Episode 10: Teaching Teens to Build Real Businesses with Youth Business Services

00:00

Welcome back to another episode of Beyond Giving, the best nonprofit podcast on the Boost Network sponsored by Nonprofits HQ. I’m Zach, the nonprofit guy. And today we’ve got a cool conversation with Youth Business Services, an organization that’s empowering youth entrepreneurs.

00:19

So we’re here with another  episode of Beyond Giving,  speaking with Youth Business Services. And so we’ve got Rosie, Joseph, and Bernadette here, the masterminds behind this amazing organization that is teaching entrepreneurial skills to students and providing them with the resources they need to really build and scale their organization. So let’s kind of  spend a couple of minutes talking about like your backgrounds and what you were doing before YBS and what kind of led into that.

00:46

Sounds good. Okay, sure. Absolutely. So I am Rosie Baumgartner.  I am a former educator, spent about 30 years working in the field of education in many different capacities.  And it’s during this time as a school teacher that  in working with students that came to realize the significance that simply having a belief in one’s capabilities, in addition to that self-confidence, self-esteem, there’s another foundational

01:14

uh concept known as self-efficacy that I feel is something that students definitely need to have  within themselves so that they believe that they can’t achieve. And so as an educator, I have seen firsthand that when they believe in themselves, anything is possible. And so this is where I thankfully joined forces with Joseph and he invited me into  getting this program going because you know, have the idea, you may have the skills.

01:43

do we have the belief to make it happen? And that’s sort of where it all begins. And so um that is where my background comes in and hopefully  will  help these children, these new entrepreneurs believe in their capabilities to achieve  many, many wonderful things. That’s uh such an important part too, having the belief and the confidence that this idea that you have,  whether you have all the resources or not, that you can actually execute on this and you can make it something. So that’s really cool. Exactly.  And how about you, Joseph?

02:13

I’m Joseph Trevino. I’m the founder of Youth Business Solutions. You know, I created this  to inspire and empower these business owners up to mom that they can do it. You know, I support any organization, whether it’s us or other organizations that want to empower youth to do better by their lives. So you have to surround yourself with an amazing team,  experts in their fields, people that want to give back and have the passion.

02:43

You know, and being taken into a school district this year, it’s a big challenge. You know, that’s where we met at an incubator program at Comal ISD. I was honored to go back there. And  my goal is to take this statewide and from the speed that we picked up in the last few weeks, it looks like we’re going in that direction.

03:00

Yeah, that’s awesome. And while you’re kind of structuring this organization, I guess you’re using a lot of the same principles that you’re going to be teaching these students, right? Absolutely. You’re starting YBS. Who do you need in place? Who can help you move your mission along? So that’s actually really cool that you’re kind of creating the model of what you’re teaching in these schools. Well, we have a very structured eight module program. And that’s what it takes is the right structure. We used to surround yourself with a former educator who has 30 plus years of experience.

03:28

She knows how to help me put it together. I have an amazing bookkeeper, which you’ll hear from here in a minute, but we’re here to support the future of tomorrow, whether it’s us or any other organization out there. was part of another organization. It’s an amazing concept. I mean, we all have the same goal and vision is to empower the youth of tomorrow to be successful. Absolutely. then so Bernadette, we know you’re a bookkeeper. how did that kind of tie into your relationship with YBS and what really motivated you to kind of join the organization and help kind of spearhead it?

03:57

Well, I’ve been in this for 20 years  and  I’ve seen all of the mistakes  you can make as a business. you know, just got with Joseph and we started talking and  talking about the importance of bookkeeping and how it structures your company.  so  being  a light bulb came in and we’re like, we need to educate people about this, you know, from the beginning, you know, instead of going through all the mistakes as a business.

04:25

And uh so we can teach them and put that in there before, you know? Yeah, absolutely. like financials is also one of the areas where a lot of our, it’s so important, but it’s also kind of the least prioritized thing when you’re first starting your company. I know when we first started our company and we talked about this a little bit the other day, I mean, we bought QuickBooks. don’t need any more than that, right? But you really do. There’s so much more into it and those are incredibly important skills.

