November 12, 2009
Teaching Budding Entrepreneurs to Tune In To Their Clients
By Kate Duffy
Inspired by the Hot Topics vocational program, Alex Krahenbuhl went to work selling his artwork.
I should have known better, though, for Alex and Caleb came to the conference with a clear purpose: to do business. They came to introduce their art to others and to make money, the kind of personal goals that drive humans forward in life. That is the beauty of self-employment: it is always financial and it is always personal. And it is just the thing to help our kids on the spectrum inch out of their comfort zones into the unpredictable, outside world.
A graduate of Hot Topics vocational program, Caleb Campbell will be selling his calendars at a Holiday bazaar.
Here’s why – and how.
Running even the smallest of businesses, like Caleb and Alex’s, requires paying attention to the outside world, to potential customers. You can’t make money if you don’t, Temple Grandin reminds us in Developing Talents , our career planning guide for people on the spectrum. She learned that lesson from running her sign-painting business as a high school and college student. Temple could have cared less about the beauty shop that hired her services; she would have rather spent her time building sets for the school theater. But she wanted the money and what the money could buy for her, so the beauty shop got a new sign, but only after Temple spent time with the owner finding out what she wanted.
Now that’s how it works. You listen and something happens. What better lesson can there be for our kids?
At the autism conference, several people asked Caleb if he sold his abstract prints separately from his calendar. The first time someone asked, he hesitated. The second time he replied, “Of course!” Caleb got an instant lesson in flexible thinking and a reward to reinforce it. And in that quick minute, he learned the value of paying attention to others’ needs.
It is paying attention to others that nudges our kids into a life of their own. I saw how powerful a lesson it was for Caleb last summer as he and I worked on his business plan, and I saw it the summer before while working with middle-school students at the college’s entrepreneurship camp.
Two of my students that summer were kids on the spectrum, who were pretty anxious the first day of camp when I asked them to introduce themselves to the group. After all, I told them, business people have to be able to speak to strangers. Bobby, though, refused out right, so I introduced him myself. By the end of the week, though, he too had morphed into an entrepreneur. I watched as he threw himself into researching customers’ demographics and the competition for his business plan, designing his shop and creating his marketing materials. He set up his shop, put out his sign and he was ready. At the end of that week, Bobby stood up straight and pitched his business plan to the three small business owners who were to give feedback.
Back at the autism conference, Caleb and Alex packed up their art and easels, and we got ready to leave. “We should do this again,” Alex said, as we walked out of the college. I agree. We should do this — a lot. We should let our kids practice and test their skills in the real world, out of school, in public places.
NOTE: To learn more about Hot Topics, a vocation program for teens and adults on the autism spectrum, contact organizer Kate Duffy at Developingtalents@gmail.com.
