nfte business plan

NFTE Career Relaunch is designed to teach adults the essentials of entrepreneurship. If you're unemployed, underemployed, or concerned about your financial future, this course could help you relaunch your career.  Whether you want to develop a business or simply learn to think like an entrepreneur, this free online program will show you how to take control. .

National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE): Building a scalable network to share its curriculum broadly

NFTE has developed a curriculum with an award-winning textbook and workbook for teaching young people to start and run businesses, and has created a network of programs in communities across the globe. The organization has grappled with such issues as how to widely deliver its program while protecting the integrity of its model; how to delegate maximum responsibility to local sites and find the right local site talent; and how to run an extensive network effectively from a national office. Developing a new strategic plan and adding strong management talent have helped NFTE manage these complex issues.

Organizational Snapshot

Organization: National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship

Year founded: 1987

Headquarters: New York City, New York

Mission: “To teach entrepreneurship to young people from low-income communities to enhance their economic productivity by improving their business, academic, and life skills.”

Program : NFTE’s national office has five program areas: teacher education at NFTE University; program partner support; alumni services; research and evaluation; and curriculum development. NFTE University offers an accredited entrepreneurship training program for youth-development professionals and teachers who are planning entrepreneurship programs at their schools and organizations. The three- and five-day courses take place at NFTE’s national office in New York during the year, and over the summer at university partners around the country, including Babson College, Georgetown, Yale School of Management, Stanford University, and the European Business School London. NFTE also operates or partners with programs that teach its curriculum to students at the local level in the U.S. and internationally. NFTE sells books, teaching materials, and videos of its curriculum, which include the award-winning book How to Start & Operate a Small Business , which NFTE distributes through a partnership with Pearson. BizTech 2.0 is an online version of the curriculum developed in partnership with Microsoft. To date, NFTE has worked with over 3,200 teachers and more than 100,000 low-income young people worldwide. In the fiscal year ending in June 2004, the organization reached over 18,000 young people.

Size: $8.7 million in revenue; 48 employees (as of 2003).

Revenue growth rate: Compound annual growth rate (1999-2003): 14 percent. Highest annual growth rate (1999-2003): 62 percent (2000).

Funding sources: NFTE has a diverse funding base, but relies most heavily on foundations, which comprised 42 percent of total funding in 2003. Corporations provided 23 percent, and just under 17 percent came from a combination of contracts with other organizations, interest on the NFTE endowment, licensing fees, and other earned income fees. Individual donors (11 percent) and the government (8 percent) made up the remainder.

Organizational structure: NFTE is a 501(c)(3) that operates branches, affiliates, and licensees throughout the world. Regional offices are in New York City, NY; Chicago, Illinois; White Plains, New York; Babson Park, Massachusetts; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; San Francisco, California; and Washington, D.C. NFTE has six international programs, and seven national partners in smaller cities around the U.S.

Leadership: Steve Mariotti, president and founder; Mike Caslin, chief executive officer

More information:   www.nfte.com

Key Milestones

• 1987: Began offering services in Newark, New York City, and Philadelphia
• 1990: Expanded to Wichita, Detroit, Chicago, and Minneapolis
• 1991: Expanded to New England; centralized the finance function and began to standardize curriculum
• 1993: Expanded to Pittsburgh
• 1994: Expanded to Northern California; developed its first performance scorecard
• 1994: Expanded to Washington, D.C.
• 1995: Promoted Caslin to CEO, sharing leadership duties with Mariotti; launched NFTE University, a national teacher-training center; entrusted certified teachers (not just NFTE staff) to deliver the program
• 1998: Began an intensive strategic planning process
• 1999: Launched BizTech, an online learning site developed in partnership with Microsoft; started its first international operations, in Belgium and Argentina
• 2000: Developed a more ambitious strategic growth plan
• 2001: Brought in COO David Nelson
• 2003 Re-entered Chicago

Growth Story

The genesis of the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship dates back to a life-altering event. Steve Mariotti was mugged in New York one afternoon in 1981 by a group of youths, who beat him severely when they discovered he had no money. To confront fears that surfaced after the beating, he quit his import/export business and began teaching typing and bookkeeping in the most neglected parts of the New York public schools.

By 1987, Mariotti had developed a novel curriculum of teaching math and reading skills through a class about entrepreneurship. He had kids fill out sole-proprietorship forms, print business cards, write business plans, register their businesses, build relationships with wholesalers, make sales calls — everything required to start and run a small business. He even gave them small startup grants. “Right away I knew I had something,” he commented in a 1994 Harvard Business School case study. “You’d have these guys sitting in the back and they’d be saying, ‘Oh screw you … blah, blah, blah,’ and two weeks later they’d be acting like MBAs.” Ten businesses got off the ground in his first year.

Mariotti knew he had found his life’s work. He felt that teaching disadvantaged youth about business was the key to encouraging them to take responsibility for their own lives and to make something of themselves and their communities. He formed NFTE in 1987, and attempted to finance the fledgling group by writing to 168 people on the Forbes list of richest people. He got only one reply, from private investor Ray Chambers, which led to a $60,000 contract to teach elementary and junior high students from the Boys and Girls Club of Newark, New Jersey.

