Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Letting the Cat Out of the Bag

I mentioned a while back I am working with my 8 year old on a project on the side. I have not mentioned it here yet in detail because it was just too early stage. Last night we got a call that she is going to be getting a lot of news coverage, and if I do not talk about it today, I will get scooped on my own story.

I am an entrepreneur because I like trying to create remarkable things. I like the challenge and I am not afraid to take risks and take responsibility.

My wife and I home school for the same reason.

This year's homework assignment for our "would be" 3rd grader? Build a million dollar company.

Actually, it was her idea. She wants a horse and I told her when she could buy it and pay for the upkeep, she could get one. (I know, I am a bad man)

She came to me a while back wanting to sell horse pens, pencils and notebooks online. I told her it would be hard to make a profit on just that, but she should think about other cool products she would love to have and come back with some ideas.

She came back with a long list of things to make her room a stunning horse room, to have a horse club and she wanted to have all different themes so kids that liked other types of animals could do the same thing.

That is not the buzz yet!

We then knew there would be challenges with her having a business. I do not have time to do it for her, so we came up with the idea that a board of directors, all between the age of 8 and 12, would run the for-profit company. The board would not get paid, but would get stock options.

The entire thing is going to be transparent so other kids (and maybe some adults) will learn things about starting a company. We are video taping the meetings, we are posting financial online, we are recognizing people that are involved...

To raise start up funds, she offered board seats for sale. $20,000 each. It can be from the family or from a corporate sponsor.

Now with Venture Capital help, top legal and accounting help, and cities vying to be where Kids Roar opens its offices, the buzz is on.

About two weeks ago, Alexandra (The Chairkid of the Board) said she would like to go to the Business Woman's Conference this year. Because there is a mention of cocktails, I thought it best to call and see if there was an age requirement.

Now she is helping promote the conference and is getting a lot of press, so here is the premature post about Kids Roar (It is kidsroar.biz which may be a problem in the future but the kids make the decisions, so we will see.)

LONG story short. Creating a new manufacturing company is not remarkable. Putting a bunch of Kids in charge of it is. Having everything transparent is. Letting them publicly succeed and fail is. Letting kids write a corporate website is. Creating tomorrow's top leaders is.

Can you tell I am having fun?