MAKING THE PITCH
Today is the first day of orientations for our after-school business program for teens. Which means it's time to get into schools and recruit students. I hitched a ride this morning with a friend of mine who teaches at a high school in Southwest Philadelphia. I had scheduled to circulate through classrooms in the business annex during 2nd period, but got there an hour before 1st period, just to see if I could crack into any other small learning communities.
Unfortunately, after waiting for almost an hour, I wasn't able to locate anyone who could help me. So I made my way to the business annex, and the coordinator there was nice enough to get me into classrooms one period early. There were six pods, to be exact, and at each one I made essentially the same pitch: that I'm a talent scout, looking for future entrepreneurs, and that my program is the best place for future entrepreneurs to develop their skills and their business ideas.
This year, we've produced blue cards and yellow cards to pass out. The blue cards have info on our program and on when the orientations are, for those who want to join. The yellow cards are for interested students to fill out, so we can collect them and follow up by phone later on to extend another invitation to join. Out of about 150 students, I got back about 60 cards.
We will try to speak to about 3000 students in the next three weeks, in order to get the 30-40 who will eventually join our program. It is exciting to think that among the students I spoke to this morning, there might be one or two or five who will end up becoming really involved in our after-school program and therefore really important to me.
To continue the talent scout analogy, it's like being a college football recruiter or a music producer, combing the neighborhoods and schools for the next big star. I told the students I spoke to this morning that the kind of talent I was looking for was way more important to our community than future quarterbacks and rappers. By making an invitation to join our program, I was vying for the privilege to help shape and mold future business leaders.
Today is the first day of orientations for our after-school business program for teens. Which means it's time to get into schools and recruit students. I hitched a ride this morning with a friend of mine who teaches at a high school in Southwest Philadelphia. I had scheduled to circulate through classrooms in the business annex during 2nd period, but got there an hour before 1st period, just to see if I could crack into any other small learning communities.
Unfortunately, after waiting for almost an hour, I wasn't able to locate anyone who could help me. So I made my way to the business annex, and the coordinator there was nice enough to get me into classrooms one period early. There were six pods, to be exact, and at each one I made essentially the same pitch: that I'm a talent scout, looking for future entrepreneurs, and that my program is the best place for future entrepreneurs to develop their skills and their business ideas.
This year, we've produced blue cards and yellow cards to pass out. The blue cards have info on our program and on when the orientations are, for those who want to join. The yellow cards are for interested students to fill out, so we can collect them and follow up by phone later on to extend another invitation to join. Out of about 150 students, I got back about 60 cards.
We will try to speak to about 3000 students in the next three weeks, in order to get the 30-40 who will eventually join our program. It is exciting to think that among the students I spoke to this morning, there might be one or two or five who will end up becoming really involved in our after-school program and therefore really important to me.
To continue the talent scout analogy, it's like being a college football recruiter or a music producer, combing the neighborhoods and schools for the next big star. I told the students I spoke to this morning that the kind of talent I was looking for was way more important to our community than future quarterbacks and rappers. By making an invitation to join our program, I was vying for the privilege to help shape and mold future business leaders.
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