Last week, in the Entrepreneur Challenge, the exercise was to carry some money around ($20 or £10 for adults and less for children) and just to become aware of opportunities, thinking and noting any ideas that come during the day. So that I can track the results of these exercises, I have enrolled a few people into doing them and recording the results during the week. This has been very interesting and not at all what I would have expected.

Different families and groups of people have very different ways of doing things and place value on different things. Of course, I knew this before we started. What I didn’t realise, coming from a family that places a high premium on ideas and innovations, was the emotions this exercise would bring up…

I wrote about Shannon, who’s 11 years old the other day. She worked out a way to get the £5 she wanted to carry around with her. Part of the package, was that I got to use this fantastic picture from the front of her specially assigned notebook. This is all very important to Shannon, she’s looking forward to becoming a person who can make money wherever she is, as her family is moving to another country quite soon. She took the preparation very seriously and got her book ready. She found ideas didn’t come as readily as they might and seemed to centre around sweets!

Tyler is 12 and already quite money savvy. He has already made some money by watching the sweets his friends at school particularly love and having them readily on hand – at a premium. His method is to buy in bulk and retail at twice the price, although he will negotiate on this. He is a saver, so isn’t used to carrying money around with him. He said it burned a hole in his pocket and he felt sad that he couldn’t spend it on a magazine he wanted. He is working on finding more ideas.

Zandria is my business partner, and auntie to both Shannon and Tyler. She is the one who usually deals with the clients, including the fee conversations, which she handles very well indeed. She is a wonderful example of love in everything she does and touches. People everywhere warm to her immediately. I asked her about her results and she said she hadn’t had any ideas. What she had noticed was how many times she had wanted to give the money away to someone who she felt needed it and how difficult it was for her to stay focussed on making money.

I have done this exercise before. When I was really broke, I was given £1 specifically to buy a lottery ticket with. I won £10 and decided to invest it and make it grow. What I looked at to start with was Adding Value. How could I buy something and add value to it?

I love books. I read voraciously. I particularly love to read about personal growth and transformation, metaphysics and consciousness and peoples’ inner journeys, fact and fiction. Because I also teach these things, I am often asked for book recommendations. I buy books from a shop that has a bargain basement. So, I thought I could buy some books that I already recommended and sell them directly to people, still for a reduced price and with an added, enthusiastic review. I made my £10 into £50 inside the first month. We then turned that into a little sideline at our seminars and I rolled my money into the next project.

So this weeks’ exercise is based around adding value. Again, the purpose isn’t to use the money this week (we’ll do that next week, promise). This week, just look at the things around you as raw ingredients. How can you add value to them so that other people would pay more for your ingredients than you did? Keep notes or keep talking about it. Record your ideas and next week we’ll start using them.

My sisters-in-law are great with their hands. They make bits and bobs of paper and ribbon into wonderful personalised cards. After we all admired them and looked forward to receiving them so much, they have started to sell them as one-off speciality cards. Shannon is a great cook, so she could take some raw ingredients and make some good, healthy cookies to sell. My friend Chris knows all about computers. He can take old bits that people want to throw out and make computers out of them for people who can’t afford new ones. Another friend takes furniture that people throw out and paints it before selling it on to shops.

What do you love to do? What are the talents and skills you have that make you special? How can something become more valuable by passing through your hands?

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