Introduction: My youngest son, Philip, is a character. He’s a practical joker, a whiz at Halo 2, plays soccer for his school and was elected by his peers to student government.

This afternoon he was asking me about my business. Instead of answering I asked him to write an essay on what he thought someone should do to be successful in business.

Frankly, since he’s just 12 years old, I didn’t expect much.

To my surprise, he just about put into words the very essence of what being in business is all about:

Helping people

Selling to a large audience

Asking for feedback from customers

Using testimonials

And continuous development of products and services

And the value of “reason why” advertising

I’m tellin ya, the kids’ a natural. And by the way- I never discuss marketing or business with him. Where he got his ideas from is a mystery. Seriously, I have no idea. I rarely discuss my business with my kids… but I will from now on.

Enjoy - Dave

PS- Believe it or not, I did not edit a word, a period or comma in this essay. However, highlighting is mine. Remember he’s only 12
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The World Of Business

Hi, I’m Philip Vallieres and I’m here to talk to you about the world of business. Ok now you want to make your business the best, well you should probably advertise in places millions of people will see it, But the really important thing here is the product you’re selling. The first thing you should probably do is make a website telling people about your product, you should have pictures of your product, what it does, how much is it, and why should they buy it. You should also have a little information about yourself, so people who want to buy your product know whom there talking to.

You should sell your product on a popular site at first and ask the people who bought your product if they liked it or not, so then you could say on your website “I’ve had a couple buyers and said they liked it said it really helped them.” So then maybe some people would get a little interested that other people have tried it and it actually works. Ok so now we’re getting somewhere, its good to be in contact with big time companies to tell about your product and if they like it they’ll buy. If that company does buy your product and starts selling them in their store that would be a very good thing, but when your product doesn’t sell anymore you have to make an evolution of your product into a second one.

You should advertise your new product so everyone knows about it. Knowing how the first one is they will probably buy it if they liked the first one. You should make it better that the old one but still has maybe one or two similarities of the old one. When you get that new product in the stores people will start to buy your product again. That’s just how the world of business is.

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