How to Develop your Sense of Entrepreneurship

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Not everybody is born a natural entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship is a skill that can always be developed and expanded. Here are some ideas based on my personal experience that will help kids or adults acquire useful skills to become a successful entrepreneur.

Some of the skills every entrepreneur needs:

• Initiative – You have to have the motivation to take the initiative and create on your own.
• Responsibility – You have to be responsible for your actions and understand the importance of responsibility.
• Creativity – You should have a sense of creativity, innovation and always be one step ahead in ideas.
• Communication – You have to be able to communicate your ideas, network and connect with others.
• Leadership – You need to be able to be the leader and be in charge of a project, or company.
• Problem solving -  You have to have the ability to solve simple or more complicated problems.
• Determination – You have to be extremely motivated and keep going even when things are tough.

Here are some ideas to develop those skills:

• Start a school club – If you are still in  school, start a club. It requires that you be creative and come up with a new idea, take initiative, become the leader of the club and communicate with the school.
• Join volunteer programs - Volunteering is not only a benefit to society but also to you.  You will learn to communicate, lead and initiate. Go out and find the right organization for you! Here are some resources: VolunteerMatch, Serve or Volunteer Work.
• Help your friends and family – Helping others is a great way to develop your problem solving and communication skills. In addition, when you help others you become aware of their problems which gives you a great source of ideas to create a business.
• Build a website - Building a site requires initiative and creativity and will get you accustomed to new technology. Also, you will probably need help of advise from others which will develop your communication and networking skills. You can use free services such as Blogger, Wix, or Webs.
• Lemonade Stand - Classic, a lemonade stand! Although a lemonade stand won’t make you a millionaire, it will teach you a lot of good business lessons. It takes initiative, and creativity to market something as simple as lemonade.
• Garage Sale – Similar to a lemonade stand, you can learn a lot by putting together a garage sale. The interactions with the customers will also develop your communication and negotiation skills
• Buy stocks – If you have the financial ability to buy stocks, even just a few, its a superb challenge.  You will have to take the initiative, ask for advise, research and ultimately take responsibility for your decisions. Start with games: VSE or Up Down, and then move on to ETrade or Scottrade.