Hot Shot Business Teaching Tomorrow’s Entrepreneurs OnLine

While the enterprising youth of yesteryear were opening lemonade stands on a whim (and a pitcher of mom’s lemonade), today’s future entrepreneurs are learning the ropes while launching virtual skate shops, pet spas and candy factories.

Hot Shot Business, an award-winning online entrepreneurship simulation, has been enhanced to give players an even more realistic and challenging taste of what it takes to start and run a business. Jointly developed by the entrepreneurship experts at the Kauffman Foundation and Disney Online’s creative team, the simulation blends fast-paced game play with real-world lessons to teach children ages 9 to 12, entrepreneurship concepts and skills.

The simulation welcomes kids to “Opportunity City,” where animated teen characters Kate and Jack help players recognize and act on business opportunities to meet the citizens’ needs. Enhancements launched this month include a new type of business (the candy store) and a series of ethical dilemmas that kids must address as well as a formalized teacher curriculum to adopt Hot Shot Business into the classroom.

Hot Shot Business was launched in May 2003 following a Kauffman Foundation study that found that 41 percent of kids ages 9 to 12 would like to start their own business, but don’t know how. Since then, it has been among the most popular content published on Disney Online, which attracts more than 12 million unique visitors each month.

The Hot Shot Business simulation is available at http://www.hotshotbusiness.com.

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(Many thanks to the National Dialogue on Entrepreneurship http://www.publicforuminstitute.org/nde for passing this along. Russ)