Bradley Morris 7 years, 3 months ago-
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I’ve sat down today and thought about the different milestones my students will have to reach in order to have success in my class. I would love your feedback on the milestones.
First off, my course is for teens and teaches them how to start a business that allows them to make a difference in the world. That may be through a product they create that changes lives, a service they provide or just making some money that allows them to donate to their favorite causes. I actually sat down and wrote out an entire course outline, but in order to stick to the “homework” as assigned, here is a list of the milestones. Module 6 milestone can probably be broken down into a few more separate ones, but as the guys said, less is more.
Module 1 Milestone: Identify challenges you will Face as a Teen Entrepreneur and solutions to overcome them
Module 2 Milestone: Identify characteristics you will need as an entrepreneur
Module 3 Milestone: Figure out how you will use your business to make a difference
Module 4 Milestone: Get your support system in place
Module 5 Milestone: Validate your business idea
Module 6 Milestone: Write your business plan
Module 7 Milestone: Set your prices and get your financial tools in place
Module 8 Milestone: Get your website up and running
Module 9 Milestone: Get your first customerAnd if anyone is interested in taking a look at the entire course outline and providing me with some feedback, I would be glad to send it your way. Thanks adventurers!
This is such a cool idea! So much of school does the opposite of preparing kids for life after school. This puts them into action and lets them learn from authentic trial and error, the best!
I’m looking forward to seeing where this goes, I know teens would also love some gamification as you figure out a theme. But then again, everyone likes games!
This course reminded me of what a travesty it is that we don’t teach financial literacy in schools. Maybe as a follow-up bonus to the class you could add a bit on compound interest and show how much more quickly they’ll be millionaires if they invest 10% of their income now?
Ok, stepping of my rambling soap-box. Dig your ideas, good luck on the way up the mountain!
Thanks Jessica. I like the follow up bonus idea!
I can’t tell you how often my daughter says “they should require _______ classes at our school.” Most schools offer financial literacy classes but they are electives. There are many classes I wish they would require, such as financial literacy, entrepreneurship, credit management, homemaking, gardening.
I know that much of that is our job as parents, but in today’s world, these are essential skills and not all parents have the knowledge in these areas.
Hey Deanna,
Great job on your outline. Really like what you’ve done!
I’m wondering whether there could be a place in your outline for helping teens to explore different business ideas and settle on one, and also what about different types of business? Or are they coming to your course with a business idea already in mind?
Hope this is helpful! So excited to see this course come to life, and it sounds like you have great momentum already. Yay you!
🙂
BIG YES to this eCourse being birthed Deanna @teenlaunchacademy!
Loving the module layout you’ve got here. Having written a big long business plan for a similar project five years ago, I’ll throw in a few potentail lesson possibilities that a newbie entrepreneurial teen may want to learn (whether in this course or another).
1. Failure is inevitable… so have fun.
2. What is money? What is value?
3. How to price your thing.
4. Understanding entrepreneurship as a path to personal growth.
5. How to work as a team + Leadership.
6. Simple bookkeeping + registering your business name
Those are just some of the ones I have and they may be covered in your own unique way in the course you’ve got here.
I also see you could provide a Level II Support for once they launch their business. Perhaps a course on how to grow your existing business and manage/serve your clients.
Excited to see this come to life and please feel free to share more around the campfire after you do the next couple exercises 🙂
Thanks for the input Lisa & Bradley. I think between Module 4 & 5 would be a good place to hash out business ideas. I added in this as 4A. Business Idea Brainstorming. I will cover product creation and sales, service businesses and online businesses.
Bradley, most of the things you mentioned are in the bigger outline that breaks down each module. I need to find #4 a place, because you are right that personal growth through entrepreneurship is important to cover. Also, I have a section in the business planning module (the largest, by far) for the legalities of registering your business. I love the idea of adding a section on business growth.
I’m currently pondering themes for the course. (the starred ones are my personal interests) Trying to figure out which will get me most excited, students most engaged and work well with an online course) In the running are:
Around the World in # days
Superheroes (Wonder Woman is my spirit animal)*
Quest for the Cup *
Astronomy
Construction (building a business)
Greek Mythology (obsessed with this topic)*
Through the Decades
Mission Possible*Well hey Deanna, if you go for the superhero thing, I’m your gal!
My course is a superhero-themed careers adventure, so lots of synergy!
I love the Greek mythology idea too, so many cool and powerful ways to go with this.
Is the quest for the cup like the quest for the Holy Grail, or is it something else?
🙂
Now this keeps getting better @teenlaunchacademy. Clearly we have some similar visions.
A group of us back in 2008 started a project called “The Mission Possible,” which was going to be a documentary spotlighting youth around the world who are taking initiative and starting businesses or movements that positively impact the world.