Programs grew opportunistically from there, including an inmate program at Rikers Island Prison in New York City and a community outreach program with Wharton School in Philadelphia. Mike Caslin joined as a fundraising consultant in 1988 (he later became CEO in 1995), which freed up Mariotti to focus on developing curriculum and teaching. Positive national press spread the word about NFTE, leading to nearly $500,000 in funding and 1,000 youth served within two years.

The organization expanded regionally in response to funders’ interests and national-office employees who wanted to move. A Wichita, Kansas-based organization called the Youth Entrepreneurs of Kansas licensed NFTE’s curriculum and teacher training in 1990, backed by the Koch Family Foundations.

Funders encouraged NFTE to established programs that year in Detroit, Chicago, and Minneapolis, but all three closed shortly thereafter. “It was great to start something new, but we didn’t understand how to manage multiple sites,” said Mariotti. According to Mariotti, NFTE emerged from this experience with an understanding of the importance of raising enough money locally to sustain an office over multiple years, and a clearer picture of the characteristics of a successful site leader. “Success is fragile,” says Mariotti. “In some organizations, even being alive is fragile.”

In 1991, NFTE set up a successful New England site, which remains a branch of the national network. Pittsburgh opened in 1993 after NFTE received support from the Scaife Family Foundation. A Northern California office came in 1994, and Washington, D.C., opened with Koch Family Foundations support in 1994. The organization went back to Chicago in 2003.

Six international sites were added over the years, because Mariotti felt that there should be no limits to where NFTE could go. “A kid is a kid, so I don’t want to have any barriers to reach them,” he says.

NFTE currently measures the quality and efficiency of the services it delivers, and it is working with Harvard to do more research on students’ academic outcomes. As of early 2004, NFTE students’ interest in reading had increased by 4 percent, a statistic made even more impressive when compared to declining interest in a comparison group and, more broadly, a national long-term declining trend in reading interest from 7 th grade through high school. Moreover, the students’ interest in attending college had increased 32 percent, as compared to a decrease of 17 percent in a comparison group. Career aspirations showed improvement, as well.

In 1994, NFTE developed its first performance scorecard, which helps NFTE see both the outcomes and progress against organizational goals across the field offices. Mariotti recognizes both the benefits and limitations of monitoring the field offices. “The scorecard allows us to see quickly when things are going bad,” he says. “We cannot yet forecast when things are going bad, but at least we are making progress.”

NFTE launched NFTE University at Babson College in 1995 as a national teacher-training center. In a wide-reaching organizational change, teachers were certified to teach NFTE’s curriculum, and were entrusted to carry it out without great oversight. “We made a cultural decision to trust teachers and youth workers, not just NFTE professionals, to deliver the program,” says Caslin. “This was not a simple decision. Steve’s mission model was to be as close as possible to every student. But we realized that was not scalable as a movement.”

By 1998, Caslin and Mariotti had developed a system to manage multiple sites that involved granting autonomy to well chosen and trained divisional leaders (see the Configuration section).

An intense strategic planning process began in 1998 that led to an internal plan called “Vision 2005.” Caslin described a “teacher-centric” organization that would train 10,000 teachers and reach 1 million students by the year 2005. And in 1999, NFTE launched BizTech, an online learning site developed in partnership with Microsoft.

By 2000, NFTE had trained over 1,500 teachers and served over 33,000 young people. It operated six regional offices, which had autonomy over fundraising and programs. But the group was far from reaching its ambitious goals. A meeting with the new Goldman Sachs Foundation in 2000 led to an intensive engagement with McKinsey & Co. to develop a strategic growth plan. Based on the results of that process, Goldman was prepared give a substantial grant to NFTE.

NFTE took a hard look at how to make the program as effective as possible. The growth objective that came out of the McKinsey engagement was summarized this way: “Maximize the number of on-mission students reached at the minimum program standard, leveraging scarce NFTE resources.” The minimum program standard involved using NFTE curriculum, NFTE-trained teachers, and a student-written business plan at the end of the class. NFTE’s role would be “to empower and enable teachers through recruiting, training, support and incentives.”

Reaching the maximum number of students required several operational and strategic shifts. One of the most important was stricter screening criteria for teachers at NFTE University, which helped to select the teachers who would be most serious about implementing the program when they returned to their schools. NFTE also decided to focus geographically around its regional offices, to take best advantage of its regional office structure.

Though the programs delivered through program partners are less expensive from NFTE’s point of view, with the partner assuming some of the costs, finding the best-quality partners has been challenging. Additionally, the partners do not serve the same critical regional fundraising role as the offices. Balancing these tradeoffs, the organization is expanding through a combination of its own sites and partner sites.

Going forward, NFTE plans to use program partnerships more strategically to lower NFTE’s costs and organizational strain, gain local knowledge, build relationships, and seed entry into new urban areas. It expects to double the number of partners, and triple the number of students served over the next five years by growing domestically in a planned, controlled, and fiscally responsible fashion. Internationally, it will expand with caution and only where it can find a partner. Optimal partners are local players that have: strong ties to schools in a community; a complementary mission to NFTE; an independent, sustainable funding stream; and the ability to meet NFTE’s standards for program quality. NFTE currently has 27 program partners, who reach about 45 percent of its students served.

Configuration

NFTE’s strategy is to partner with schools, universities, and community-based organizations to deliver programs, while focusing on developing innovative curricula; training and supporting teachers and youth workers; and providing supportive alumni services. NFTE accomplishes its strategy through program partners. The organization manages the majority of its partner relationships out of its national office, allowing its regional office staff to focus on building close relationships with schools and partners within a 1-hour driving distance. International affiliates are loosely managed, operating based on their own funding and according to a recommended program. (See Figure 1.)