04:55

We know where you guys kind of came from and how you came together for YBS, but what is Youth Business Services? How does it work and what does it do for the students? Well,  it’s a tool that I created that’s going to give them the power to be in control of their lives. A lot of kids out there, I’ve talked with a lot of kids in the last few months. They have amazing ideas, amazing, great ideas. They can change the world. Some of these kids that I’ve spoken to, they’re,  man,  I’m very impressed.

05:22

You never know that a 14, 15 year old had these kind of creative ideas. And when they go, nobody believes in me, when they put it on paper and they actually read it and see it for themselves, that’s a powerful tool. So our goal is to give them the other tools in the toolbox to be successful businessmen and women, to be in control of their lives. But we teach them the rules. They have to understand there’s rules that go along with business just like in life. And you have to follow them. And we cover every aspect of

05:53

You know, the eight modules that we bring in are very structured to teach them those concepts of business. know, operational plans, financial literacy, as you said, is the biggest key to this. have to understand their finances. They just don’t go, oh, I made some money. I’m going to go spend it. No, you have to know how much your product costs, how much your production costs, how much it costs to ship it, how much it costs to package it. And we teach them those. Then you have the legal compliance that comes into all this.

06:20

They have to know there’s a lot of legalities that go into this. You you own a business, you have your EINs, you actually in the federal government, you do your LLCs, you have to justify keeping it. And those were the, the, record keeping comes in, but that’s where the educational part of it comes in. You know, that’s why I’m honored to have Rosie as my edgy. I tell you, you’re my education director. She’s, she’s key on this because I’m going to be honest, I send her stuff and she’s red-pended like a teacher.

06:49

So I’m grateful, but then, but then by bringing Bernice Dead in, who every aspect of business from your business planning, financials, marketing, programming,  every strategy and the eight modules we have has to do with bookkeeping. You have to know how to keep notes. You have to know how to have a plan in place. they come and go, hey, you’re spending money here, where is it at? Okay. Well, you got to know where your financials are at. Okay. Well, you’re.

07:15

You’re dealing with so many shipping companies, you know who they are? That’s where got bookkeeping that comes in place with that.  know, and-  Categorizing everything.  Making sure that it goes in the right places.  Absolutely. And that’s so tedious, but so important categorization and really understanding how money’s flowing. If I may add to what your uh question was regarding  what is our mission and what we’re doing.  Going back to at least my personal educational background.

07:44

I know growing up in  middle school, high school, no,  I had amazing teachers, but I did not have counselors coming up to me,  you need to get a degree. I think you would make a great uh teacher. think here’s an opportunity for you.  Unfortunately, I was not geared in that direction through my schooling. Thankfully, I did have parents who were very, very central on getting an education.

08:11

And so part of what we aim to do is to kind of bridge that gap because where our students, yes, I’m sure in today’s world, they are getting that support  in the schools and they’re being exposed to different opportunities. We are here to then kind of bridge that gap between a dream they have, their schooling, they’re finishing that schooling.  We’re kind  of like the guide on the side, if you will.  And we’re gonna guide them through every single step and we will be here.

08:39

to answer their questions and  we will be bringing in mentors and real life experiences so that  they have those resources available to them. So it’s kind of providing  a means to an end to help you achieve that dream. um And I think Joseph explained it beautifully. He’s aligned himself well with people he feels will help and contribute to that mission. And we work beautifully together, which is in itself, as you said, we’re setting up

09:06

an excellent model for the children because that is a big part of success. um In the world of teaching, we say you have the science of teaching. I know my content, I know it well. Yes, I’m very good with the red pen. But then you have the art of teaching, those personal skills, those relational skills, building relationships with those students. And that’s a key component.  so um Joseph and Bernadette and myself work extremely well together and those are the skills.

09:35

Not only, yeah, sometimes they’re known as the soft skills, but we’re going to do, you know, the technical skills of the business, but also those interpersonal skills. And that’s the beauty of how we work. We revise, we edit, we create, we make it better. We take classes,  you know, interact with others.  What can I learn from you to make what we’re doing even better? Because ultimately it’s whatever helps these children succeed and making their dream come true. Yeah, absolutely. And that’s so important too, because

10:03

You know, starting a company is hard, right? It’s very hard. And so I’ve often said in various interviews and public speaking that building startups just sucks, right?  It’s super hard. It can be very lonely. But if you ask almost any founder that’s out there building something, it’s the most rewarding, most impactful thing that they’ve ever done. And so it sounds like you guys are kind of providing this framework, providing these resources to help these students achieve

10:30

the most impactful thing that they may have ever done.  And that’s super cool. One of the things that I wanted to kind of dig into, uh Rosie,  is your background in education probably positions Youth Business Services in a really unique way to actually understand how to integrate with these school programs  and fill in those gaps with students.  A lot of programs that are similar to this don’t necessarily have that insight. And so you have varying degrees of success with those programs.