Because the “Mission Possible” doesn’t make it crystal clear as to what the course is about, it would need a super catch tagline that describes exactly what it is and who it’s for.
You may also want to see if the .com is available. My guess is it’s not.
Hey @lisa.russell thanks for the feedback. I’m a total Wonder Woman junkie and learned to love the other superheroes as well. The quest for the cup would be like the Indiana Jones/Holy Grail movie. The problem is I really love all these themes and can’t choose just one. LOL
@bradleytmorris, that sounds awesome! Whatever happened with the project? I’d love to see it! I did check and the .com is not available. I do have a domain I like called teenspark.co that I was going to use before I discovered TGEA. Wonder if that could play into the Mission Possible theme/tagline somehow.
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This reply was modified 7 years, 4 months ago by
Deanna Gibbons.
Hey Deanna @teenlaunchacademy, we only ever got as far as completing the trailer and rallying some youth together. The project didn’t have any money and neither did we at the time, so it came to a halt.
Funny enough though because I am now the founding Curator of the Victoria Global Shapers Hub. The Global Shapers are a branch of the World Economic Forum, that was created to give young people a stage to shape the future of the planet, starting with their city.
I attended the annual curators meeting in Geneva, Switzerland last August and got to spend nearly a week with 453 of the world’s young, bad-ass, innovative, compassionate, creative world changers, entrepreneurs, philanthropists, politicians and influencers. It was unreal (and gives me great hope in the future).
The theme will come. Keep playing with your favourites and HOW you’d imagine them being incorporated into the lesson plans, branding, etc… The one that makes the most sense, is the easiest and most fun to run with will be your winner.
TeenSpark is cool. Do you have a tagline?
Have you asked any teenagers what they think of it? (that’s a really good idea)Hey Deanna @teenlaunchacademy, we only ever got as far as completing the trailer and rallying some youth together. The project didn’t have any money and neither did we at the time, so it came to a halt.
Funny enough though because I am now the founding Curator of the Victoria Global Shapers Hub. The Global Shapers are a branch of the World Economic Forum, that was created to give young people a stage to shape the future of the planet, starting with their city.
I attended the annual curators meeting in Geneva, Switzerland last August and got to spend nearly a week with 453 of the world’s young, bad-ass, innovative, compassionate, creative world changers, entrepreneurs, philanthropists, politicians and influencers. It was unreal (and gives me great hope in the future).
The theme will come. Keep playing with your favourites and HOW you’d imagine them being incorporated into the lesson plans, branding, etc… The one that makes the most sense, is the easiest and most fun to run with will be your winner.
TeenSpark is cool. Do you have a tagline?
Have you asked any teenagers what they think of it? (that’s a really good idea)I love what The Global Shapers are doing. Young people bring fresh, exciting thinking to problems and are really starting to make a difference in their communities, and often, globally. It’s nice to see others trying to nurture this.
As far as Teen Spark, I gave it the tagline “A hero can be anybody”, but I didn’t put a ton of refinement on it. Just something that I came up with off the top of my head when I was considering the superhero theme in the early stages. Right now, it’s just a landing page with an image, some description text and a subscribe box. I have talked with my teenage daughters and a couple of their friends about the course who all think it’s a great idea. (They have been my sounding board while developing the course) I’m actually doing a local workshop in July on the barebones steps to starting a business and am hoping to present to our Girl Scout & Boy Scout troops next year. (We are a Scouting family!) I really want to integrate my theme (once I decide if I’m sticking with the hero theme or choosing something else) before I present to the scouts.
That all sounds cool, Deanna!
I’d encourage you to record (video and/or audio) any time you present the material. Even if you don’t directly use it, you’ll have a pool of materials to draw from — and you’ll know what worked and what didn’t in front of a real audience.
Love all this Deanna @teenlaunchacademy. I’m wondering if you could enrol your daughter and a couple friends into the process of creating this course with you. Basically create the content by living it with them. Help them build a business and become mentors to other teens in the process.
Just a thought. I think it’d be so cool to build this in partnership with a group of young people. That will give you the ‘on the ground experience’ you need to do a phenomenal job with it. It’ll also create this bridge between elder and youth working together (which is missing in our world in a lot of ways).
If this doesn’t vibe with your vision, no worries. Just thought I’d share the thought 😉
Here are some suggestions that I’ve used previously for other projects to get teen input. I’ve simply approached teens where they are in groups in public places like on the street walking home after school, public playground or park, bus stop, public library, mall, MacDonalds, etc. My approach is quite simple: “Hey guys! I’m Kim Aaronson and I’m working on a project to benefit young people. Would you be willing to give me your opinion on a few ideas for this project?” I can say that this is a great way to get input and I’ve usually gotten positive responses most of the time when using this exact approach.
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This reply was modified 7 years, 4 months ago by
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