Entrepreneurial Tightrope: Young or old, same rules apply

— -- Hi, Gladys, My mother has shown me some of your columns explaining to parents how to encourage and deal with young entrepreneurs. But so far I have not read anything written specifically for young entrepreneurs. I am 12 years old and serious about being an entrepreneur. Last summer I attended an entrepreneurs kids' camp. I enjoyed it a lot and I learned some interesting things. Although I had fun, I didn't learn anything that I could apply to my upcoming summer business. My friend and I will clean out garages, attics and basements for a fee. We also hope to salvage things homeowners don't want. We will then sell the unwanted stuff on eBay. Could you give us some advice? — J. R.

This may come as a surprise to you, but when it comes to having a successful business, age does not matter.

And, now for the really important news — there is no way that you can cover every part of building a business in advance.

Being in your own business is a constant state of discovery. That's what makes it interesting. You will become a master entrepreneur by learning something from each situation that comes up, as well as the many ways to solve those situations.

When I was a couple years older than you I teamed up with a friend and we decided that we were going to get rich selling fire alarms and extinguishers. She sold the extinguishers and I sold the alarms. We planned for weeks until we were certain we had every single detail down pat before setting out to find our first customer.

With complete confidence we set out on our door-to-door sales adventures to get rich. The first day we found ourselves returning to the drawing board to deal with situations that we had not imagined, like how to avoid big guard dogs hiding under porch furniture waiting for our feet to light on the porch, or how to handle people who wanted our product but wanted to bargain with our prices.

Notwithstanding these obstacles, we believed we had two great products that could make us wealthy girls. And so we kept moving forward.

My biggest lesson came the day that we gave our sales pitch to a woman who was so impressed that she called her husband out to the porch to place the order and give us the deposit.

Her husband listened to us with a skeptical look . Once I had completed my part of the sales pitch he took the fire alarm from my hand and asked if he could test it. I quickly agreed. He struck a match and held the flame to the bottom of the alarm. The match nearly burned his fingers before the alarm went off. I learned a valuable lesson that day — know your product and make sure it works!

I tell you this story so that you can become familiar with life as an entrepreneur and cultivate an attitude that will lead you to success.

So, as you get organized for your summer business, here are a few things to keep in mind:

• You will learn how to be an entrepreneur by being an entrepreneur.• View each obstacle as an important lesson and figure out how to get through it.• Not everyone will be interested in buying your services. But don't let that discourage you.• Always expect great things from yourself and others; this will help you measure up to the best that is already in you.• Mistakes are great teachers; don't be afraid of them.• And, finally, maintain a strong desire to succeed, and you will.

Have a great and successful summer with your venture.

Gladys Edmunds' Entrepreneurial Tightrope column appears Wednesdays. As a single, teen-age mom, Gladys made money doing laundry, cooking dinners for taxi drivers and selling fire extinguishers and Bibles door-to-door. Today, Edmunds, founder of Edmunds Travel Consultants in Pittsburgh, is a private coach/consultant in business development and author of There's No Business Like Your Own Business, published by Viking. See an index of Edmunds' columns. Her website is www.gladysedmunds.com. You can e-mail her at gladys@gladysedmunds.com.