10:57

So I’d be interested  in understanding a little bit how you’re applying your background to the core curriculum and to how you’re actually uh teaching these lessons and providing these resources for the students. Well, I think you hit on one of the key words, curriculum.  The foundation is that framework, which is what Joseph has worked very, very hard to create these  eight modules. And Bernadette and I come in,  the right-hand man,  the left-hand man, and we…

11:21

He sends everything to us, take a look at it, edit it, make it better. What do we need to change? do we need do? Yeah, all the time, they just change whatever they want. Absolutely. They can change it as they see it. It needs to be changed.  And I respect that. But it takes a team. We all have to have our hands in it for it to be different. If they don’t like it, I tell them, change it. You don’t have to call me and say, can we? No, change it. I want it changed. Because that’s only way we’re going to get better as a team. Absolutely. And the background in education, you know, we know there’s

11:51

when you’re presenting a lesson, there’s gotta be that engagement piece. You’ve gotta capture their attention. Your students’ attention has gone from  where I could capture their attention with a lecture for an hour now because of the technology world. We need to  make lessons much more interactive, much more engaging. And so that’s what we’re bringing in.  Joseph has done an amazing job of incorporating a lot of

12:15

What do you call it? Experiential learning. If you can talk a little bit about that, that is what we’re adding to the component to make it so much more meaningful for the children, impactful and interactive for them. We put it in an understanding that for them to understand it. Now let’s face it, a lot of people go out and they talk to kids and they think everybody’s got this great college education with these kids. So we have to put it in structured in a way that they understand that it’s not difficult, but we always encourage them to ask questions.

12:43

come to us and ask them. know I, one of the things we’re going to require when I bring in speakers this coming year, I’m going to put four panels together this year to be presented at all the Comal County ISD high schools. And I’m going to require my kids to ask at least a minimum of five questions. And they have to, not a dirty bad question is the one you don’t ask. Absolutely. And we want you to ask questions, not just of the panelists, but of us, but of the instructors, the professionals that are bringing in.

13:13

You know, I want them to question, Bernadette, why bookkeeping is so important of every piece of this module. I mean, and I told Bernadette that, that it’s very important that they understand the principles of bookkeeping. Just like they understand the principles of presentation. How do you present it? How do you know? And that’s one of the keys in our eighth module is we teach them how to present their programs.

13:40

We record them, we let them watch their video, watch your expressions. You’re selling yourself. It’s like an interview. You go, you do an interview, you’re marketing yourself, you’re selling yourself as a product. If you’re selling your business, it’s the same thing. There’s no difference. But, surrounding your team with those that have that specialty, that key element, the curriculum, it’s going to be amazing. I mean, I’ve shared it with you, I’ve shared it with…

14:09

with Comal ISD  and everybody loves it. And one of the things that I wanted to kind of highlight and then I want to kind of dig into the accounting part of this. We all agree that it’s important, but actually why? Why is it so important? Right? But before we do that,  one of the things that you said was that you expect people to ask questions. I think that’s such an important part of anything we do, whether it’s at work, whether it’s at a company we work at or a company we built  or in general life. I worked for this company.

14:37

we’re asking why was um a dangerous question, right? It’s a dangerous thing. And that happens often in corporate environments. But the way I look at it,  if somebody doesn’t know something, the only way they can know something or understand something is by questioning it.  Even if you agree with something, but you don’t necessarily understand why we’re taking that direction or why that’s the next strategy step, question it. Because what that does is drives alignment, right? It allows us to explain

15:05

what we’re trying to accomplish out of this to align our teams on goals. um And it creates a much more collaborative environment.  And I think that’s incredibly important. And I think that’s probably one of the bigger differentiators between your program and a lot of the other programs that I’ve seen.  You’re teaching  that mindset to where it’s okay to ask questions. It’s okay to find the information that you’re looking for, changing the way people think about approaching business, approaching work life.