Partners serve NFTE in several ways. For example, university partners host a “NFTE University” Certified Entrepreneurship Teacher education program to train educators and youth workers in the proper techniques for teaching entrepreneurship. Program partners like large national youth agencies, Cincinnati Public Schools, the NAACP, and TechnoServe branches in El Salvador, Ghana, and Tanzania license NFTE’s programs to bring entrepreneurship training beyond the scope of NFTE’s regional offices. These partners are established nonprofit organizations or government agencies “with a complementary vision and mission to NFTE’s and independent, sustainable funding streams.”

NFTE has found it easier to work with school system partners than with community-based organizations (CBOs). “The model to replicate the NFTE experience at community-based organizations doesn’t really work,” says Mariotti. “There is no ability for national organizations to dictate locally, so we would have to go to every local site [not just the national office]. School systems work better because you tend to get larger class sizes. Also, the school teachers are already trained; people in CBOs are youth workers [and generally are not yet trained in teaching techniques]. Teacher turnover is high; youth worker turnover is even higher. Attendance in school is not fantastic; after-school attendance is even worse. So you get the most bang for the buck by staying in school systems.” While some partnerships with CBO-run after-school programs have worked, such as Boys and Girls Club in San Francisco, NFTE has reduced its CBO-focused efforts.

NFTE has struggled with determining the proper configuration for its organization, wanting to balance innovation and widespread dissemination of programs with quality. Through these efforts over the years, the management team has learned that the following ingredients are needed:

• Centralized financial controls. “We decentralized finance to where people had their own checkbooks and checking accounts, because 10 years ago I believed each person would have his or her own business,” says Mariotti. “Essentially you were a franchise. It was a disaster from a record-keeping standpoint … We strongly recentralized in 1991.”
• Common procedures. “I’ve become more understanding of the value of a playbook,” says Mariotti. “A lot of the argument to have a playbook came from me as I came back from the anarchy. We’ve had a lot of false starts; we would do things and then distribute [procedures], forget about them and wouldn’t update them.”
• Shared best practices. “One of the things the [strategic] plan of 2004 said was to share best practices,” says Nelson. “Everyone was doing their own thing … We keep talking about [adopting the principles of the] playbook from the Green Bay Packers — they only did six to seven plays, but they did them well!”
• A redefinition of “control.” “I’m not sure what control means,” says Mariotti. “That term has always bothered me. I know for a fact that if we had more control in Kansas, it wouldn’t be as good a program. It’s not really about control. It’s about having the right people in place, and giving them the right training.”

NFTE has a diverse funding base, but relies most heavily on foundations, which comprised 42 percent of total funding in 2003. Corporations provided 23 percent, and just under 17 percent came from a combination of contracts with other organizations, interest on the NFTE endowment, licensing fees, and other earned income fees. Individual donors (11 percent) and the government (8 percent) made up the remainder.

NFTE has a number of major foundation supporters, with the Atlantic Philanthropies, Shelby Cullom Davis Foundation, and the Goldman Sachs Foundation each providing more than $1 million in support each year. Major corporate funders include Microsoft, Morgan Stanley, and Merrill Lynch, who are drawn to NFTE’s business-friendly mission. Although NFTE appreciates these large donors and relies critically on their support, the concentration of funding in a few donors is a challenge. “Fundamentally, we have a dangerous funding model,” says Nelson. “We get 90 percent of our funds from 10 percent of funders … but we are not growing the funding base as fast as we should.”

NFTE has been successful in using repeat funders to support growth. In 2003, almost 83 percent of NFTE’s foundation funding came from repeat funders, and 52 percent of individual donors were repeat donors. NFTE is not only able to retain donors, but it is also able to convince them to give more each year. (See Figure 3.) But individuals remain a fairly small component of NFTE’s overall funding mix, and the organization is working to strengthen its individual giving strategy.

Increasing the board’s role in fund development is another priority. As NFTE grew, it became clear to Mariotti that the organization needed a stronger board, both for strategic advice and for raising the funds necessary to provide the NFTE experience to more kids. Mariotti tried a novel approach to impress upon the prospective board members how much NFTE would value their time and energy: “I went out to recruit the ‘Seven Samurai’ for our board, and I said to them, ‘We’re getting ready for you. We’re not ready yet. But we’re getting ready, and in a year, I will be back.’” Mariotti returned a year later and all the board members accepted. The board has been instrumental in both strategy and fundraising, and is now an asset in NFTE’s capital campaign.

Capabilities

In the early days, Mariotti kept administrative costs low with a minimal office staff, hiring a few people here and there to teach and balance the books. His experience taught him that foundations would not be likely to fund organizations with high overhead costs. He ran the operation out of his apartment, and kids came to his door at all hours of the night and day for help and advice.

But by 1990, this had become unsustainable. Mariotti was teaching 700 hours a year and increasingly managing all the administrative aspects of running the organization. He worked seven days a week. The organization’s financial reporting was late, and cash flow was a constant issue.

