According to a report by Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), 40% of young people between the ages of 18-34 years old want to start their own business or pursue entrepreneurial avenues. What is Global Entrepreneurship Monitor? It is an organization that collects data on entrepreneurs, business owners, experts, and policy makers. Their research has been used to promote economic growth.
You might be wondering why I mention GEM and that entrepreneurial statistic in the first place. Well, if you’re a high school economics teacher, you have an opportunity to support your students’ entrepreneurial goals AND make your economics course fun and engaging!
Economics can be a difficult and dry subject to teach, especially if you’re just starting out (that was the case for me)! But if you incorporate fun projects, your students might just have a good time! One way to make economics interesting for your students (and you) is to hone in on their entrepreneurial skills.
In this blog, I’ll show you how to incorporate a Create Your Own Business Plan Economics Project into your economics class. Continue reading if you’d like you to implement this project into your class! (If you’re interested, I created a Create Your Own Business Project that you can purchase. This project includes a suggested teacher guide, ready-to-student handouts and graphic organizers.)
Before starting this project, it is important that your students have background knowledge on supply and demand, business entities/organizations and economic concepts like trade-offs, opportunity costs, incentives, scarcity, utility, and cost-benefit analysis.
The Importance of Entrepreneurship Education
Besides making your economics class fun, honing in on students’ entrepreneurial skills in your economics class has a lot of benefits!
Teaching entrepreneurial skills in your class will develop their innovation and creativity! Students will look for new opportunities and solutions to problems as they create their own business plans. It will teach them to think “outside of the box.” In addition, startups and new businesses are good for the economy because they create new job opportunities for others. Who knows, once your student graduates from high school, their business plan might be what is fueling the economy with more job opportunities!
Guide to implementing a Create Your Own Business Plan Economics Project
To get more buy-in from my students and this project, I told them that they would be presenting their businesses to investors who would decide whether or not to fund their business! Now let’s get into how to implement this project in your class.
Step 1 of this project is to have students write a business description. In their business plan they must answer the following questions:
- What will you sell (products) or what service will you provide?
- Who is your target customer?
- How will you make your products? If you are providing a service, how will customers access your services?
- How many employees will you need and what will they do?
- What supplies or other start-up costs will you have?
Below is an example of a graphic organizer you can create for your students. Some students may struggle with deciding what type of business to start. If your students are not sure what product or service they want to provide, you can have them brainstorm answers to the following question: What problem will your business solve?
Next, students must decide the business entity/organization they want for their business. They must decide from the following list and explain WHY they chose this business entity:
- Sole proprietorship
- General partnership
- Limited partnership
- Corporation
- Limited Liability Company.
Next, students must apply their understanding of supply and demand. For this portion, students must:
- Describe 1 situation that would increase the supply of their product or service.
- Describe 1 situation that would decrease the supply for their product or service.
- Describe 1 situation that would increase the demand of their product or service.
- Describe 1 situation that would decrease the demand of their product or service.
Finally, have your students create presentations to showcase to investors. Remind students that the purpose of the presentation is to convince investors that their project will be successful!
Conclusion
This project is a great way to enhance your students’ learning experience and offers them skills beyond the classroom. They practice problem solving and their public speaking! Once this project has been completed, you could continue to hone on your students’ entrepreneurial interests by inviting entrepreneurial guest speakers to your class or by taking our students on a field trip to startup incubators. If you’re interested in purchasing my ready-made Create Your Own Business Project, please visit the link!
Happy teaching!
