The first step in Brooklyn’s entrepreneurial journey was finding something she was passionate about. We started by listing her interests: training dogs, horseback riding, reading, hiking, swimming, Minecraft, and making doll furniture.
Finding Ideas
After consulting A Smart Girl’s Guide: Money, Brooklyn circled potential business ideas that aligned with her interests. The book provided a great starting point for thinking about how hobbies and skills can become businesses.
Service vs. Product
I explained the distinction between service-based and product-based businesses. A services business requires you to sell your time, with earnings limited by available hours. Product-based ventures allow more earning potential per hour invested.
Thinking About Growth
I encouraged Brooklyn to think about product extensions. If she chose necklaces, she could expand to earrings and bracelets. This introduced concepts like customer acquisition costs and lifetime value – the idea that getting a customer in the door once opens the opportunity for multiple purchases.
Market Research
Through market research via Google and YouTube, Brooklyn discovered her passion: homemade scrubs and lotions. She watched videos, read about ingredients, and got excited about the possibilities.
The Real Lesson
The true value lies in the entrepreneurial lessons learned rather than the specific product chosen. As Richard Branson has said, spend your time working on whatever you are passionate about.
When you build a business around something you genuinely care about, the hard work doesn’t feel as hard. The passion carries you through the tough moments that every entrepreneur faces.
Next up: naming the business and building a brand.