In 1995, Mariotti began transitioning some of his workload to Caslin, who became chief executive officer that year. Mariotti focused on teaching and curriculum development, while Caslin focused on brand promotion, fundraising, and program performance. “Mike [Caslin] is a gifted person,” says Mariotti. “He can take four seemingly disparate points and connect them. Most of our breakthrough ideas — the partnership with Babson, the annual dinner which pays my salary, the BizTech site — all those ideas are Mike Caslin. He has a gift for strategy or creative things. You can go to him with any problem — he’ll see this circle as related to that circle, and put them inside a third circle, and it will all make sense.”

NFTE fared less well with its first chief operating officer hire. “[The COO] managed up well in his interactions with me,” says Mariotti. “But I was traveling a lot, and when I was here it was a lot different. It took about a year to realize what was happening.”

In 2001, Mariotti and Caslin brought on David Nelson from IBM as chief operating officer. Caslin is now the ideas and strategy person, Nelson handles day-to-day operations, and Mariotti remains to some extent involved in operations, but spends significant time in fundraising, external relationships, and curriculum development. “Dave [Nelson] does so much stuff, it’s impossible to say how he’s freed me up,” says Mariotti. “I’ve been able to put three times the time into curriculum. Almost every hard thing that would take me 100 hours, Dave does it and it’s 15 or 20 hours. This year, we got $2 million for our endowment. I never would have been able to work on that or think about it, had I not had a very senior-level executive to work on [the rest of the organization].”

One ingredient of success in this relationship is the clear lines of authority. “The thing I can’t pay Steve and Mike enough respect for is they said, ‘Dave, here are the keys to the car,’” says Nelson. “’Just get us where we need to go safely.’ That’s how they treated me. If you look up any organization’s history around getting some repeatable processes in place ? the landscape is littered with people who come to blows. The amount of times that has happened here is unbelievably small.”

The three-way power sharing arrangement isn’t perfect. Mariotti will pick up the phone and direct staff around the country, and staff will then hear something different from Nelson or Caslin. “I was thinking about it during the week, that that’s terrible,” says Mariotti. “But my conclusion is, it’s healthy. [Staff are] being exposed to three experienced people with different lines of thought. But what we need to do is regroup and talk to [staff] as a team.”

Staff training is a constant worry for the management team. “Tragically, we are making the most basic mistake in education,” says Mariotti. “We just can’t figure out this training thing [for NFTE staff]. We have multiple sites, with limited budgets. It’s that arrogance of assuming that you know what I know. This is why growth kills. You assume that someone else knows what it took you 20 years to learn. But it won’t kill us; we’re working on it.”

Staff turnover is another challenge, and Nelson is currently conducting an analysis to understand NFTE’s turnover. “We have a number of people who are leaving now for lifestyle reasons, graduate school, etc.,” says Nelson. “Most turnover is due to career enhancement and personal enrichment. One staff member left to start a foundation, and another one left to become a teacher.”

In 2001, NFTE began linking bonuses to its performance scorecard. “People are myopic about this scorecard, which is good and bad,” says Nelson. “The headquarters team and all the local site teams each receive a score based on how well they perform on the scorecard metrics. The bonus of anyone on a team is based 70 percent of how his or her team performed, and 30 percent on how the organization as a whole performed. This is intended to promote willingness to share, but it’s been a challenge. Sometimes people are not excited about doing things not on the scorecard.”

Developing effective local site leadership has also been a constant challenge. Over the years, by trial and error, NFTE has learned what to look for in an effective site director. According to Mariotti, they must be promotionally oriented, good communicators, externally focused, persistent, and able to reach out to the community. “[You need] someone who instinctively knows how to sell,” says Mariotti. “A mistake we’ve made repeatedly is we get a really good teacher, who understands teachers [but not the sales role or leadership].”

Key Insights

•   Finding the right site directors. NFTE’s management team has done extensive thinking about the right personality for site directors. They’ve also learned that many entrepreneurial personalities need to be paired with a strong COO/organization-builder, at the site level as well as the national office.
•   Building the right configuration. NFTE has spent considerable time working to develop effective relationships with its local sites. It has also thought through the most effective ways to get impact out of limited resources, such as training teachers to implement the program.
•   Managing a concentrated funder base. NFTE has been able to both attract big funders and to keep them with the organization. The next challenge is to diversify the funding base and to build an endowment.
•   Building the executive team. The CEO and president/founder long ago found a way to divide responsibilities for the best interests of themselves and the organization. And after a false start with the COO position, they’ve been able to integrate a COO well in the last few years. The leaders know their own strengths and surround themselves with executives with complementary skills.

Related Content

Building back for equity: guidance to inform 2021 early childhood grantmaking, social mobility in rural america: insights from communities whose young people are climbing the income ladder, youth unemployment: confronting the elephant in the room.

• TOPICS  
• VIDEOS  

• ARCHIVES  
• Arts & Culture
• Education & Study Abroad
• Science & Technology
• Social Issues
• U.S.-Japan Relations

• Event Videos
• Interview Videos
• Study Abroad Videos

Teaching Entrepreneurship: An Interview with Neelam Patel

Neelam Patel, Vice President, Programs Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship

American View: What is the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE)?

Neelam Patel: The Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) provides programs that inspire young people from low-income communities to stay in school, recognize business opportunities, and plan for successful futures. We offer innovative and rigorous entrepreneurship education programs in and out of the classroom. We sow the seeds of innovation that will drive economic progress for years to come.

American View: What did you do before joining NFTE and what inspired you to get involved?

