I think it's great that ticktockclok is even prepared to do it. When I was fifteen I wouldn't have followed up on any such idea because the notion of doing it would have been too intimidating.
Thoughts such as: 'I'm only 15: I don't know anything about business, I don't have enough experience, I don't want to look stupid, it won't work and I'll have wasted my time' would have prevented me from going through with it.
Are these some of the fears you decided to get over, ticktockclok?
I went to a Business Studies revision workshop in London during my A-level course where speakers included the winner and second place runner-up on a TV competition:
Channel 4 - Make Me A Million - Home Page
The lady who won was the founder of Halos N Horns - the children's shampoo manufacturer. She mentioned during her speech to us all (hundreds of 17 and 18 year old Business Students) that when she first got the idea for healthy children's shampoo she would phone cosmetics companies to ask various questions, including how shampoo was made.
'How unprofessional!' I thought. It just didn't sound right at all. How could someone who hoped to launch their own shampoo line do something like that? It just seemed so amateurish. And it was inspiring because this woman now was doing that. She'd won the competition by making £1 million in a year (and that's well over a US$1 million, by the way).
Yes, the woman had a friend with her and a mentor and the mentor provided half the start-up capital, but I think what really mattered was that she was someone who phoned up Johnson or Olay or whoever and asked how they made shampoo - because she wanted to see if she could do it.
I'm only 19 myself and I've only got a few thousand pounds - most of which I'll be using to support myself at university soon - but I think that act of hers symbolises what a successful entrepreneur is. Any entrepreneurs in the forum are, of course, welcome to enthusiastically tell me I'm wrong
This has been a much longer post than I expected it to be, but I hope it's of use to you, ticktockclok
