Expert Talk  Free Expert Tips and Advices

Home » Entrepreneurs » Tech Teen Makes "Cents" With Tractors

Tech Teen Makes "Cents" With Tractors

The first time one of Jenna Greckel's clients told her to put her father on the phone, she convinced him to change his mind and sold him a $6,000 tractor.

Jenna, 18, has learned a lot about bridging age and information gaps since she was
the first 4-Her in her Nebraska county to complete the 4-H Business Sense program. At age 12, she took what she'd learned about communication skills, advertising, bookkeeping and creating business plans and started a pet-sitting business.

Within a year Jenna had started a larger enterprise that combined her rural heritage with modern-day technology. Selling antique tractors and equipment over the Internet is more profitable than caring for pets, but it also produces more challenges.

"I had to put together and present my business plan to the bank manager in order to get a master note to fund my business," the 4-H member said. "As a freshman in high school, it was scary having a payment due on a loan worth thousands of dollars!"

To make sure her venture succeeded, Jenna focused on the business essentials of buying and selling a product, planning for overhead cost, and determining profit margins. As her sales and reputation grew, she also began
performing appraisals and selling items on consignment.

Jenna often works with lifelong farmers who aren't familiar with modern business technologies. "They teach me about the tractors, and I help them get a higher sale price by using the Internet," she said.

Negotiating with people of different ages and personalities from all over the country was a daunting experience at first, but 4-H helped Jenna overcome her shyness. "Now I'm able to conduct business transactions with confidence," she said.

Jenna also developed decision-making and financial management skills that she teaches to other youth as president of the 4-H Jr. Leaders group and counselor at an entrepreneurship camp.

She enjoys helping younger and older generations learn how to use technology for business, and she knows that she's often helping people capture a part of their childhood. "People frequently buy antique tractors as a way of maintaining a connection with their past," she said, "and I love helping them relive fond memories of their youth."
Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

Learn more about the 4-H community of young people across America learning leadership, citizenship and life skills at www.4husa.org. Teen entrepreneur Jenna Greckel

Permalink: http://expert-talk.com/tips/620/tech-teen-makes-cents-with-tractors-7620.htm

Comments

SEND A COMMENT

PLEASE READ: All comments must be approved before appearing in the thread; time and space constraints prevent all comments from appearing. We will only approve comments that are directly related to the article, use appropriate language and are not attacking the comments of others.

Message (please, no HTML tags. Web addresses will be hyperlinked):

Related Tips and Advices

Related Tags

DIGG This story   Save To Google   Save To Windows Live   Save To Del.icio.us   diigo it   Save To blinklist
Save To Furl   Save To Yahoo! My Web 2.0   Save To Blogmarks   Save To Shadows   Save To stumbleupon   Save To Reddit