Neelam Patel: Prior to coming to NFTE, I taught in public schools within the Los Angeles Unified School District and the New York City Board of Education. In addition, I was an instructor and supervisor for Education students in the Master’s programs at Mercy College and at Teachers College, Columbia University. I have a B.A. from the University of Southern California (Los Angeles, CA), an M.S. in Educational Leadership from Pepperdine University (Malibu, CA), and am currently pursuing a Doctorate Degree at Teachers College, Columbia University, in Curriculum Studies (New York, NY). I am also a 2003 National Board Certified Teacher.

I decided to join NFTE because I wanted to work for an organization that had a different point of view on education. In the U.S., we focus a lot on standardization and test taking skills. Many students do not learn this way, and I liked how NFTE focused on experiential learning and teacher training. I also believe that entrepreneurship, innovation, and creativity are key elements to future prosperity and success for any student.

American View: What kind of specific programs does NFTE provide?

Neelam Patel: Our model centers on the classroom, with entrepreneurship curricula that teach math and literacy skills – all in the context of building a business plan based on a student’s original idea. NFTE’s curriculum meets national social studies and mathematics learning standards, as well as language arts, math, science, technology, and social studies in several states.

Neelam Patel participates in a panel discussion with Ambassador Roos at the Tokyo American Center Entrepreneurship Fair.

Our programs are rigorous, experiential, and relevant to real life, as well as vital to students’ futures. We support teachers, giving them the tools they need to inspire students to learn through entrepreneurship. We provide professional development, including training to certify teachers to deliver the NFTE program. NFTE’s program staff provide one-on-one, in-class support on a regular basis. We offer lesson plans and guidance through web-based tools and give teachers a chance to connect with one another, to share resources and ideas. We work with school administrators to help them reach district-wide educational objectives and invite volunteers from the local business community to bring the outside world into our programs. Business leaders come to classrooms to discuss their work and inspire students. Volunteers serve as mentors for students, business plan advisors, and competition judges. NFTE advanced business programs support students with mentors, pro bono consulting, and other services to get their businesses operational.

We also offer entrepreneurship programs that work with students outside the classroom. BizCamp is an intensive two-week-long program for teens interested in entrepreneurship. In addition, NFTE teachers run E-Clubs for students interested in further developing their business plans outside of the classroom setting. Some NFTE offices offer youth entrepreneurship conferences that bring together students from around their region to share ideas and learn from seasoned entrepreneurs and business professionals. NFTE is even co-creating an online game to provide entrepreneurship education and business formation opportunities to young people everywhere. Our online Alumni Network connects students with each other, and offers business development resources, competition announcements, and college scholarship information.

Young entrepreneurs across the country and around the world benefit from the opportunities NFTE creates. We operate in 21 states through 11 program offices and 6 licensed partners in the United States. NFTE has 10 international licensed partners to reach young people worldwide, and has translated and adapted student and teacher materials for the local cultures and economies. NFTE develops the leading entrepreneurship curricula for young people and currently has books targeted at youth in middle school, high school and community college, and we are developing a university level entrepreneurship textbook as well. Our curricula are not only used in our program but are widely distributed by our publishing partner, Pearson.

American View: Can you give some examples of successful businesses started by NFTE graduates? What made these businesses successful?

Neelam Patel: Jasmine Lawrence – At age 11 Jasmine Lawrence lost 90% of her hair because of a hair relaxer. She vowed never to use chemicals on her hair again but it was difficult to find natural hair products. After attending a NFTE entrepreneurship program at New York University, Jasmine decided to embrace her experience and the market demand for natural hair products. With NFTE’s support, Jasmine founded Eden BodyWorks and created an all natural line of hair-care products. Today, 17-year-old Jasmine is CEO and founder of EDEN BodyWorks and her small business is thriving. Eden BodyWorks manufactures and distributes all natural hair and skin care products to retailers nationwide. Jasmine’s enterprising efforts have been featured on the Oprah Show and in 2008 Businessweek.com named her one of “America’s Best Young Entrepreneurs.”

Jessica Cervantes – Jessica has loved experimenting with recipes and producing new culinary creations ever since her grandmother taught her how to bake. For her business plan, she created a cupcake concept called Popsy Cakes – a cupcake on a pretzel stick – and won first place in NFTE’s National Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge in 2008. Now, with the help of Miami entrepreneur Craig Edelman, Popsy Cakes is opening a counter in Miami International Airport. In addition to growing her successful business and launching a storefront, Jessica is a full-time community college student.

Jesus Ballote – Jesus immigrated to the United States from Mexico as a 10-year-old and struggled to adjust to a new culture and an unfamiliar language. With the help of his mentors and the school’s principal, Jesus was able to turn his life around. And of all the work he has done at his school, he is most proud of the business plan he created in his NFTE class. Inspired by his Mexican roots, Jesus created Mayan Mind, a clothing line with handmade designs featuring Mayan and Yucatan embroidery.

American View: How does NFTE help young people stay in school? What other benefits does it provide?

Neelam Patel: The Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship presents a simple solution that solves many problems. We inspire young people to succeed in school and in life by seizing educational opportunities and starting their own businesses.

Too many young people drop out of school today, and they struggle to break the cycle of poverty and succeed in life. Nearly 33% of all high school students in the United States drop out. Almost half of all African American, Latino, and Native American high school students drop out. 81% of dropouts report they would have stayed in school if it were relevant to real life.