15:31

And if I can expand on the question and answer, because meet a lot, know, either over lunch or, you know, whenever we need a lot to work on all of this. And that was one of our initial brainstorming sessions with, okay, these children need to learn the art of asking questions. And I used to teach the art of Socratic seminars,  as Socrates and his whole, you know,  Socratic seminars.

15:57

teaches a way  of uh thinking for deeper understanding and in order to get deeper understanding, you start asking questions. And so we talked about, you know, those reporter questions when children, you know, start asking questions to these mentors, we need to move beyond the what question, the what question. I want you to ask, know, who, who’s gonna help me? What, what is my idea? Why, why do I wanna do this? Where do I wanna implement this idea? How am I gonna make it happen? So he said, who, what, where, when, why?

16:24

questions and Bernadette and I have that similar, even our backgrounds are very different. What we’re doing is creating something that’s very creative, but very structured. And this is where Bernadette’s expertise comes in because her area of expertise is at accounting piece, but that involves a lot of structure. And so that is how we compliment each other is that, you know, there’s a creative piece that we all have.  She has tremendous skill in  structuring things and asking the right questions. So  definitely Bernadette on that uh

16:53

I am all about asking questions.  as a child, you  you say that in  the industry, corporate industries that you were in, the  big thing was not to ask why. Well,  I was suppressed with asking why also.  And  now, like, as I have children, I’m like, ask me the questions a thousand times so you can  learn it and,  you know, get that experience. But yeah,  accounting part. m

17:22

I don’t know. It’s the structure of all of that, the way the logic. It’s a formula. It’s a formula. think that all of it is a formula and it’s just combined well together. the accounting part, like all of it is basically checks and balances, which they’ve taken out of schools. Because I remember back in the day, we used to have to have a checkbook and check and balance, and we don’t have that anymore.

17:50

And I think like, yeah, checking balance on  a checkbook. They don’t know how to do that now. Now they just rely on your bank statements and like, okay, stuff has come out and stuff has come in, but we need to organize and categorize all of those things and see what, what, what’s really happening. You know, we need all of those things even to get a loan,  you know, to get a business loan, you have to have your checking balances and your.

18:13

profit and loss in order to better. You’re a business, like building a home. You have to have a solid foundation. Your solid foundation comes from your bookkeeping. Comes from your understanding of what you’re going to spend to put that foundation together. What the rebar costs, what the twist wires costs, what the concrete costs, what the labor costs. That’s the foundation, but it feeds into everything in business.  Absolutely.

18:36

And then so when you’re talking,  you guys  say that  accounting and bookkeeping is an important part and you demonstrate that by looking at your curriculum, right? You have an entire module on that specific piece. So what does that kind of module look like for the students and what are you walking them through? What are the most important skills around bookkeeping for students to learn?  I know that’s a huge, huge topic, right? So how are you narrowing that down into these chunks of education for student entrepreneurs?

19:05

Oh my goodness, from  accounts receivable to assets and  the equity and, uh you know, all of those, all of the things that go into, how do you say, categorizing and making sure that everything is coming out correctly,  step by step, and actually some of the verbiage. Like if you go through the business aspect of it, some people are not going to understand that opening the business, all of the complicated  wording in there.

19:35

So basically we’re doing it uh where they will understand, you know, instead of the whole technical part of it, the easy parts of it, like checks and balances and, you know, debit and credits and assets and equity and stuff like that.  But  breaking it down to an easier level to where people who are not going to business school actually can understand it. Yep.

20:02

That’s key, right? There’s so much, like you said, complexity in the way things are worded, in the processes, and you can go to any incubator or accelerator and they’ll talk about all of these things using jargon and using processes that are very industry specific. But that’s not helpful unless you actually know what they’re talking about. And then I would question if you already know what they’re talking about, why are you there? It needs to be broken down very simplistically. Our program is 100 % hands-on. Do you have to write?

20:29

Every day I’m not gonna I’m gonna give you printouts. We’re gonna provide printout, but you’re gonna have to fill in all the blanks. I definitely need it.  Simple like over complicating things makes building businesses harder. It makes scaling harder. It makes everything harder. Make it as simple as possible. Don’t try to be clever  in what you’re doing, right? Just understand what your goals are and use all of these resources as tools to accomplish those. And the way you do that is with simplicity. And now Joseph, so.

