What’s your passion? What is it that you could do all day and not get tired of doing? When you go to a bookstore, what books do you go to first? What is the first things your friends associate you with? (are you the fix-it guy, fashion diva, or the soccer maniac?)

I firmly believe that God has given all of us a purpose and a gift to fulfill that purpose. So, it really boils down to identifying what we were created for and enjoying what God put us here for. Thinking of a business in the area you are passionate about is easy once you know what to look for.

Most likely, you know your area of interest pretty well because you love it so much, so sit down with a piece of paper and a pen and list the different products and services in your market and consider the following:

• What products or services in your area have you noticed problems with? What could you do to solve those problems?
• Is there a product that could use a fresh take? Starbucks took coffee from it’s hum drum, boring existence and raised it to glamorous heights by changing the way people drink it!
• What new products have hit the market recently that you could do something with? When the iPod came out, many people found their fortunes in writing software apps and designer accessories. Don’t overlook hot new book or movie releases or recurring new themes.
• Taking a different look at the changes around us has opportunity written all over it. Going green has created many new businesses and services. The economy has made many simple money-saving blogs famous. Are you known as a cheapskate? Great! Start a blog and share your ideas for saving money.
• Don’t be afraid of competition. Is there a product or service out there you can do just a little bit better? Publix is a grocer that sets itself apart with it’s premium customer service. Almost any business can excel if your customer service shines.

Some great places to get a feel for the latest trends:

http://google.com/trends

http://pulse.ebay.com/

http://buzzlog.buzz.yahoo.com/overall/

http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/books/

http://content.usatoday.com/life/books/booksdatabase/default.aspx

http://www.nytimes.com/pages/books/bestseller/

What ways have you researched your business ideas?

(Don’t miss Wednesday’s webinar at 2 pm CST by Michael Simmons, Co-Founder & CEO, Extreme Entrepreneurship Tour,  on Why Every Student Should Be an Entrepreneur! See details below or click here)

This week, February 20-27, the Consortium for Entrepreneurship Education is sponsoring the 4th annual National Entrepreneurship Week. In 2006 the US Congress established National Entrepreneurship Week as a celebration of American entrepreneurs and the lifelong learning educational opportunities that prepare the NEW business leaders of the future. Supporting the entrepreneurial culture is part of their emphasis, but advocating entrepreneurial education is their primary objective.

Who is the Consortium for Entrepreneurship Education?

“A national membership organization composed of 100+ agencies and institutions supporting entrepreneurship education as a lifelong learning process. Member organizations represent over 40,000 teachers that annually reach at least 2 million students nationwide. Our mission is to incorporate entrepreneurship education within all disciplines, to infuse students with the entrepreneurial mindset, and encourage our members to work together to create educational opportunities to meet the demands of a global economy. We believe that entrepreneurs are not “born”, but rather they “become” through the experiences of their lives.”  (taken from their website, Consortium for Entrepreneurship Education)

Consortium for Entrepreneurship Education and the information they offered was largely responsible for the inspiration behind Homeschool Entrepreneur. Their philosophy of exposing all students to the basics of entrepreneurship as an essential component to any education was a revelation to me. As a child, I grew up with the spirit of entrepreneurship, which progressed naturally to making it an integral part of our homeschool. It’s one of those moments you realize that something you’ve always taken for granted isn’t necessarily a part of everyone’s experience – yet see the intrinsic value of making it so. Hence, Homeschool-Entrepreneur was born – as a way to share simple ways to make entrepreneurial thinking a part of every family that catches the vision.

Check out their website, www.entre-ed.org,  for a wealth of information to satisfy your entrepreneurial cravings. If you know someone that is unemployed, send them to their new “One Stop Career Center” that is providing entrepreneurship education, training, and coaching to the unemployed as a viable alternative to the traditional job hunt. Individual entrepreneurs have been the fastest growing segment in the current recession.It simply works.

Find Activities In Your State

So, what exactly happens during National Entrepreneurship Week? Well, that depends on where you live. It varies dramatically, but a good place to start is the map at www.nationaleweek.org and click on your state. Many states (like Tennessee) don’t have anything at all, but there is something that I haven’t had a chance to catch yet that looks interesting that anyone reading this can access. The Small Business Administration is offering FREE Youthpreneur webinars at 10 am and 2 pm (CST) all week. I intend to catch Wednesday’s webinar by Michael Simmons, Co-Founder & CEO, Extreme Entrepreneurship Tour,  on Why Every Student Should Be an Entrepreneur. For more information and access codes to this week’s webinars (held at readytalk.com) go to www.nationaleweek.org/eweek_files/SBANationalEntrepreneurshipWeek.pdf

We’ll cover more of this week’s activities later this week. Don’t miss it!

