Before we get started, I would like to talk briefly about ideas, dreams, visions and concepts.  I belief that each of these terms relates to becoming an entrepreneur. You will find a variety of opinions on what each term means and how it relates to entrepreneurship.  I would like to offer the following views on these terms;

1. I think entrepreneurs are constantly thinking about ideas - looking for the next big idea. I know that I look at everything in terms of how could it be done differently or how could it be done better.  I come up with many ideas from just questioning a lot of things that are done.
   Idea means - something one thinks, knows or imagines. A plan, scheme, project or intention.

2. Once an entrepreneur has an idea that they want to develop further - they start to dream.  Entrepreneurs are fanatics (very enthusiastic - excited) about their ideas. I find that I dream day and night about how I can develop TeachingKidsBusiness.com and that I relate almost everything to it - how this and that could work on the website.  I also woke-up many nights with new ideas and more development of existing ideas.
   Dream means - images, thoughts. A fond hope or aspiration.

3. The vision of an entrepreneur comes as they develop their idea further through lots of thinking and dreaming.  I believe a vision is when you can see in your mind the idea and dream in great detail. You can see how it starts to work.  You will find that if you give an idea to a number of people and ask them to think of the potential of the idea, that you will get many different responses.  You will find that an entrepreneur will really stretch the limits and will be very creative on the opportunities of the idea.
   Vision means - something perceived in a dream. The ability to perceive something not actually visible.

4. A concept in the terms of business and entrepreneurs is really just a summary of the idea and how you envision it to work.  Many banks and venture capitalists think in terms of a concept as the early stages of developing the business.  Concept is usually used as a term to suggest that  you have thought it through to an early stage but you are not really doing it to the extent that you think is possible.
   Concept means - an idea or thought. An abstract notion.

Idea of TeachingKidsBusiness.com

Step Two - The Idea

My  idea started to evolve as I created a passion for my kids education. I wanted to do more for them in the area of education. I didn't just want to say "how was your day" and get the usual "fine" and leave it at that.  In addition to a keen interest, I also had a strong opinion and  expertise in the area of business and in the idea of business partnerships in the education of kids. I also realized how difficult it  was for kids to prepare for business and to figure out what you wanted to be. I also knew from experience  what was important in business.

TeachingKidsBusiness.com would probably not have got started if it wasn't for an injury I had snowboarding. Because of my injury,  my family skied and snowboarded as I was alone and not very mobile. I had lots of thinking time and I decided to make the best of it and put it to good use.

 I went through a few pads of paper as I scribbled down ideas. The ideas were many bites of information that didn't necessarily go together or make a lot of sense initially. 

One important part of my thinking was in the area of business partnerships in education. I have done a lot of work with my kids' school in the area of trying to come up with ideas on how to use business partners in the school.  The intent of business partners was to enhance the education of kids and/or to provide teachers with additional resources.  

My idea was that we lived in a community with people that could add a lot of value to the education of kids.  These people could provide views from a business persons perspective and could share some very interesting things that are going on in business. I also thought that it was important to connect education with business.

 I wrote a recommendation for the principal of the school and then started working with her to make the idea happen.

After working through the business partners idea and actually succeeding with the idea, I naturally started looking at how it could be done better (an important entrepreneurial quality).  I realized that it was difficult to schedule people to come into the school and when they did come in,  they normally talked to small groups of kids, under 30 kids.  This is when I came up with the idea of a website to share business related information with kids.

The community involvement section of TeachingKidsBusiness.com was created from my experiences on how willing people were to help educate kids.

To me, a website was an ideal way to share information with kids. The materials that business people (community people)  would share with students, was prepared once and could be distributed to thousands of kids around the world. It was a business model that was very effective.

I realized that the face-to-face experience was an important element in teaching. This goal helped shape my vision that the programming would talk to kids in a personal way - as if I was in the room talking face-to-face to them.  I also developed the  "e-mentoring Program For Kids" to have people talk to kids in a very personal way, again, as if they were talking face-to-face.

I gave a lot of thought on what was important in teaching business or for preparing kids for business. I started to realize that everything really relates to business in some way. Every thing we do makes us the person we are;  as a total person , or a package, that succeeds in business.

As you can see, many ideas started to come together to create TeachingKidsBusiness.com.  All of the 500+ pages evolved from ideas.

My ideas really developed through many dreams (thinking time), to a  clear vision and eventually to the concept that thousands of  people are actually enjoying today.

Idea generation ideas: 

[Put Your Thinking Hat On]

[Product Tips - kidse-marketplace.com]

Step Three: [Develop your ideas through dreams]