20:59

This is a topic that I’m super passionate about and I know you folks are as well, but why are you going into schools with this program? Why is youth business services focused on reaching students at those younger age instead of maybe when they’re in college, like a lot of programs or why is going into high school so important? Because we, I want to tackle it at the base of the foundation. Yes, when you get into college, you kind of have a mindset of where you want to go. But for me.

21:28

A lot of kids that are in high school aren’t going to make it to college. They don’t want to go to college. They think it’s a long, drawn out process. They think it’s going to be complicated. But the way we’ve structured our program, it gives them the opportunity to be that youth leader of tomorrow. There’s a lot of 18, 19 year old kids out there that are very successful. I mean, I know a group of young men, they make  very good money just doing law and service.

21:54

when you give them the right tools in the toolbox, that’s what this is. Our program is a toolbox for your business. But we explain it and we put it in a way and structure our curriculum toward to, they understand it, but we want them to come back and ask questions. And that was what makes us different. And if they want to go to college, by all means go, but we’ve already started, as you say, the foundation of business. They have the basic understanding. Now there’s a lot more technical that goes into it. We just had this conversation the other day.

22:24

I receive a lot of material from some of the other universities here in the state of Texas, but it gets more into the technical further, deep in, into the higher level of education where we’re doing the basic business planning, but they have the basic understanding, but that’s where the questions come in. That’s where we want questions. The who, the what, the why is why we do this.

22:49

And the things that you’re teaching, whether you go off and start a business, whether you build an empire or you go into some other career path or whatever, the things that you’re teaching are also applicable outside of directly entrepreneurship, right? So they’re useful skills, regardless of the path the student chooses to take or whatever, they’re just a little more well equipped to determine what that path is. can either  own and run a business or they can teach someone how to run that business or they can go in and partnership with somebody else who doesn’t have that knowledge.

23:19

So we’re giving them tools, you know?  And I gotta tell you, I inspire any organization, doesn’t matter who it is. If you wanna back the future of these kids, then do it. Cause they are the future of tomorrow. They wanna own businesses. And let’s face it, a lot of people think, oh, my kids are gonna go to college, they’re gonna go to, it’s not, that’s not the reality of the world. um college is expensive, education is expensive. It’s very expensive.

23:47

But if we give them the tools necessary to run a business, they can start a business, have it running, and then go to college because they built money on themselves. Definitely. And then come out the other side without a bunch of student debt or whatever. I went to a semester of college and then I built a company instead. And so every path is different.  And if you can equip, we didn’t have programs like what you guys are talking about when I went to school.  We didn’t have this idea  of going out. um One of the cool things that I think comes out of a lot of entrepreneurship conversations

24:17

is the ability to generate whatever level of income that you want, right? So if you want to make, you know, $2 million a year as a CEO, you have the power to go build a company that’s generating enough revenue to pay you that, right? Being able to create your path forward is such a powerful thing. And the fact that we can teach students that now through programs like YBS is amazing. Now, one of the things that you had said, and you’ve said this a couple of times, I think Bernadette, you had mentioned this as well.

24:43

Talking about preparing things for ingesting non-dilutive capital through lending ah or  things like that.  You said a lot of the bookkeeping really supports those loan applications. That’s such a contrast to what we often hear  about startups and that’s you have to raise. I firmly disagree with this entire concept of you can’t do anything unless you go talk to a venture capitalist or you talk to an investor and you have to do that to move forward.

25:10

That’s such a contrast to what entrepreneurs often hear. You have this idea, you need to go find someone to fund your idea before you can do anything. So how come you guys take that more pragmatic approach  of getting started and then looking at other, like you haven’t mentioned investment at all, right? You’ve talked about these non-dilutive capital uh practices. So your program really positions students to start building, start getting things in place.  How come you’ve taken such uh a different approach to

25:40

what we typically consider entrepreneurship programs. Well, for us, way I think of it is part of our entrepreneurial mentorship program that we’ve put together is I put you together with an entrepreneur that’s made it. Been at the top, but you’re going to learn from their real struggles. And a lot of the entrepreneurs that are successful, some are Fortune 500 companies, CEOs that I’ve been in contact with the last month. They says, hey, if they come and they mentor with me, I’ll help fund them. I’ll get them a grant.

