Getting youths down to business

Nation's Business, April, 1997 by Roberta Maynard

Encouraging young people to learn about business can help them become better employees or family-business members. These days, they don't have to wait until their first college business course or their first job to learn how business works. Some organizations have programs designed to fan the entrepreneurial spark in children as young as 3.

For example, a national competition in which teenage girls draw up their own business plans enabled Victoria Groves to get her first taste of business at age 15 in her hometown in northeastern Massachusetts. A runner-up, she entered again two years later--with a different plan--and won the competition.

She used the winning plan to start her own desktop publishing business. Now 18 and a freshman at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, Groves runs her business on the side, handling projects such as a new menu design for a local diner.

Here are just a few of the groups that bring business and youths together:

* An Income of Her Own (AIOHO) in Burbank, Calif., runs the annual business-plan competition. Its goal is to help girls start learning about economic power and financial well-being. AIOHO also offers a summer camp for girls ages 14 to 18 that combines traditional camp activities with a focus on business-development and leadership skills. For information on the camp, call (508) 463-0259; for information on the business-plan competition, call 1-800-350-2978.

* The National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship, Inc. (NFTE) in New York City offers programs through public schools and has summer camps for junior-high and high-school students. To find out about programs in your area, call the NFTE at (212) 232-3333. Also available through the NFTE is The Young Entrepreneur's Guide To Starting and Running A Business (Times Business, $15), by the NFTE's chief executive, Steve Mariotti.

* Business Cents Resources in Pittsburgh offers day-camp programs for children ages 3 through 16 to teach them about money, leadership, marketing, and other business topics. For information, call 1-800-672-4639.

* The Hugh O'Brian Youth Foundation helps high-school sophomores learn leadership skills. See "Riding Into The Sunrise," in the March Nation's Business

* Entrepreneurs from their early teens to their early 30s an do on-line networking by joining a Boston-based group called the International Directory of Young Entrepreneurs. Annual membership, including access to and a listing in the group's database, costs $25. For information, call (617) 867-4690 or visit the group's World Wide Web site at www.idye.com.