BOISSEVAIN, Man. – Russell Jonk talks like a businessman while
describing his involvement in a youth entrepreneurship program set up
through Manitoba 4-H.
“All we have to do now is liquidate the company,” he said, seated in a
lawn chair at the International Peace Garden where he was spending a
week at soccer camp.
Jonk, who is from a farm near Swan Lake, Man., was one of eight
Manitoba 4-H members taking part in the International Youth
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Entrepreneurship Project.
With support from Manitoba 4-H, the project was created to teach
entrepreneurship skills to young people. This was the second year that
it was offered.
In both years, the main goal was to establish a trading company that
would export a Canadian product to Mexico and import a Mexican product
that could be marketed in Manitoba.
The effort also included establishing trade ties with a group of
Mexican youth doing the same thing in the state of Durango, Mexico.
“You really have to set goals and stick to them,” said Jonk, who was
involved with a similar youth entrepreneurship project two years ago.
“It’s not like setting up a lemonade stand. There’s a lot of planning
that needs to be done.”
This year’s project started last October and was to wind up by the end
of this month. The participants had to form their own company and sell
shares to family and friends to help raise capital.
Via the internet, and with some phone calls, they established business
ties with a group of Mexican youth involved in that country’s 4-C
program, the equivalent of 4-H in Canada.
As part of the project, participating Manitoba 4-H members were given
exercises to hone their skills in small business management. Business
leaders and banking professionals came to share their knowledge.
As the project progressed, the Manitoba entrepreneurs had to decide
what they would export to Mexico, taking into account what Mexican
people might be interested in buying. They settled on key chains shaped
like grain elevators and filled with flax seed. In exchange, the
Mexican youth exported silver jewelry to Canada.
“We learned a lot about small business,” Jonk said. “It takes a lot
more work than you would imagine, especially to get the business off
the ground.”
Shipping from Canada to Mexico can be tricky. The first year the
project was run, the Manitoba 4-H participants decided to ship maple
sugar suckers to Mexico.
Those suckers got held up by Mexican customs officials because their
labels did not adequately identify the contents of the suckers. It was
just another of the important lessons learned.
“You have to make sure you have everything in order,” said 17-year-old
Jonk. “They’re very picky now.”
Participants in the project don’t measure success by how much money
their temporary trading company makes. Instead, success is gauged by
how much knowledge they gain.
An added bonus for Jonk was the people he met through the project,
including the other 4-H members who took part.
As well, as a result of his involvement in the project’s first year, he
spent two weeks in Mexico with two 4-C brothers involved in Durango’s
end of the project.
Those same brothers came to Canada to stay with Jonk at his family’s
farm for two weeks this summer. So besides trading key chains and
jewelry, the youth also enjoyed a cultural exchange.
“The Mexican culture is very different from what we typically think,”
said Jonk.
“They’re a very vibrant people. They love dancing and singing.”
Jonk is now thinking about taking part in the project for one more
year, although it might leave him strapped for time in his final year
of high school. While the participants benefit from the knowledge
gained, he thinks it also helps keep 4-H current with the times.
“It needed something a little bit radical, especially to keep the older
members in.”