I thought I’d share an interesting video I watched this morning about behavioral economics. Before you click onto another site, hear me out. This guy is funny, and illustrates how our mind often makes irrational decisions based on the choices offered. It’s less than 20 minutes and well worth the time. Who knows? It could save you an irrational decision! Of course, the intention is to help you market your business more …uh, irrationally?

A little background:

I found this video on a highly informative website, Mark Flavin’s Internet Marketing Blog. He offers a decent “best traffic tips” download free (for the price of your email address, of course) which is very worthwhile.

TED, in case you haven’t discovered this as a resource for your homeschool high school, is a library of the best speeches (majority under 30 minutes – which is well over the average American’s attention span!). You can do a search for the subject at hand, or use it to help with form, etc in your own “speech class”! Check out TED, “Ideas Worth Spreading”.

While anyone could guess that ABC’s new show, Shark Tank, is part reality, part Hollywood, it holds a great deal of fodder for discussion. If you aren’t familiar with this entrepreneurial reality show, it’s based on everyday entrepreneurs approaching a panel of shark-like potential investors with their ideas. I love watching it just to hear some of the ideas that are presented and the way they go about it. Who knows, you might see an idea you’ve been thinking about!

If you do see an idea that you’ve been considering, listen carefully to the investor’s responses, but please don’t think that is how it is in the real world. Most investors are only interested in one thing (profit), but are not as cruel as you will see on Shark Tank. What you will learn are what investors are really looking at when an idea is presented to them. Old as well as young entrepreneurs can learn a great deal by watching this show.

Another learning resource you’ll like is the “Free Stuff” offered on the Shark Tank’s website. If you are teaching your teens business currently, there is an excellent Investment Glossary of Terms as well as a list of 150 of the best headlines ever. There’s many other goodies there, too, so it’s worth checking out even if you don’t watch the show.

I’m figuring that most of you would know this, but I received a letter in the mail today and thought I’d mention it just in case. This letter was from “Website Registration Services” and they picked up an expired domain of mine (or so I thought) that I didn’t want anymore and sent me a very official letter “offering” me their great service.(!)  This service would register my domain for me for only $70/year . . . but wait! I can sign up for 2 years and pay $130, saving a whole $10! Uh, did I mention that the domain only cost me $8.99/year through One & One Hosting – AND normally renew automatically each year at that price?

At first, I thought this domain had already expired and this company has purchased it in hopes it was it an oversight on my part to renew it. That would be rather crafty, yet a rotten way to make a living. However, on further investigation, this particular domain doesn’t even expire until Jan 18. So I still own it – AND – ordinarily would auto-renew with One & One, but I had pre-set it to allow it to expire. I have over 30 domains and it was an idea that didn’t work out. You see, when I have an idea, I’ll buy the domain for $6-$9 and work on it when I have time (in theory). This just happened to be one that I didn’t want anymore.

However, if this had been one of my primary domains and I didn’t know any better, it may have been a different story. Unfortunately, there are many companies out there ready to pounce on unsuspecting clients. It takes awhile to learn all there is to know about how all this online stuff works, so don’t feel bad if you’ve actually fallen for one of these “opportunities”.  I think it’s Dave Ramsey that calls the money we spend on mistakes like this “Stupid Tax”.

Have you ever gotten letters like this that almost … or did… fool you? Always get your domains from a reputable hosting company (we list our favorites at Homeschool-Entrepreneur.com/gettingonline )-but NEVER pay more than $10 or $15 for one. There is no reason to – really. Go Daddy is arguably the most popular domain registrar, but I can’t handle their -shall I say ‘provocative’ -  advertising. Not family friendly in our home.  I use One & One and really find it easy to track and manage several domains at once with their easy to use interface. Anyone have a favorite domain hosting company?

A Lesson For Discussion:

Just a side note: In all fairness, “Website Registration Services” isn’t really an actual scam as far as I know, just a deviate way to do business. It could also be a great mini-entrepreneurial lesson to discuss with your youth, not just as a lesson in critical thinking, but as a lesson in ethical practices. “Website Registration Services” are doing nothing dishonest (I hope). However, are they not exploiting people’s lack of knowledge? You decide, and create a lesson for your future entrepreneurs to take with them throughout life.