With the world economy struggling and U.S. unemployment hovering around 10%, entrepreneurs and small businesses are key to economic growth. Small businesses generated 64% of net new jobs over the last 15 years in the U.S. Small businesses contribute more than half of non-farm GDP. Small businesses represent 99% of all employer firms and employ half of all private sector employees domestically. Worldwide, approximately 100 million new businesses are launched each year.

NFTE improves lives through entrepreneurship education, teaching skills relevant to the real world, and motivating students to learn. Students discover an innovative and relevant education that inspires them to attend classes, stay in school, graduate, attend college, and have successful careers. NFTE students learn to look at the world and recognize opportunities for success all around them. They graduate with the problem solving, presentation, and leadership skills necessary for continuing their education and contributing to the economy, whether by running their own businesses or joining the workforce. NFTE students learn how to make money and manage it, enabling them to build strong financial literacy skills. NFTE discovers, develops and inspires the next generation of entrepreneurs and small business owners. Advanced NFTE students gain experience operating a small business. One study showed that 65% of NFTE graduates started their own business versus 2% of the control group and of those graduates with a business, one third were still operating their business between 6 and 12 months after their NFTE experience.

American View: Why are NFTE programs offered to young people rather than adults who have experience in the business world and are hoping to launch new businesses?

Neelam Patel: There are two reasons why NFTE chooses to work with young people rather than adults. The first is that we believe entrepreneurship education provides young people an alternative to traditional education. Due to its experiential nature, NFTE can impact the number of students that stay in school, and thus increase graduation rates (which is our ultimate mission). The second reason is that NFTE believes that by exposing students to entrepreneurship at an early age, we help to develop young adults with a mindset that is more creative, risk taking, and innovative so they can contribute to the marketplace earlier and more effectively.

American View: What are the qualities of a successful entrepreneur?

Neelam Patel: Self-assessment – evaluating your strengths and weaknesses – is an important part of becoming an entrepreneur. Self-assessment helps you maximize your strong points and strengthen your weaker ones. The key thing to remember is that everybody has strengths and weaknesses. It’s what you do with what you have that counts. Also, entrepreneurs who are self-aware are able to focus on hiring employees with characteristics that complement their own.

An aptitude is a natural ability to do a particular type of work or activity well. For example, you may find math very easy, or you may naturally be good at sports. Aptitudes can sometimes be developed through hard work. An attitude is a way of viewing or thinking about something that affects how you feel about it. Entrepreneurs tend to be people with positive attitudes. Instead of seeing a situation as a problem, they look at it as an opportunity. This helps them find solutions more easily than people who think negatively. Think about your own experience. Positive thinking and talking tends to make you feel happier and have more energy. You feel motivated to take steps toward accomplishing your goals. In contrast, negative thinking and talking tends to make you feel less happy and reduce your energy. You will be much less likely to take action to solve a problem. Even though you didn’t get to choose which aptitudes you’d inherit, you do have the power to choose your attitude.

An entrepreneur needs to have self-esteem. Entrepreneurs need to view themselves in a positive way. A positive attitude can make the difference between failure and success. Someone with a strong aptitude but a negative attitude will probably achieve less than someone who has less natural ability but a positive attitude. Throughout history, entrepreneurs have proved that thoughts have power. But only you can ultimately decide who you will become. No one is born with all the characteristics needed to be a successful entrepreneur. But if you keep a positive attitude and believe in yourself, you can develop many of them. In the following list, notice the personality traits you already possess. Then focus on the ones you think you need to develop.

• Courage: A willingness to take risks in spite of possible losses.
• Creativity: Inventing new ways of doing things; thinking outside the box.
• Curiosity: The desire to learn and ask questions.
• Determination: Refusing to quit in spite of obstacles.
• Discipline: The ability to stay focused and follow a schedule to meet deadlines.
• Empathy: Being sensitive to the thoughts and feelings of others.
• Enthusiasm: Being passionate about something; the ability to see problems as opportunities.
• Flexibility: The ability to adapt to new situations; a willingness to change.
• Honesty: A commitment to being truthful and sincere with others.
• Patience: Recognizing that most goals are not reached overnight.
• Responsibility: Being accountable for your decisions and actions; not passing the buck.

American View: How are NFTE programs funded? Are the NFTE teachers volunteers?

Neelam Patel: NFTE is a not for profit organization. We rely on the generosity of corporations, foundations and individuals to keep our programs running across the country and around the world. Volunteers also play a crucial role in NFTE’s programs. You can share your knowledge and love of business in a variety of ways – by running a workshop in your area of expertise, becoming a business plan coach to help students fine-tune their business plans, or being a judge at one of our business plan competitions. All of these opportunities require minimal time commitments but can make a huge difference in the life of a young person. NFTE teachers are mostly volunteers who love the field and are dedicated to making schools and education better.

American View: What is the National Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge? Who were the winners this year and what sort of prizes did they win? Did they have an opportunity to meet President Obama?

Neelam Patel: Every NFTE student is required to create an original business plan. Students develop their plans in the classroom throughout a semester or year-long NFTE course. The business plan is the vehicle through which they learn and apply the business/financial concepts that NFTE teaches, while developing business ideas based on their own special interests and talents. By presenting their plans at business plan competitions, students have a unique opportunity to practice their public-speaking skills, gain professional advice on their plans from competition judges, and receive well-earned public recognition as well as seed capital to invest in their businesses and/or their education.

