Coach to teach children art of business

DELON CDN PHOTO/LITO TECSON

HOW young should people start learning about the complex world of business and entrepreneurship?

For business development specialist Amar Delon, it should start as early as adolescence but through simplified versions.

Delon, a Malaysian and the CEO and Creative Director of Ad Access Worldwide, wants to scale down his decades worth of business coaching with top-rank executives into a module that would work with teenagers in Cebu.

“I’m from Malaysia and the education system there is very different here. Entrepreneurship is taught in schools. It’s part of the lesson plan. Sadly, I don’t see that here,” he told Cebu Daily News in an interview about his latest program.

Ad Access Worldwide, is a business development service company based in Cebu and Malaysia since 2010. It is owned by Delon and his Cebuana wife Lorelei Delon.

This summer, they are launching their first teen entrepreneur business course dubbed as “The Young Tycoon.”

The course is an immersive, hands-on, learn-by-doing, four-week program for teenagers aged 13 to 18 years old. It aims to teach these high school students real-world entrepreneurship, best business practices, principles of free enterprise and how to start and launch their own businesses.

In fact, at the end of the program, Ad Access will give a P10,000 grant to one of the their students who will be able to present the best business plan which is one of the course’ requirements.

According to Delon, among the concerns of his clients is the lack of interest of their children to take over their business.

He has even taken in some of these children for private coaching lessons upon the request of his clients which costs them a lot of money.

This was why he came up with the idea to establish The Young Tycoon as his way of paying it forward.

Among the topics of the course are: clarifying your idea, taking calculated risks, start-up budget, cash flow and projections, market research, marketing strategies, business model development, sales technique, channels of distribution, customer acquisition, building a team, business launch strategies, outline a business plan, investor presentation, elevator pitch, raising investment capital, and business plan competition.

“What better way to teach kids business than by a real life business coach. I call this seeding. If one of these kids become the next Gokongwei, Cobonpue, or Sy, I would have done my job,” he said.

If the program becomes successful, he said they plan to do it for up to three to five times a year.

Delon and his wife, who both have extensive experience as business coaches, will be personally handling the lessons.