26:11

And that’s what we’re looking at is the community helping the community. Because right now with the way the current economics in the country are, it’s difficult for them to get grants and loans. And I work with the SBA, I work with Renee Watson. I know she’s panic with the US SBA. We work together. We met her and launched an essay together. But there’s other avenues because those companies that I’ve heard, I mean,

26:38

I wish we had a program like this. wish somebody, when we were kids and starting out, that somebody took me and says, Hey, let me teach you about business. And then they go, well, they finished, they come and they met you with me for three to three to six months. I’ll, I’ll give them a grant whether it’s 10,000, 15, 20, that’s all they need is that step forward. But with that check comes the knowledge that we teach them. not, I said, not just us, there’s other organizations out there that want to do it. And I support them 100%.

27:07

You know, and if there’s anything we can do to assist those other  organizations that want to do this, I’m game. Because it’s going to take a village. That’s why I’ve surrounded myself with the key professionals that I know are very strong in their fields. But that’s the thing is we get them away from the government side of it where there’s private investors, entrepreneurs that are watching this video right now that want to help because they’re saying, man, I never had that.

27:36

Nobody ever took me when I was trying to start out. I fell, I stumbled, I lost money. I wondered how I was going to get it back and I did it on my own. Well, we want them to come share those experiences. I want them to reach out to us, reach out to myself, to Rosie, to Bernadette and say, Hey, I want to be on a panel. If I put 20 people on a stage on a panel, trust me, I’m going to have all 20 get questions. Because that’s what it takes. Knowledge is power. Absolutely.  I mean, that’s, I don’t care what kind of company or who you are, how much money you have.

28:05

You didn’t get that way and it shed the knowledge. you you said, you mentioned that a lot of people are saying things like, I wish we had a program like this. I wish we had this when I was building or I wish we had this when I was in school. And that’s so true. And I think it’s important to also understand that wishing that is not enough, right? It is our responsibility to build the ecosystem, to build the foundations, to build the programs that we wish we had when we were building for the next generation of entrepreneurs.

28:32

And that’s why I think getting involved with organizations like Youth Business Services is the way to do that. know, are you a successful founder? Can you lend some time to mentor? Can you  lend some capital when it’s necessary? Can you, know, whatever these areas are. And with that, what are some of the areas that people can get involved in YBS? What is it that you’re looking for? We’re looking for mentors. We’re looking for organizations to allow us to come into their house with a group of kids.

29:01

and sat there for a couple hours and show them this is what business is really about. Not what you see on TV.  Not what you’re good You mean Shark Tank? Yeah. TechFrench articles aren’t real? Yeah, I mean. But the thing is, there’s the reality of it. Because you’re not there.  My goal is to work with organizations, bring those kids into your house, as I like to say. Like I say, this is your house, we’re here, we respect your house. But there rules that go along with running a house.

29:29

And those are the things these kids need to know. They need to know, hey, when you struggled, when you started Zach, you know how difficult it was when you thought you weren’t going to make it to get the belief back in yourself that you could actually do this. Can I do this? And it’s not just yourself. You got your friends or somebody else that’s with you and you’re going, damn, they’re dependent on me. How did you get through that? When you fell, when you had nothing, you were about to lose everything. What tools did you have?

29:58

that you were able to use those strategies to restructure what you’re doing today. And when you inevitably fall again, when you have those doubts you’re going to continue to make mistakes. You’re going to continue to have those doubts. Why did I start doing this? Wait, how am I actually going to get us to these target revenues? These people that are depending on me, am I actually able to do this? And so having the tools to get past that. And that’s, if I may get back to the comment you made about, you know, a wish. um I’ve heard a quote somewhere where it said something to the effect of,

30:28

Um, a wish without a plan or an idea without a plan is just a wish, whether it true or not. don’t know, which is why, again, what we’re creating  is a plan, if you will, a framework, if you will be step by step guide, because one of the most  discouraging thing for entrepreneurs, whether they be young or older adult  is getting information, connecting with people. How do I do this? Where can I find this?

30:56

That can be very discouraging and not a lot of people are willing to share.  We’ve learned. um And that’s understandable. em And we get that. That being the case, like Joseph just said, you we all have an enormous wealth of knowledge and expertise. Why not share it? It’s like with me, you what’s the next step now? It’s like, well, there’s so much I want to share and so much that I still have to say about empowering students, about helping them feel.