Students from NFTE’s 11 program offices and 6 domestic licensed partners cross the country compete in classroom and/or school-wide competitions each spring. These competitions lead to regional business plan competitions, where the top qualifier from each school competes in the more prestigious semi-finals and finals. The top students from around the country move on to compete in the national competition. They spend many hours between the regional competitions in the spring until the nationals in the fall meeting with their NFTE mentors and business plan coaches to hone and perfect their plans and presentations. On Tuesday, October 5, 2010, 31 individual NFTE youth entrepreneurs, representing 28 businesses, competed in the fifth annual Oppenheimer Funds/NFTE National Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge in New York City. The challenge consisted of three separate rounds of competition, starting in the morning with the preliminary round, which led to the semi-final round in the afternoon. The top three winners of the semi-finals then competed in the evening’s final round, in front of an audience of more than 300 NFTE supporters and invited guests. The grand prize for the winner was $10,000. The runner-up received $5,000, and the third-place winner received $3,500. A fourth participant received $2,500 as the winner of an Online Elevator Pitch contest that included all October 5 participants and ran the month before the challenge, sponsored by E*Trade. The winners all met President Barack Obama in Washington, D.C. on October 12, 2010.

American View: Are NFTE programs offered in countries other than the U.S.? If so, are they adapted for the local cultural and educational needs?

Neelam Patel: The Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE)’s licensed programs are an integral part of our growth in areas beyond the reach of NFTE program offices in both the United States and in foreign countries. Licensees are established non-profit/charitable organizations, educational institutions, community-based organizations, or government agencies that share our mission of providing programs that inspire young people from low-income communities to stay in school, to recognize business opportunities, and to plan for successful futures. Licensees are supported by NFTE through ongoing program support, assistance with adapting curricula, training for educators, and our global awards program for students and teachers.

NFTE is currently in 14 countries. Yes, programs and curriculum are adapted for local cultural and educational needs.

American View: Could NFTE be brought to Japan? How could NFTE programs be customized to fit the Japanese culture and educational system?

Neelam Patel: Yes, with the right partner, NFTE can be brought to Japan. My understanding is that Japan is now looking for ways to help their youth be more innovative and creative. This is because Japan would like to also have the next Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg. I think that in order to this, Japan must ignite the entrepreneurial spirit in their youth. All young people have it; sometimes they just need help finding it. NFTE is very customizable. For Japan, I would suggest to incorporate entrepreneurship education within the school system for students ages 13-18. So as they learn basic reading, writing, and mathematics curricula, they can become aware of how these skills can be used in the real world through business creation and innovation. Culturally, I think NFTE is a great fit for Japan. Now that the world is truly becoming a global community, young people everywhere are more aware of what is happening around the world. Whereas students in the generation before them may have looked only within their community to find resources and be competitive, this generation of students is much more savvy. They want to compete and be a part of the global marketplace. NFTE can set Japanese students up for success in this global community.

American View: Could you offer some advice for young people in Japan who are interested in starting their own businesses?

Neelam Patel: Yes, here are some tips.

• Don’t let anyone dampen your willpower to aspire.
• Take action. As strong as a dream may be, it will stay a dream unless you work to make it a reality.
• Think short term and long term. Make a plan and stick with it.
• Get professional help and seek advice from experts in your field.
• Be assertive and speak up!
• Study hard. Think of your company as something you’re always learning more about. Read up on your industry. Follow publications and websites. Attend free seminars and ask questions.
• Take initiative and see it through.
• Accept criticism. Use all feedback to your advantage.
• Do what you love. Launch a business that is fun for you and one that you are passionate about.
• Others may tell you that you’ll never make it. Don’t believe them, you will!

Neelam Patel joined NFTE in 2006. She has over 10 years of experience in the field of education, professional development, and curriculum design. Neelam’s current responsibilities at NFTE include the creation of text and digital-based entrepreneurship curricula, managing the unit responsible for supporting and creating NFTE’s program elements, and providing the organization with short- and long-term programmatic strategic goals. She oversees NFTE’s curriculum design, teacher professional development, alumni services, and research initiatives.

• Entrepreneurship

Why Disability Inclusion Is “Good for Business”

Here’s where new businesses launch, fashion from american innovators spares the environment, america’s culture of innovation spans the country.

Jasmine Lawrence is my favorite. She inspires skin care and hair care business worker like me. But overall all of these people are inspiring.

LEAVE A COMMENT

Leave a reply cancel reply.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

 network for teaching entrepreneur

NFTE ignites the entrepreneurial mindset with unique learning experiences that empower all students to own their futures. 

NFTE partners with schools, community groups, and youth development organizations to bring entrepreneurship education to under-represented learners. Our evidence-based model leverages an award-winning curriculum, highly trained teachers, and volunteers drawn from across business and industry. Through the process of creating their own business idea, NFTE students build the skills needed to plan and launch a startup. They also learn about the full range of jobs and occupations available to them and are introduced to new career paths. Most importantly, students develop the entrepreneurial mindset. They learn to think and act like entrepreneurs, demonstrating skills such as initiative and self-reliance, flexibility and adaptability, critical thinking and problem solving, communication and collaboration, creativity and innovation, opportunity recognition, and future orientation. This skillset can lead to success in any career.  

Every year thousands of NFTE learners launch successful small businesses. Many program alumni continue to run their NFTE businesses long after they graduate or go on to found new companies that create jobs and drive economic growth. Entrepreneurship education not only changes the lives of NFTE learners, it kickstarts inclusive growth and changes communities.

