Training for the Next Generation of Entrepreneurs

Remember when you were a child? As children, often the biggest care is when friends are coming over or how many days until a new video game is released. As children we also have plenty of time to learn and as adults, we can look back and remember that learning new skills as a child was a lot easier than as an adult.

The 20^th century way of teaching a child how to run a business was to set up a lemonade stand and still, as we drive through neighborhood streets, we can find a few left over but now there’s a new way. Bizinate.com allows children, ages 6 through 18, to start their own business.

With the help of their parents, they can open an FDIC-backed banked account through Chase, sell their products through their personalized online store, find help with marketing through e-mail and social media portals, and create business cards with their company information.

More than 24,000 kids and parents registered and plan to start their own business. Ideas range from viable business ideas to those with a very limited audience. One young entrepreneur offers to set up a blog for $25—another offers to design a logo for $20, and one will program your remote control for $10.

Some entrepreneurs are going after a much smaller audience. One offers his services to clean HIS room while another charges $2 to teach their brother or sister how to play a game. One of the more clever? One entrepreneur offers to like a page on Facebook for $5 giving small businesses the perception of having more traffic.

Bizinate founder Rudy DeFelice took on the challenge more as a way to give back than to make the site another largely successful startup. DeFelice was the founder of Practice Technology, a venture backed company that provided software solutions for law firms.

He hopes to encourage kid entrepreneurs to start thinking like a business owner at the earliest age. He charges shoppers 99 cents per transaction to cover the credit card expenses making his business what he calls a “marginal money maker”.

Bottom Line

Not all startups exist to become large-scale profit machines. In the case of Bizinate, giving back to the next generation of entrepreneurs is the goal. As the site grows and more services are offered to the businesses that do have a viable chance of turning in to full time endeavors Bizinate may become his next big success story. For now, DeFelice, who has three children who are actively involved in the site, finding the next Zuckerberg is enough.