What should I teach my kids about business?

As I mentioned I would post a few of the things I found intersting about Seth Godin's workshop. There was a high school business teacher in the audience who asked him what he should teach his students. Seth said two things . . . and I agree with the evil genius.

1- Teach them how to tell a good story
2- Teach them how to sell on EBay

Let's start with the first one. Telling a good story is essential to any business. In other words - (in my opinion) public relations is the most effective way to spread the news about your business. We've had 7 stories on us locally in the last month just in one local market all in different outlets. 3rd party validation is more credible and intersting. The key is that once you get called for that interview you need to be able to tell your story and do so in an interesting way - and hopefully they will call you again. This is how I've lined up all of our ongoing media spots. The trick is helping others replicate it. Not everyone is a great story teller.

One of my first jobs was to be a "food prep girl" at our local ranch market/natural foods store. I was 12 years old (I know, pushing the line of legal). But I was surrounded by lots of people older and cooler than I was. It was one of the most boring jobs in the world -- I just sat and chopped up food and made salads. But for me, I had to figure out how to make my small little life intersting enough to carry on conversations. So I would practically make a game out of taking the most mundane thing in my life and turning it into an intersting story.

As a matter of fact when I was little I tended to stretch the truth a little . . . I told some kids that I was from Australia, I opened my own karate dojo in my basement and claimed to be the sensai (sp), I even had a bowl cut and told a new girl that I was a boy (if you couldn't guess it, I was a tom boy!). But, I maintain that my little experiences story telling were good for me. If you child is a liar when they're little - don't be afraid! I think it's the mark of a creative and interesting person trying to figure out how to tell their story.

I'm also fine tuning the art of telling the story of our business through our brand. I've still got things to improve to tell our story through our site - stay tuned for some more good tweeks to the site!

Selling on Ebay - Something else I have done. . . My husband had a little venture in college called Jerkface Clothing. Believe it or not my husband is a seamster - and a darn good one at that. I'm lucky because he makes our kids Halloween costumes . . .not me! But, this little venture in the world of clothing didn't take off so well. So we had lots of t-shirts, hats and sweatshirts to get rid of. We put them up on EBay and we flew through the rest of our inventory. Jerkface fell by the wayside of life as time went on and we got busier and started even more businesses. But I will say that it was a great experience in working on the internet, in testing the world marketplace, in bartering, customer service, etc.

I sold quite a bit on EBay, and then I got brave and made one purchase -- a car! That's some first time purchase right! I've also bought lots of Pottery Barn seconds since then. Speaking of Pottery Barn seconds, that's a great example of lots of little businesses that started on Ebay. I've heard so many stories of people reselling items on Ebay and launching themselves into a venture they didn't expect to go that big. I think Ebay is a great business playground and test market.

OK-- so there is my 10 cents on those two pieces of advice from Seth.