Opportunity Details

2024 NFTE Mid-Atlantic Business Plan Coaching at Business of Sports School

NFTE volunteers can play a crucial role in helping a student develop a business plan by serving as a coach to a young person. NFTE seeks a large number of engaging volunteers to serve as business plan coaches and help our students both ideate and innovate as they support their experience with positivity and reinforcement. 

As a Business Coach, you will be assisting a small group of students as they translate their business plans into a persuasive opportunity pitch deck.  How to prepare: 

NFTE will provide you with the setup and additional workshop materials for the session at least 2 days in advance. 

NFTE will provide you with a calendar invite upon your confirmation as a coach. 

Age Minimum (with Adult): 18+ , Minimum Age:18+

Log in or Register

In order to register for this opportunity you must log in to an existing account or register to create a new account.

Log in Register

Sign up with a team

This link allows you to participate in this opportunity with a team. A team can be a family team, corporate team, or any kind of organized group. When you click on the link you will have the option to:

• Choose an existing team you're already a member or captain of, or
• Create a new team to sign up.

Signup Questions

Please respond to the following questions in order to signup for this opportunity:

Supported by

     120 Wall Street, 18th Floor      New York, NY 10005      212 232 3333

     © 2020 NFTE

©2020 HandsOn Connect

Privacy Policy | Terms of Use

Common Messages

Daily Southtown | Thornwood High entrepreneur’s idea for fighting…

Share this:.

• Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on X (Opens in new window)
• Click to print (Opens in new window)
• Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)

• Daily Southtown Sports
• Daily Southtown Opinion
• All Suburbs

Daily Southtown

Daily southtown | thornwood high entrepreneur’s idea for fighting procrastination takes her to national arena.

Called DigiPlan, the phone app personalizes students’ schedules and can motivate them to get down to work, offering rewards such as gift cards as they complete assignments.

Whitaker’s business plan started out as an assignment in a Principles of Entrepreneurship elective class at Thornwood High School in South Holland.

“Me and my friends procrastinate a lot and I was thinking late at night if I had something that would help with my procrastination,” she said. “My idea was more to create scheduling and organization and help with self-discipline, so to do that it would shut down any social media.”

Her class submitted their ideas to the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship Midwest Entrepreneurship Challenge where Whitaker, who lives in South Holland with her family, won the first place award, which included a $1,500 prize. Second place went to Raahi Pachbhai from St. Louis Science Center in Missouri and third place to Tywon Barber from Beloit Memorial High School in Wisconsin.

Whitaker’s classmate Jaylin Metcalfe, who just graduated from Thornwood, won the Fast Pitch People’s Choice Award, which came with a $250 prize, for an app he developed called Black Women Support, a program that offers resources, safety protocols and other information in an effort to fight human trafficking.

The next step for Whitaker is to bring her idea to the NFTE national competition in October in New York.

She said she would find the app useful — at least when she needs to finish up some work.

“When I’m doing an assignment, that’s something I would want,” said Whitaker, a rising junior who also is in Thornwood’s Speech Club. She loves math and other business classes, and when she needed help with her project, she was able to turn to family members who have engineering experience.

Being an entrepreneur “requires creativity, and I think that helps me problem-solve and work with other people,” Whitaker said.

But she’s not done yet. She hopes to find investors who would help sell her app to schools or other organizations.

Thornwood Principal Don Holmes called her an “outstanding student.”

“Arianna Whitaker is a straight-A scholar and a creative business-minded student who cares about her community,” Holmes said. “We are proud of her accomplishments through the NFTE program, and look forward to continuing to provide support, encouragement, guidance and opportunities that extend beyond the brick and mortar of Thornwood High School, that allow her to flourish.”

Her parents are also very proud of their daughter’s accomplishments.

Clarice Whitaker, her mom, said Whitaker loves to learn.

“Ariana has always been an outstanding student, but I’m surprised at the depth of how far things have gone,” she said, noting her daughter “always wants to be a leader,” but also shows compassion.

“She’s the most empathetic. If one of her sisters gets in trouble, she’ll try to come to me and say, ‘maybe we should try something different,’” Clarice Whitaker said.

That compassion and empathy were evident in Whitaker’s app idea, according to a news release from contest sponsor NFTE.

“These young entrepreneurs are not only creating innovative ideas to solve complex problems, but they are also extremely passionate about improving their local communities, which makes us so proud of them, their teachers and families,” said Scott Nasatir, the organization’s Midwest executive director.

Janice Neumann is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown. 

More in Daily Southtown

Daily Southtown | Three shot after gunmen open fire at a funeral banquet in Blue Island

Daily Southtown | Thornton Township Board denies vendor payments sought by Supervisor Tiffany Henyard

Post-Tribune | Chicago Heights teacher charged in Indiana after starting sexual relationship with student in 2002

Daily Southtown | Will County Board members question vote on Pride month resolution

Trending nationally.

• Pennsylvania parents drown in Florida rip current trying to save kids
• ‘Hawaii Five-0’ actor Taylor Wily, who competed in first-ever UFC fight, dies at age 56
• Under Armour bets on innovation to turn around sports apparel brand
• Boy who became a ‘treasure hunter’ at age 9 already has one of his finds in a well-known museum
• Shots Fired: Suicides by firearm a quiet crisis