31:23

confident about what you want to achieve. How can I go about making this happen? And then I meet Joseph at a networking event and then we had similar backgrounds and similar interests and similar passions. And then he introduced me to Bernadette. And that’s when, you know, this all sort of came together. You Joseph had already been working on this prior. But my point being is that we’re there to provide that assistance.

31:50

to prevent that, like you just said, you know, why am I doing this? This is just too much trouble.  We will provide those supports, that information  through these eight modules  so that they are well equipped to continue moving forward. Yeah, that’s so amazing. That really does, like you guys have all said, sets the foundation for successful entrepreneurship. um And so you are launching in a program with Kamal ISD, which is a local  school district here.

32:20

What does the future look like for YBS?  Once you complete this program, are you going into other schools? Are you going into other areas? What does that look like? My goal is to  use what we do at Comalize as a learning tool for us. Because every time you start something new, you’re going to have your hiccups. You’re going to restructure things after this year. But I’m a true believer that the plan that we have brought together between the three of us.

32:50

is a very viable product because there’s a lot of kids out there that are going, turning to the streets and we don’t want that. Use your business idea, use your knowledge. Let’s get you off that structure. Let’s get you off the street. Let’s teach you something that’s going to make you a person who’s going to give back to society instead of take, I learned a long time ago when you care about the neighborhood you came from, you won’t come back and destroy it. And that’s what a lot of these kids, have nothing to lean on. They have no idea.

33:19

believes in what they say. Oh, you thought that idea, it’s just dumb. Just go get a job, go to McDonald’s, go work here. Go Oh God, I’ve heard that so many times. And that’s the thing. It’s like I said, it’s like what you said. In our program, when you fall and you’re gonna fall, I tell people like this all the time. But then one thing with YBS is we’re gonna reach a handout, we’re gonna pick you up, and we’re gonna find out where you at. And now it’s one of the requirements of our program.

33:46

If you’re going to keep a business diary as long as a personal diary.  And I say the personal diary because of Rosie’s background, she can then look at it. Where are you struggling? Where can we help you get a little bit of help? And that’s where the,  one of the pieces that I’m going to bring into this is the use mental health. I’m working with a couple of organizations to see how we could combine this together, but it’s not just to help the youth in our program.

34:15

You can’t fix one without fixing the mom and dad, because that’s a solid foundation.  And that’s the key to this  is we’re doing everything that we feel needs to be done with our backgrounds,  knowledge. I have history in education, Rosie’s in education, Brandon, that bookkeeping is an art. I have no numbers more than  any.  But that’s the key to this is we’re here to help. We’re here to provide.

34:45

And it’s not just to the kids. If I had a parent that comes to me and says, hey, I have a business idea, to do it. Why not? Yes, our program is from 14 to 21. Like I said, there’s a lot of things that a lot of adults that are in business today that I’ve told them. You can have a DB8 14. What are you talking about? We didn’t know that. You can have an idea. I didn’t know that. You can actually have a business account. And the difference is you’re not in a personal account. have to have a parent.

35:13

A business account you don’t because it’s a business. Yep. Absolutely. And those are the things we teach them, but that’s what the legal compliance side of this comes in. We teach them the legalities of a business. There’s a lot. You can’t just go take money out of the register and go to McDonald’s and buy what you just doesn’t work that way. I’ve seen that. I’ve seen all kinds of things in companies, how they just pull out and I’m like, I advise you not to do it. And this is gonna, this is going to be the outcome.

35:40

And then they come back and I’m like, I don’t want to see I told you so. Absolutely. When it happens and uh there’s priorities when it comes to  where your money is supposed to go. But we are, we’re going to bring in a lot of professionals. We’re going to bring in SBA folks. We’re going to bring in e-commerce folks. We’re going to bring in attorneys. We’re going to bring in successful entrepreneurs.  I know a couple of people that have lost money and lost everything. And I want them to come tell these stories because these are real people. Absolutely.

