At Age 11, Fountain Valley Boy Is the Real Dealer

The topic of the children’s class at Orange Coast College is how kids can make money selling lemonade or designing board games.

But most of the parents who sit open-mouthed in the back of the room seem more interested in how their offspring can become like the snappily dressed, preteen teacher, Joshua Ballard.

Joshua is 11. And he’s not actually a wealthy entrepreneur--yet. But this spring, in a feat of marketing and salesmanship that would gladden the heart of Donald Trump, he somehow managed to convince three local community colleges--none of which had ever hired a child--that he is qualified to teach a course on how other kids can start businesses. His mother, Gail, co-teaches the class and, since Joshua is too young to be put on payroll, she is the one who gets paid.

“An entrepreneur is an opportunity seeker,” Joshua declares to the circle of pre-adolescents, wilting in the afternoon heat and slumped in their chairs in the stuffy classroom. “When you see a good idea, take advantage of it.”

“Remember,” he adds, thrusting one arm straight up in the air to emphasize a statement he will make over and over again, “today’s dreams are tomorrow’s realities.”

Joshua’s limited business experience--he has created Web sites for several companies throughout the state, according to his mother--played a role in his hiring, administrators said. But what really clinched the deal at Orange Coast, Cerritos and Golden West colleges was the poise and panache of the boy who plays golf in his spare time and loves to discuss the finer points of networking.

“We didn’t really see any qualifications on paper,” said Cindy Lo, an administrator at Cerritos College, where Joshua taught a 2-week course this summer. “But when you talk to him, he’s really assertive, really businesslike. He knows how to market himself.”

Indeed, Joshua has shown himself to be an expert at such matters. So far this summer, he has appeared in several local newspapers, television shows and radio stations to promote his classes. His mother, who home-schools Joshua and his 13-year-old brother Christopher, has helped set up interviews.

“Joshua is a very dynamic young man,” said Larry Crandall, Fountain Valley’s mayor, who invited Joshua and his brother to march in the city’s Fourth of July parade. “He’s not bashful. He’s been very active in keeping me and the city apprised of his activities.”

Last winter, Joshua, again with his mother’s help, managed to swing his brother a job playing violin at President Bush’s inauguration. He produced a videotape and sent it to the inauguration committee. An all-expense-paid trip to Washington for the entire family resulted. Joshua also has created a Web site for his family. It details both his own resume and his brother’s, and links to a site that sells Christian products. He even has business cards to give to potential investors and contacts. They read “Ballard International.”

When she got a fax from Joshua’s mother proposing a class on junior entrepreneurs, Sally Coffey, director of community services at Golden West College, said she assumed Ballard would be teaching the class, and was somewhat surprised when she showed up for the interview with her son in tow. But then Coffey was impressed with Joshua’s poise. “I thought, ‘No guts. no glory,’ ” she said.

The lessons Joshua teaches are not actually college classes; they’re community education classes taught about hobbies and interests that don’t require usual teaching qualifications and for which students pay the full costs, about $90.

Parents who enrolled their children for the “Future Millionaires and Junior Entrepreneurs” class say they’re impressed by the boy’s polished presentation of simple business concepts like niche marketing and fictitious business names. And many mothers said they loved the idea of their children earning their own money.

“They’re always asking for [cash], aren’t they?” said Savi Kumartatne, explaining why she put her daughter in the class.

However, one mother became alarmed when she found out her daughter’s business proposal entailed raising guard dogs and breeding them in her bedroom. The girl started a cleaning business instead.

But what parents most want to learn, it seems, are the parenting secrets that enabled Gail and Rick Ballard to produce one child who is a violin virtuoso, and another who is comfortable making conversation with anyone.

After Joshua’s class at Orange Coast last week, one mother said she felt inspired to home-school her child too. “Look, that is the product of home-schooling,” said Newport Beach mother Judy Jones, gesturing to where Joshua stood talking to an adult, his posture perfect. “He is amazing.”

Another mother, whose son attended Joshua’s class at Cerritos, said she watches her son closely, studying him for similarities to Joshua. Several students at Cerritos bought wingtip shoes after seeing Joshua wearing his.

That’s just fine with Joshua’s mom and co-teacher, who has taught her two sons since they were young. Though careful to stress that Joshua is a normal child who happens to have a passion for computers and retail, Ballard also said she is considering starting a consulting business to help parents steer their children toward success.

“Is there a market for parents who are interested in having kids like Josh . . . and Tiger Woods and Bill Gates?” asked Ballard, who has a master’s degree in education but has not worked since her boys were born. Her husband is a drapery salesman. “I could do it day and night,” she said, “bring a new generation of these kids . . . who are not being pushed but doing things they like.”

Joshua’s early life is nothing like his mother’s.

Ballard said she grew up in Haiti, in a family so poor they often went without food for days. She came to the United States as a teenager and met her husband through a Christian dating service.

Asked what he admires most about his mother, Joshua does not hesitate. “She’s determined. And she’s a hard worker. She never gives up.”

When the boys were kindergarten age, Ballard started them in golf, chess and music lessons. She believes it is vitally important for children to begin thinking about money and opening their own businesses as early as possible.

“It gives them self-confidence,” she said. “If kids get busy doing something productive, they keep busy and become useful in society.”

Ballard taught her son to look at every acquaintance as a potential business contact, and every hobby as an opportunity to make money.

In their class, Joshua and his mother advise students to view their classmates and their classmates’ parents--indeed all their relationships--as possible customers or sources of capital.

On the last day of class at Cerritos, Joshua wore his trademark suit and tie. He asked his students to define “the secret of success.”

“Working hard,” he said, answering his own question. And then he gave his students a final word of advice before sending them out into the business world armed with a letter of recommendation from him: “As I have been inspired by President George [W.] Bush, I believe any of you can become millionaires.”

Such thinking is becoming more popular, said Marge Ball, director of community education for Orange Coast, and that’s why she needed a class like Joshua’s.

“I think nowadays kids are growing up a lot faster than we did,” she said. “Kids have always run lemonade stands or mowed lawns, but now they’re looking at it more seriously.”

Other observers, while still admiring, are less sure every child can aspire to be like Joshua.

“It’s like there’s no kid in him,” said Lo, the administrator at Cerritos College.

Joshua insists that he is, as he says again and again, just a regular 11-year-old, albeit one who always speaks in full sentences, never says “um,” and sprinkles his conversation with inspirational cliches.

“Everyone has a different talent,” he said, “which they can explore and achieve.”