ECONtrepreneur of the Moment

ECONtrepreneurs are economists and entrepreneurs. Because they must be about the business of securing their economic health - by keeping costs down and building assets - they often have to be opportunists. Now that's not a pejorative term, but an honest one. When a great deal comes along you may have to make a split second decision, no matter how much preening and primping you've done to prepare for that magical money moment.

In a recession, people tend to look inward for inspiration. It is true that one tends to explore their "inner entrepreneur" when money gets tight, often posing the question, "How can I make what I have work for me?" This is a telltale sign of a promising ECONtrepreneur.

Take Mr. Ethan Nicholas for example. I stumbled across his success story in the New York Times earlier this week. Back in August he worked as a computer programmer for Sun Microsystems until he learned he wasn't getting a bonus. Having heard about another guy who earned $250,000 for creating an iPhone application, he gave it a shot. He had to teach himself Objective-C (the coding language of the iPhone) and worked "morning, noon and night" for six weeks. After he finished, Apple approved the application in mid-October. The first day his appliation (iShoot) was made available to consumers, he made $1,000. When it was all said and done, he made $800,000 in five months.

Whoa.

Well, the featured ECONtrepreneur of today is The Delasol Group, founded by Suneye Rae Holmes. Yes, this is shameless self-promotion. However, it is also ECONtrepreneurship in action. Armed with two degrees in economics and a natural gift of gab, I longed to teach but couldn't get hired. So I created my own curriculum to teach my community to become economically literate. This means understanding how big economic news affect you as an individual, defining net worth and its importance and becoming more confident in managing your personal finance skills. I've been helped by the recession as well, because with everyone broke there's a demand for economic and financial literacy. To that end, once everyone is rich again, there will be a demand to know how not to go broke! However while I can't guarantee riches, I can offer you a common sense and reasonable approach to understanding the relationship between your money and the broader economy.

I've been privileged to work with a group called Teen Mothers in Washington D.C. I've designed lessons, board games and simulations to encourage them to open up about their strengths and weaknesses regarding money. Then we build from there. This is the second series of an Economic Literacy workshop I've done for this group and we're moving into the final days of the class. In the coming weeks I am planning to get the students out and into the community, communicating their economic needs and goals to working professionals in a real-life setting. For many of my students, they wish to get their own apartments or purchase a car. I am designing a real-life scavenger hunt to get them some practical experience in securing these things. Not only is this good practice for when they are ready to get said apartment or car, but it's also great networking, providing a point-of-reference when they have questions in the future. In the meanwhile, I am building my company's brand by blogging, designing a website (for myself and others...another ECONtrepreneurial pursuit) and looking to network with other ECONtrepreneurs. Be on the lookout for Delasol and I hope you enjoy watching my small start-up company grow over time.

Do you know an ECONtrepreneur who deserves recognition or at least a little promotion? Shoot us an email about them and we will feature them here! sunrae@delasol.biz

Cheers!