eat, skeet, skate and call it a day...

[teenbizcoach]

...Because it is not how you die but how you live that matters most

My name is Shonika and if you can't tell by the title of my post, I am an avante garde youth & teen entrepreneur coach. I work with emerging (truly) young buiness owners 18 and younger who don't want to wait 'til they are 'older' or have more experience to start a business or work doing something that they love. I help them live their best life NOW and not via layaway and their allowance. I teach gung-ho teens not how to build a business but how to build a life (that they deem worth living) by nurturing and building their entrepreneurial mind.

As I have only started working with young entrepreneurs 'formally' in November 2007, while I haven't produced any 7 figure entrepreneurs (yet ) I have helped a few teen entrepreneurs to gross their combine household income in just 180 days.

I met YE co-founder Adam Toren a week ago virtually via social networking through my dear friend and 'Working Angel', Mike Michalowicz, 'the Toilet Paper Entrepreneur'. I promised Adam I would log on to the site and become a regular contributor and today I am making good on my word.

Social networking has afforded me and my teen entrepreneurs tremendous opportunities, Page Ranking, friendships, business opportunities and otherwise, so I encourage you to choose a few sites that you visit regularly, and are really helping you in your 'lifestyle design' as 4 Hour Work Week Author, Tim Ferriss, calls it.

Give back and pay it forward by not just taking information but also contributing regularly. If you have poor follow through set a scheduled time, put it on your calendar and commit yourself to doing it once a week.

I am looking forward to all of your contributions on the board and helping you however I can.

Love & Laughter,

The Nika'Nator

[Librazoe1982]

How are you doing? Welcome to the boards. My name is DeAnne, and I work for a review company, Product Ratings | Business Reviews where people share their opinions on just about anything. I am pretty new here as well.

Do you shoot skeet? Again welcome to the boards. I look forward to your post.

[teenbizcoach]

Hi DeAnne,

Welcome!

As for the answer to your question, no, I don't skeet (shoot) or skate for that matter

I can only say the collective term 'eat-skeet-skate' is a reference to the world of today's teens....

[flnazrael]

LOL, that's usually not what the teenagers she works with are referring to by skeet - unless maybe she's talking about skating.

When I was 17 I got scammed out of a couple grand on eBay trying to put together some crazy deal. I also tried a number of ventures, some more successful than others, from 16 on. I'm glad there are people around who do what you do, Shonika, I think there is a need for it.

[senithhuff]

Hi Shonika wish here was someone out there helping teens in my area when i has that age.

[MistaDobalina]

Yeah skeet has another more popular definition amongst teens now and that's why I was a bit perplexed by your title.

Anyways keep up the good work. I'm 19 and just getting into things and I wish I had more coaches like you when I was younger. Still 19 isn't that old...what am I talking about.

Do you have any stories about your most successful entrepreneurs?

[Gaulkin]

Yeah an what makes you so qualified?

[pboychuk]

How do you make money? When I was starting out, the last thing i would want to do is pay somebody to "coach" me.

[laurenSwaha11]

Welcome to the forum...I look forward to chatting with you!

[Bill Moran]

Hi Teenbizcoach

Welcome to YE

Bill Moran - UK Based

[teenbizcoach]

Thanks to all for your warm welcome, questions, comments. And to respond to your personal comments/questions:


senithhuff: well i need you to break that cycle and mentor teens in your area today.

flnazrael: ha, ha. I hear you about skeeting. Actually that is what I am focusing on....not skeeting, lol, but teaching young people there is a way to make money on solid ground. Yes, there is even a way to make money online, but not Get Rich Quick via strictly affiliate programs, ebay, e-products or whatever they think that can do to make that happen. I guess it is best to explain it this way- many adults struggle with the business of business ie understanding all the logistics to get it started, taking risks and all that. Teens and young people tend to be more curious and outgoing about such things. Naturally they are more naive when it comes to certain things. Seems they can duct tape almost anything together and make it work. I focus with them on the business of life. Working on personal development and how to present themselves in a business setting whether they are hosting a workshop, interviewing with local or national media or in an appointment with an investor or potential client. They often are not taken seriously because adults don't see them as equals bc they feel they don't have 'life experience'. Once we get past this then we can move into the actual core of starting and growing a business and using the internet to enhance and leverage their brand offline. The mastery is in the marketing you know and online it's all about 'perception' until someone meets you face to face? :-)

MistaDobalina: My most successful teen entrepreneurs are doing monthly revenues of their combined household income. In some cases for kids still in high school, grossing $5k+ a month is like beiing a millionaire to them ;-) They will get there...in time though. Slow and steady helped the turtle beat the hare at the end of the day right? Aside from financial success they have gotten to travel a bit doing speaking gigs, hosting workshops, emceeing fundraisers and accepting awards in regional, national and global business plan competitions. For some of them they enjoy this more than anything. As for yourself, keep up the good work and be sure to check in to our site periodically and obviously spending time on this one. If you go to my site and check out the 10 day e-course perhaps some of the tips in there can help you. Good luck.

Gaulkin: I asked myself the same question many times before I started in this industry (which I am not sure if there is a such thing "youth entrepreneur coaching"). Before I started my company I volunteered with a group of young entrepreneurs for 3 years up to 30 hours per week and I traveled with them at my own expense to support them and make sure they got to take advantage of any opportunities that their parents were not able to help them partake in (or in some cases did not support). Not all parents think its cool or good for their kids to be entrepreneurs. There is a lot more information and experiences that you will gain and that will truly empower you in a completely non paid and charitable environment vs. a paid one. It was through these experiences that I find my knack and purpose for working specifically with young entrepreneurs. Before I completely switched careers (after 15 years in wireless and what I felt was at the peak of my career) I surveyed my youth entrepreneurs and told them I would leave my 'career' fate to them. Alas, I am here. We will see where it goes. I am not worried, I will just keep doing what I do and let the forces of the universe sort the rest out.

pboychuk: And it is no different today . All the information I provide on my website, through articles forums etc is free for all. And most people can follow my techniques on their own if they have self discipline. As you know, few are dedicated and after a couple of months will stick with it and emerge. So I look through emails, on forums, and such travel to competitions and find those active entrepreneurs. I invite them to personally work with me if they truly want to take their business to another level i.e. we get into outsourcing, utilizing VA's, mindmaps, online marketing and branding techniques, SEO stuff. I try to help them look for a scalable growth path and VC firms to work with or even figure out what they are going to do once they reach 19 or perhaps get too advanced for my program. However, even with giving them this one on one coaching time, I still don't charge them. It makes the dynamics different when you switch mid point, kind of like having an alterior motive. The human mind naturally thinks like that and people act out of character. I have parents who want to pay me to enroll kids in my program but it never works the same when interest doesn't come directly from the young person. So I try to stay away from that. But to answer your question, I live in DC and am able to make money via local and federal government contracts. i.e this summer I was contracted over a 10 week period to create 80 entrepreneurial and professional development workshops and then teach others how to teach my course. And for the school year I have to develop curriculum for a year round after school program (all related to youth entrepreneurship, personal development, life skills kind of stuff). I also get paid for freelance writing articles for print publications, speaking and hosting workshops and later this month I am releasing a book that shares my techniques I use to coach my kids. What will it lead to....we'll see ;-) All of these things pay me more than enough to do what I need to do to have the flexibility of time to work with my kids everyday and travel with them to competitions, perform media interviews etc. And I have other passive revenue streams through the web.

laurenswaha11: thanks and likewise.

Bill: thank you and see you on the boards.