On Youth and Teens Today with Vanessa Van Petten

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(This is part of Vanessa’s “Operation Oprah” series to start a business on her allowance, told through video’s and blog posts. By depicting her comic and sometimes exasperating struggles, successes and tactics to get on Oprah, publish the project as a book about teen entrepreneurs and prove that teens can reach the top from nothing.)

Today, in the ‘Business Start-up Kit’ book, which I mentioned I got at a garage sale, there is a section on the Pro’s and Con’s of starting a business. So, here it goes, for your comical and empathetic pleasure:

Pro: I am wearing my PJ’s right now.
Con: When I have to go out to a meeting, it takes a lot of effort and usually a lot of driving.

Pro: You don’t have to ask anyone for permission
I can take a break when I want to, eat when I want to and never have to make excuses to leave the office when I just want to talk to my friends on a cell phone.
Con: You have to ask everyone for favors
No bosses, means no one to pay you, which means no money. Therefore, all the time I save not having to suck up to a boss, I have to spend sucking up to strangers asking them to help me make money.

Pro: Mom’s Chicken Salad, free groceries and no rent
Oh ya! Lots of food always stocked, no scrubbing the toilets, not worrying about maintaining a house…
Con: Mom’s Chores, having do go buy the groceries and having a curfew
Actually my mom is pretty awesome with everything, but as much as I love living at home, I would love to be able to have my own place…I would really, really, love it.

Pro: No Bosses
Con: Lots of Vocal Parents

Pro: Can do things even if they are during work hours.
Con: Don’t have an excuse when friends ask for a ride to the airport/pick them up/come to their house to help them paint…

Pro: Don’t have to worry about staying late, plugging in extra hours to get a big bonus!
Con: There. Is. no. bonus.
And lately, there hasn’t been much salary either. Oh ya! See the next one for further explanation.

Pro: Freedom to plan ahead and make my own mission statement and life goals…and actually act on them.
Con: Total uncertainty about job security, money, career, media, assets etc. There is always a big risk with business, and there is not a minute that goes by that I do not wonder if I made the wrong choice not to go corporate.

Well, my Pro’s outweighed my cons, because otherwise I would not be writing this post to you right now.

Stay Tuned for:

Revealing My Authorial Persona: Isn’t ‘Stimulate your Creative Juices’ an Awful Chapter Title?
My Business Mantra: How I Make My Company Sound Un-Boring
Investment Money and Finding a Sucker to Build My Site

Previous OO posts:

Explanation of Operation Oprah
My First Video Pitch to Oprah Producers (drawings included)
What is a Teen Entrepreneur and How Parents Can Be Supportive
Show Pitch to Oprah Producer, Ellen Rakieten: What Happy People Have