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Introduction

Do you go to the grocery store? How about selling your video games at a store in exchange for money to by the latest and greatest new game? Have you ever seen kids out mowing the lawn for your neighbors? These are all examples of businesses. Pretty much everywhere you go to buy something or sell something, you have fond an example of a business. You probably know that, already. But what you may have never spent time thinking about is that many, many businesses do not make it. They do not make enough money to stay open.

In this WebQuest, you will be working with a group of classmates to look at how businesses work and what it takes to find the right business. You will learn about using your money carefully, how you find people to spend money at your business, and other important parts of the process. Of course, it takes more than just learning about opening a business to be successful. You have to know how much money you have to start your business, what kind of business you want to start, how to spend money wisely, and how to make other people believe in what you are doing!

For this WebQuest, here is what happened. Your favorite teacher recently won the lottery. Being the great teacher she (or he) is, she decided to share her money with her students. What better way to encourage students to think than by having them start businesses?! Well, that is just what she decided to do. She is giving each group of four students $500 to start a business. So, what business will your group start, how should you decide, and on what should you spend your $500? That is what you will find out and decide in this WebQuest.

Proceed to the Task section for more details about the WebQuest.

Task

$500? Awesome! We are so totally rich, Bro! Now, what to do, what to do? Right, I forgot, we have to start a business. We can start so many different kinds of businesses. Where do we begin? How do we choose the right one for us? And, more importantly, how do we spend our $500 to make sure we get the most out of our money? What we need is a business plan. Yes, a business plan that helps us choose the right business, spend our money on the right things, and get people to buy our stuff. You will work through this WebQuest and complete a business plan to share with the class, and some sample advertisements, as well.

• Businesses are more likely to work if the owners are doing something they like and something they are good at doing. The first part of the decision process is to figure this out.
• Now that we know what like to do and what we can do well, are there any businesses out there we can start with our $500 that match our likes and skills?
• We should use this information to inform a plan to share with others. Use the Business Starter worksheet to help you achieve this step.
• Finally, we are getting ready to open our business, and we need to let people know we are getting down to business and what we are selling or doing. You will create an advertising plan and a sample advertisement, or two, to convince classmates to pay for your product or service.

Process

Okay, now you know what you are supposed to do, but how do you go about doing it? That is what the process page is for. Below you will find information you need to complete the four steps for this WebQuest.

1. Think about it: What do we like to do, and what are we good at?
2. Identify a business: What businesses are out there that might work for us?
3. Write a business plan: What is a business without plan?
4. Advertise, advertise, advertise: If no one knows we are there, who will buy from us?

Think About It

Starting a business should be easy, right? You spend lots of your (or someone else’s) money at all kinds of stores, how hard could it be? Well, running a business takes energy, commitment, strength of character, and lots of hard work. What often makes for a successful business is understanding what you like to do and what you are good at, and starting a business that fits with those skills. Use the Web sites below to identify what it is you like to do and start thinking about a business idea that is a good match.

http://pbskids.org/itsmylife/money/making/article5.html
http://kids4kids.biz/Checklist-for-starting-a-business.html

Identify a Business

Now that you have thought about what you like to do and what you are good at, it is important to think about the range of businesses you could choose to start with your money. Of course, the amount of money you have can limit what business you can start, but, more importantly, the business has to be something you believe in and something you look forward to doing every day! Check out these Web sites to get some ideas for different business concepts. Remember, these are just ideas. You can come up with something entirely different or something similar to one of the ideas, but not exactly like it. For instance, you could take the idea of starting a lemonade stand and sell cookies or something else, instead.

http://kids4kids.biz/kids-business-search.html
http://www.moneyinstructor.com/art/waysforkids.asp
http://smallbusinesskids.com/2008/12/five-easy-ways-for-kids-to-make-money-during-the-holidays/
http://ezinearticles.com/?Starting-a-Free-Online-Business---5-Ideas-For-Kids&id=3187254

Write a Business Plan

Even the best idea for a business is bound to fail if you do not plan well what you want to do. It is not enough to choose something you want to do, or something you are good at. More important is to work on a plan that sets you up for the best chance to make money from what you invest in your idea. What are some of the things you need to consider when making your plan? There are a set of questions you have to answer, some which you already have begun to think about in the first two parts of the process.

• Product or Service: Are you selling something or doing something for people?
• Market: Who is the customer (the person you are selling to) and what businesses are you competing against?
• Supplies: What do you need to start your business and make your product or perform your service for customers?
• Price – Cost = Profit: How much will it cost for you to crate your product or perform your service for each customer? How much do you need to charge (price) to make money (profit)?

Use the Business Starter worksheet to answer the questions above for your product or service. Visit the links below to learn more about panning your business.

Business Simulations

Lemonade Stand: http://www.classbrain.com/cb_games/cb_gms_bag/lemonade.html
Disney Hot Shot Game: http://disney.go.com/hotshot/hsb3/index.html
LavaMind Games: http://www.lavamind.com/index.html

Business Concepts

General Business Concepts: http://pbskids.org/itsmylife/money/making/index.html
Business Checklist: http://kids4kids.biz/Checklist-for-starting-a-business.html
Marketing Basics: http://kids4kids.biz/Marketing-Basics.html

Advertise, Advertise, Advertise

You know who you are and what you like, you have a great idea to make some cash money, and you created a great plan. The time has come to go out and sell. For this WebQuest, you need to think about how best to sell your product or service. And you get to practice on your classmates! Look at different ways to advertise your product or service and create at least one sample advertisement to share with the class. Your advertisement or promotion idea can be a flyer, a poster, a video, or any of a number of options. For some ideas, take a look at the links below.

Advertising and Promotion: http://pbskids.org/itsmylife/money/making/article10.html
Samples of Advertisements from around the World: http://adsoftheworld.com/

Check out the Evaluation section to see how you will be graded on this activity.