Business Camp Helps Young Entrepreneurs

Aaron Young, 17, was at a Santa Monica beach watching five people trying to combat the heat under one small umbrella when a business venture hit him: umbrella rentals.

“I figure if I find a heavily populated beach I could make some pretty good money,” Young said.

With some help from a business camp in Santa Monica, Young prepared a marketing plan that he hopes will launch him in the business world. Young and 15 other students graduated Friday from an intensive, two-week business camp at the Santa Monica Boys & Girls Club.

The project, called “Bizcamp,” is sponsored by the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship, a nonprofit organization that teaches basic business skills to low-income, at-risk youths.

The camp includes classroom instruction in marketing, advertising and financial skills. The program, operating in eight states nationwide, is funded by a $280,000 grant from Microsoft Corp.

Many of the 1,000 students who have participated in the camp have gone on to establish profit-making companies such as a sports products store in New York City and a birdhouse business in Kansas, said Ted Tyson, the program director.

Young said he’s planning to start his umbrella rental business this summer. “Before it was just an idea, he said. “Now I’ve got an actual business plan on paper. It gave me confidence.”