36:10

And that’s the key to it. And you can learn those lessons without experiencing that problem or experiencing that particular fall. even then if you do fall, you’ve heard it from somebody who actually got back out. Yep, absolutely. Definitely. And so you should leverage the experience of everybody around you to help make the best. You know, that’s exactly why we work in teams, right? Because everybody has a different background, experienced opinion, and you may not find the perfect path forward, but you use all of that together to find a path forward, forward progress is important.  And so.

36:39

Before we wrap up, I want to take a second to get  one golden piece of advice from each of you that you would give to a student entrepreneur that’s sitting in front of you right now, right? What would that advice be? Bernie, start That your idea is valid and no matter how much the struggle, you can just get back up and do it all over again and  we will be there to help.  I think that uh I’ve done it enough and I’ve struggled and

37:07

as a business owner myself  and heard people like, oh, don’t do that. Like they were saying earlier, but  I think your idea is valid. Like you should move forward.  Sure. Um, I mean to say that  kind of like Bernadette that  what you have to share with the world is important. It matters. It’s valuable. So depend and rely on that inner strength.

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and unlock that potential that you have to make something  real happen for yourself, for others.  And yes, you’re going to have bumps in the road. You may have potholes in the rolls. may have roads that completely are broken. However, stay the course, persevere, ask for help. One of the bravest, bravest things you could ever say is help.  And again, stay the course, persevere, and uh you can make  things happen for yourself.

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Well, I’m going to leave everybody with this. We all hear three words in business. You’re going to fail. To me, fail means first attempt in learning. You’re have people that come to you and say, well, this is the end. It’s not the end. End to me, effort never dies. And when you hear no, no means next opportunity. So we can’t give up. We’re not going to give up on you. Don’t give up on yourself.

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Anything we can do as a unit, as a team, this team is here for everybody out there, young,  old, in between, doesn’t matter to us. You want to have a business, call us. We’re here to help. All such amazing advice and such powerful and important for entrepreneurs to have.  So where can people learn more about Youth Business Services and learn how to get involved? Well, they can reach out to us right now. We’re in the process of building a website, like I told you.

39:05

Uh, they can send me an email at jaytreminioconsulting.gmail.com. Once they send that to me, I will forward them Bernadette and Rosie’s emails as well. And then they can reach out to us anytime.  I, but we have an introduction letter out there that I’ve shared with you. You’re welcome to share it with the community out there. I mean, you’re welcome to post it and has a here. Here’s a little bit of backstory about them. Our emails are on there. Cool. Cool. And what’s that website? We’re working on the website name right now.

39:34

But it’ll be a Youth Business Solutions website. And once that’s done, we’ll provide you, it should be up within the next few weeks. Like I said, why we’ve been so focused on the curriculum right now, but I’m going to be working with Bernadette, I’m going to be working with Sharkmatic as well to see what we can get done here real quick. Okay. Awesome. This will likely air after your website is launched. we don’t know what the domain is going to be yet? Not yet. Okay.

40:00

But if we have, you know, it’s going to be a couple of weeks, I’d go ahead and get with Hal and see how fast we can get it up and It’s just come so fast. Yeah, for sure. So, you know, our idea, just like everyone, our idea  came together and it’s like, let’s just do it. And we did. And  we all expect her to come out and say, hey, we want you on the school next week. I’m like, wait a minute. So we got on the 15th, we got to Southwest Texas State.

40:25

Up in San Marcos, we’re going to an event and the LB of the district is August 27th. And then we start roughly two weeks after that, we’re in the business classes.  Yeah. We went to Ding yesterday for the Boys and Girls Club. uh Nice. As soon as we were introduced, we just got like the whole one side of the  room come to us and you know, trying to be a part of it. Yeah, that’s still super important too.

40:50

Thank you guys so much for joining us on Beyond Giving. This has been an amazing conversation. um I really love the mission of Youth Business Services and the effort that you folks are putting into building the next  generation of entrepreneurs.  For our viewers, you can learn more about Youth Business Services  by connecting with them through emails and socials and links that we’ll post along with this episode.  Thanks for coming, guys. Thank you. Thanks so much for tuning in to another episode of Beyond Giving, the best nonprofit podcast on the Boost Network sponsored by Nonprofits HQ.

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This episode has been all about empowering youth entrepreneurs through youth business services in schools. They don’t currently have a website now, like all things that are new, they’ve got to iterate and build. But as soon as that’s available, it’ll be available in the show notes  where you can connect with them, engage and learn how you can get involved.