Kids take start-ups for spin at camp that teaches business basics in Seattle

Kids take start-ups for spin at camp that teaches business basics

Seventh-grader Harley Dean passed up snowboarding and being at home for part of winter break to attend class.

Harley, 13, who attends Redmond Junior High, spent this week at Entrepreneurship Camp for Teens at the Boys & Girls Clubs to learn the basics of starting a company.

By Tricia Duryee
Seattle Times Eastside reporter

Today, he and five other students will show what they learned when they present their business plans to a panel of judges for cash prizes.

The camp, sponsored by the Kirkland and Redmond/Sammamish Boys & Girls Clubs, uses curriculum from the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship, which focuses on teaching business skills to low-income people. This is the third such class taught locally. Eventually, the Boys & Girls Clubs would like to add the program at other clubs in King County and around the state.

"It’s sort of cool," said Harley, who has an idea for a clothing company called Triple Threat. "I like being able to brag to my friends that I can make money and they won’t."

The "triple" threat would combine durability, style and affordability, he said, and his clothes would be comfortable because they wouldn’t have tags to irritate the back of the neck.

In about 50 hours this week, camp students learned about everything from registering a business with the state to filing income statements. The program requires each student to devise a business idea, make business cards and present the idea.

Other students’ business choices included offering services to retirement homes, baby-sitting, pet sitting and selling flowers.

"It’s actually pretty amazing," said Whitney Walker Cornell, the teacher and foundation coordinator. "They are always full of so many ideas. (The kids) might not do it exactly like a business-school student, but they are complete businesses."

The students’ presentations list short-term and long-term goals, start-up costs and projected revenue.

This afternoon, the students will present their findings at a business-plan competition at the Microsoft campus in Redmond. Three will be chosen to give PowerPoint presentations, and judges will award first-, second- and third- place prizes worth $125, $100 and $75, respectively.

Thomas Pitt, 13, from Inglewood Junior High in Sammamish, worked with a friend to develop an idea for a game.

The game is a cross between cards and chess. The cards help players determine what characters — such as vampires or woolly mammoths — they will use on the game board. If he starts the company, he envisions selling the game out of his garage.

He has determined he would need $416 in start-up costs and said he has $315 in the bank.

"If I win, we can actually start this thing," Thomas said. "I’m a little bit nervous about having to present in front of an audience. I think I have a fair chance."

Tricia Duryee: 206-464-3283 or [email protected].

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