Chapter 3 Assessing your Potential

What do you want to be?

 32% of youth want to open their own business  28% want to be movie or rock stars  27% want to be big executives

Biggest Challenges  Lack of experience  Lack of knowing how to run a business  Getting financing- lots of paper work to file  No credit history- no way of proving to a bank that you will pay off your loans Cell phone contracts Cell phone contracts

How to get experience  Part-time jobs  Volunteering  School teams  Ideally if you can work in a related industry you will : Build a network of contacts Build a network of contacts Learn how the industry works Learn how the industry works Learn how the business works Learn how the business works

 Once an entrepreneur has a business idea how do they turn that idea into something?

Goal Setting?? Who cares?  Why is goal setting important?

SMART goal setting  Everyone needs to have goals  S imple- ie graduate from highschool  M easurable- pass all courses  A chievable/ R ealistic- goals should be challenging ie get a 75% average  T imely- target date for achieving goals

 Short-term goals Goals you will achieve in the near future (e.g., in a day, within a week, or possibly within a few months). Goals you will achieve in the near future (e.g., in a day, within a week, or possibly within a few months).  Long-term goals Goals you will achieve over a longer period of time (e.g., one semester, one year, five years, or twenty years). Goals you will achieve over a longer period of time (e.g., one semester, one year, five years, or twenty years).

Don’t Procrastinate  Don’t make excuses ie too busy, that is too far away for me to worry about…  set goals that answer the question: Is this achievement important to me? Is this achievement important to me?

Get Down and Get busy!  Set a short term and a long term goal for yourself. They should be related. In other words. Your short term goal should help you reach your long term goal.  Use the SMART principle for each of your goals