On Youth and Teens Today with Vanessa Van Petten

Welcome to a secret view into the world of the net-generation. I love writing to you (maybe a little too much) so enjoy, stick around and be sure to tell me what you think...and, duh, get on my email list quick! (on the right, "subscribe via email"). Or subscribe to my RSS feed.

(This is part of my “Operation Oprah” series to start a business on my allowance and tell my story through videos and blog posts. By depicting my comic and sometimes exasperating struggles, successes and tactics to get on Oprah, publish a series of teen-parent books as a teen entrepreneur, I want to prove that teens can reach the top from nothing.)

I have talked about what it means to be an entrepreneur, the pros and cons of starting a business and why I decided to write a book, the next chapter in my Business Start-Up Kit book is about mission statements. I am in the process of becoming incorporated and trademarking my business name (my next post). While this is happening, I need to write my business plan. I have no idea how to do this, so, I did what I always do when I have no idea what I am doing:

1. Look-up business plan in Wikipedia:

“A business plan is a formal statement of a set of business goals, the reasons why they are believed attainable, and the plan for reaching those goals. It may also contain background information about the organization or team attempting to reach those goals”

2. Try to find free resource websites:

Oh, how I do love free templates, bplan.com has every kind of free business template you can imagine (including but not limited to: “template for tarot card reading business plan”…yes, seriously. There are 10 basic parts to any business plan, and I realized I would have to tackle them in steps with the tips included in the free template download:

PART I (for this post)

-Executive Summary

-General Company Description

-Products and Services

-Operational Plan

-Management and Organization

PART II (”How to Make Income” Post)

-Financial Plan: Personal Financial Statement and Start-up Expenses and Capitalization

PART III (”Getting the Word Out: Can You Say Cold Calls?” Post)

-Marketing Plan

-Additional Appendices

The main point of the Part I exercise for me, was to be able to succinctly state my business goals and purpose (my mission statement) and figure out the main pillars of my business (what I need to develop and spend the most time/energy on).

My Mission Statement:

To improve parent-teen relationships by providing them with new perspectives, stories and neutral places to communicate. This will help families instill values and build strong relationships that promote healthy attitudes and lifestyle behaviors in this generation of young adults. To provide positive role models for young people.

Business Areas of Development:

1. “You’re Grounded!”: Promotion and sales of my book, “You’re Grounded!” to spread advice, stories and ideas to both parents and teens. Development of book into further series of books on the teen lifestyle and how parents can support their kids. (Update: Published and in distribution)
2. VanessaVanPetten.com: Blog and suggested resources for parents as a window into the Net-Generation. If parents actually understand what is going on in the life of an adolescent, adults can make more informed and better decisions on how to support and set-up boundaries for their children. (Update: up and running)
3. Speaking Events, Seminars and Media Appearences: Have speaking engagements at schools, PTAs, religious organizations, parenting groups and teen clubs to spread the message and perspective. This category includes working with private clients as a parenting coach and appearing in the media to give advice on TV and Radio (Current: Frequent speaking events, appearing on TV Talk Show in March, occasional Radio Interviews, hoping to develop a seminar/webinar series)
4. RRules.com: A website where teens and parents can connect on neutral grounds and write their own parenting book and teen guide in the form of a wiki. (Current: Finished development in India, currently testing site–post soon to come, feel free to check it out)
5. Products: Provide tools to aid teens and parents with goals outlined in mission statement and make lives easier. (Current: First round of College Admissions Kits and School Organization Kits developed and selling to private clients, at speaking engagements and on rrules.com)

As I say on my Operation Oprah page, my readers are my official board of advisers, the whole post is my update for you on how I am doing in each Business Area, I am currently trying hard to get more users to my blog and more speaking engagements for TV and radio!

Dream big, work hard and you will get there,

Vanessa