our tagline says, the idea is to help kids think big while they're still small."

Noni, who had fun at the conference because "we got to make things," enjoys the exposure to business that she's receiving from her parents. She watches them, she says, and while she may not always have a clear sense of what's going on, she is getting a birds-eye view of important business skills like networking.

According to Comer, the Maurice Falk professor of child psychiatry at the Yale Child Study Center in New Haven, Connecticut, exposure is a critical element engaging a child's interest. In his recently published book, Waiting for a Miracle: Why Schools Can t Solve Our Problems--and How We Can (Dutton, $24.95), Comer makes a case for exposing all African American youngsters, even kindergartners, to entrepreneurship to help make up for centuries of being "illegally and systematically closed out of the economic process."

However, there can be too much of a good thing. "Don't push too hard," he advises. "You can show interest and excitement, but the child has to feel it for himself." He warns that most family businesses don't last beyond the third generation because children often refuse to follow in their parents' footsteps. He recalls taking his children to Wall Street when they were young to help whet their appetites for business. "They both became writers instead," he chuckles. He reminds parents to expose their children to different experiences, so they can make good choices for themselves later.

SUPPORT THE YOUNG ENTREPRENEUR

Once you've incited your child's interest, say the experts, you then need to follow up with support. "It's important that parents not say no at the front end," says Benno D. Pattison, adoptions specialist at Kidsway Inc., an Atlanta-based concern that publishes the Young Entrepreneur newsletter and sells informational kits for children interested in starting their own businesses. Brainstorming is an important activity in this regard. Experts recommend that parents tap into the interests their child has already, and encourage him or her to be imaginative about the possibilities. They also suggest that parents be there to ask questions that will prompt the child to think critically about such an undertaking, such as what kind of product or service the child wants to offer; who the customers will be; how much will he or she charge; what kind of profit will he or she make; and what kinds of supplies will be needed.

If your child has trouble coming up with an idea, step in and take a more "proactive stance," says Emmanuel Modu, author of The Lemonade Stand: a Guide to Encouraging the Entrepreneur in Your Child (Gateway Publishers, $19.95) and founder of the Center for Teen Entrepreneurs in Newark, New Jersey. "Most kids don't come up with ideas on their own," he says, "so you have to help them along." Indeed, parents can use the summer, when children are out of school and often complaining about not having enough to do, to suggest that they start a business and to point out the range of opportunities that might exist in their neighborhood like child, lawn or pet care or computer graphics and consulting.

SELECT THE RIGHT PROGRAM

Another way to get children interested in entrepreneurship is through special programs offered through community-based organizations, professional organizations and by local colleges and universities. Often the local chapters of the NAACP and the Urban League, and organizations like the YMCA/YWCA and the Boys and Girls Clubs of America can serve as resources in identifying specific programs. In choosing the right program for their child, parents need to be aware of such things as the length and depth of the curriculum, the expertise of the instructors and commitment of the program administrator(s) and the funding available to finance start-ups.

Amy Stokes is director of Studio Air, a hands-on airbrush business program that was started last January to provide children in the South Side neighborhoods of Chicago with opportunities to work as both artists and entrepreneurs. She points out that Studio Air, which is sponsored by South Bank Neighborhood Institute in Chicago, is different from most teen entrepreneurship programs. Constructed around the needs of many of the neighborhood's children, Studio Air, which actually makes and markets products such as T-shirts, allows youngsters to cycle in and out of the program depending on what's going on in their lives. The program never assumes that kids, once business knowledgeable, are ready to launch an operation of their own.

"Not all young people are going to be entrepreneurs when we want them to be," says Stokes. "The point is that they learn the lessons, see the way things go and are able to take those lessons and use them at different points in their lives." Despite the constant change in program participants, Stokes is quick to point out that every child involved with Studio Air takes responsibility for the business, whether it's signing time sheets, organizing work teams for a particular project or participating in client meetings and presentations.

Students also learn the business of business, such as pricing and costing of goods sold, as well as risk evaluation and peer accountability. Most importantly, they learn that financial reward is a direct consequence of their ability to deliver a quality product.

Not all entrepreneurship programs are geared toward urban or inner city children. B.E. Unlimited's Kidpreneurs Konference, for example, "offers middle class children the same opportunities for exposure that i urban children get," says Crocker. The program is becoming so popular, she says, that plans are in the works to expand it and publish the newsletter bimonthly.

BRING BUSINESS INTO THE CLASSROOM

Parents can also advocate for the inclusion of business education in their local schools. In 1985, George Waters Jr., and his partner, Aaron Bocage, established the Education, Training and Enterprise Center (EDTEC), a training and curriculum development concern in Camden, New Jersey, that has done significant work in the field of youth entrepreneurship. "Business education can be incorporated throughout the curriculum--for instance, in math and English classes," Waters says. "It's practical and it's real. And learning about money turns people on."

Organizations like Junior Achievement and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership have also developed school-based programs for a variety of populations. Indeed, Junior Achievement, long the standard- bearer for entrepreneurial training of the young, has been making a renewed effort to grow its program in black communities. It is currently partnering or in partnership negotiations with national organizations like the Black MBAs and 100 Black Men to improve its out reach to African American children, particularly in urban schools.

Like Junior Achievement, the Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership also has a number of school-based programs designed to teach entrepreneurial skills to children of all ages. For example, the Mini-Society, for youngsters in kindergarten through the sixth grade, integrates entrepreneurship concepts and explores business ownership, financing and decision making in the normal school curriculum.

DEVELOP THE RIGHT ATTITUDE

For Marilyn Kourilsky, Ph.D., a former professor at UCLA and now vice president of the Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership, there is yet another useful element in encouraging children. She advises parents to encourage individuality rather than conformity in their children, and to help them develop an "opportunity focus."

"Parents need to help their child see that problems are really disguised opportunities," Kourilsky says. She also suggests giving the child what she calls a "customer focus," or "other" orientation. A good way to do this is "if the child is going to have a guest, ask him or her what they intend to do to make sure their guest has a good time," she says. This kind of modeling can begin as soon as the child is old enough to play.

Just as important, children should learn to believe in themselves. This means adults have to take children who choose to be entrepreneurs seriously. "If the child is selling a pencil, he's done the same work as anyone else in terms of calculating costs and profits," says Ed Menifee, sponsor, founder and director of the Southwest Atlanta Youth Business Organization (SWAYBO). "Therefore, if he's selling something for $6, don't try to get it for $2."

Finally, children also need to develop a way to deal with failure. Jack Mariotti, director of finance at the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship, a New York-based organization targeting entrepreneurial programs to urban and at-risk youth, points to one of the mottos his organization espouses: "It's the business that fails, not the business owner." Thus, failure is not a place to stop, but a place to regroup, according to Mariotti. Good advice, since, according to statistics, the average entrepreneur fails 3.8 times before succeeding.

So what happens if you work diligently to inspire entrepreneurial endeavor in your child and he or she decides that a "9 to 5" is better? Even if your child is exposed to the idea of entrepreneurship and chooses another path, at least "we will have given them something else in their armor that helps them face the world," says Waters of EDTEC. "And we will have become the incubator for future generations of entrepreneurs."