Is Entrepreneurship in your Genes?

I’ve always wondered whether some people are just born with an entrepreneurial drive. There are a lot of successful business owners out there who started creating businesses at very young ages. One of my business partners, made sandwiches (with this mother’s help) on Saturday and Sunday mornings and headed out to a nearby golf course to peddle them as hungry golfers rounded the ninth hole. Me, I taught dancing and twirling lessons.

I grew up in an entrepreneurial family. My parents owned a funeral home in the small town where I grew up. I was only five years old when they opened for business but I was expected to help out nonetheless. When I reached my teen years, I really didn’t want to hang around the funeral home anymore so I decided to get a job as a waitress. Waiting tables was a lot more fun that working for mom and dad, but it also was more physically taxing. To put it bluntly, my feet hurt like heck. Although for a kid I made good money, I figured there had to be an easier way.

That’s when the light when off in my head. I could teach twirling lessons. I gained permission from the high school principal to use the gym on Saturday mornings. Then, I placed an advertisement in the local newspaper and waited for the calls to come in. By the time classes started, I had two groups of students – a total of 75. Each aspiring majorette paid $1 in cash.
Okay 75 dollars a week when you’re in high school isn’t bad, but I really liked the idea of providing a service and getting paid for it. So I turned a basement room in my parent’s house into a dance studio and opened “Miss Susan’s Dance Studio.” I taught tap, ballet and jazz two nights per week. Oh yeah, for a while I also had an exercise class for adults too.

Because I also play the piano, few parents approached me about teaching their children lessons. I took on two or three students for half hour lessons each. However, after a few months, I decided to quit. I learned you could only charge 5 or 10 dollars for a half hour piano lesson, but you could charge 5 or 6 dance students 10 dollars an hour for a class. You do the math.

Since high school and college, I owned several businesses including SBTV.com – small business television. Although I worked at two major corporations and did very well, I never felt it was a comfortable fit for me. So what do you think? Do entrepreneurs march to the beat of another drummer? Are they born with the entrepreneurial gene? Just for fun, I’m including a photo of some of my twirling students!