Monday Series: Tips to Get Started as a High School Entrepreneur

August 26, 2020 (San Francisco)

This past Monday, on August 24th, Harmony Plus continued our Future Entrepreneur Challenge (FEC) talk show. For our eleventh episode, we interviewed Joshua Zhang, Former Vice President/Section President of the Inland Region for California FBLA (Future Business Leaders of America) Organization, which is a high school student organization that helps prepare for careers in business through academic competitions. Joshua is also a 2nd Place National Winner of the FBLA Business Plan Event. He was a TA and coach for B-BAY (Berkeley Business Academy for Youth), as well as for the Harmony Plus Future Entrepreneur Challenge program.

What is FBLA?

Joshua started out his business journey through the high school club called FBLA. He explained that, through FBLA, he participated in a business plan competition and through this they managed to create a business idea called Traveler.

“FBLA is really a set of competitions you can choose from and it’s very helpful regardless of what field you choose to pursue your future in.”

Many people have found great success and knowledge through FBLA, including Joshua, who was able to reach Nationals through this program with Traveler.

What is Traveler and what skills were the most important in this process?

Traveler is an app that is designed to create a business that lets people travel at their own pace and with their own needs, like a personal traveling guide. Joshua and his teammates designed it to be a peer-to-peer business focusing on connecting travelers to tour guides using a system similar to Uber, but in the world of sightseeing and traveling. It helps the customer learn more about the place and the people, and it also has an option to easily hire a specific tour guide, who will teach and guide them through these places.

When asked about the most important skills in the world of business, Joshua specified the importance of teamwork.

“Teamwork was definitely the skill which was the most important. To be able to work so well with my teammates and to draw out the best of each other helped us a lot in this process. Personally, I loved having my teammates help me by suggesting me to be more patient in some situations as I’m normally more of a heads on, quick worker. The bond we created with each other and the fun times we shared with each other on this path was absolutely beautiful”.

Skills that helped Joshua in business

It’s known that one’s experiences in other fields can translate into the activities he or she takes part in their daily life. Joshua’s participation in the religious club “Grizzlies for God” was an experience that translated over to the work front for him. He described how his belief in his religion and the time he spent on spreading Christianity helped to better develop his communication skills. He described it as being similar to making a sale and trying to persuade a customer to buy a product. His other experience with the Marines and his military camp instilled in him great discipline, which is very useful in business when working under a strict boss or even completing tasks on a hard deadline.

“It was a really unique experience. We were not allowed any phones, had to work out a lot, had to listen to everything your leader tells you to do. Instructions were given only once and we had to follow through with it. It was a lot of hard work but it helped me see different perspectives, helping me a lot with shaping my personality.”

He continued to describe the importance of dealing with stress that high school students face. Having a good night’s rest as well as having physical activities, praying, or even meditating are great ways to relieve stress that worked really well for him.

Time management is another huge aspect if one wants to lead a balanced, successful life. In Joshua’s experience, he had to cut out many of his hobbies such as playing video games. He stressed the significance of finding what’s important to oneself and what they are passionate about in life, which will help them focus on achieving their goals.

Future Entrepreneur Challenge vs. FBLA

Joshua was the TA for the Future Entrepreneur Challenge and described the difference between FBLA and FEC.

“FEC goes more in-depth about the students’ journey towards entrepreneurship and helps them through the whole process by having successful businessmen and mentors who guide the students through this process that they have already been through before. It’s perfect for students aspiring to create their own businesses as the depth of the content taught is amazing.”

FBLA was described more as a self-paced, brush through entrepreneurship while FEC really goes in-depth about the whole process. FEC is an 8–10 session course which takes the dreams and ideas of young entrepreneurs and helps make them a reality.

For more information on FEC, click here.

If you are interested in learning more about Joshua’s story, you can watch the full video here.