Global Entrepreneurship Week 2013 took place in Israel during the 17-24 of November 2013.
Nine primary schools celebrate Global Entrepreneurship Week 2013 thanks to the Entrepreneurship for Kids Program via ceremonies, workshops, activities and lectures from entrepreneurs in various fields.
This year, too, all the schools presented the students with a presentation about the Global Entrepreneurship Week, with explanations about the nature of the week, the activities being conducted in Israel and abroad, and the role of each school this week.
On this page, you can find updates from the events that took place in the schools during GEW 2013, with the encouragement of Entrepreneurship for Kids Program.
The Tze'elon school, which educates for entrepreneurship and leadership, announced the GEW in advance, and a countdown banner was hung at the school's entrance.
This week was opened on 15.11.2013 with a school ceremony, attended by all of the students, parents, teachers, the Director of the Education Council and the school supervisor.
The ceremony featured a greeting from the principal, Ronit Barel, words from the school supervisor, Victoria Aziel, and from the chairman of the parent's council, Shuly Shtern. Afterward, the school band performed in front of the guests.
Hadar Cohen Harel, a teacher, along with the school's staff, prepared for the opening day. On this day, various stations were held throughout the school explaining the various projects. Each student chose a project to take part in throughout the year.
Representatives from each class explained the projects.
A presentation about the GEW at the Tze'elon school, and the meaning of the week.
The school was decorated and prepared for the ceremony, there was a lot of excitement and the final outcome can be seen in this clip: GEW Opening at Tze'elon School:
Entrepreneurs who Came to the Tze'elon School in Be'er Ya'akov:
In addition to the entrepreneurs listed below, the following entrepreneurs also visited the Tze'elon school to help enrich the students' knowledge in entrepreneurship:
Eli Shachori, owner of Bertha's Angels restaurant; Efrat Dabir, lactation advisor; Chany Bienstock, school teacher and representative of the Shifra and Puah organization; Ronen Shemilovitz spoke about projects advancing mentally disabled children.
Doron Zekzer - The First Social Mall Founder
When he was 20, Doron was exposed to the existence of the fourth sector, and discovered that he has the ability to harness people to do for the benefit of society.
After working in the high-tech and participating in many social activities, Doron decided to establish The First Social Mall, a platform that allows social businesses to continue and do good, and allows people purchase products produced by people with medical needs.
Doron visited the Tze'elon school as a guest entrepreneur after having been invited by Hadar Cohen Harel, a teacher who saw the project and was charmed by it.
This clip features parts of his lecture to the students (in Hebrew):
Doron's messages to the students were:
- There is no limit of age in entrepreneurship and helping others also children can initiate things and improve reality.
- Helping others and taking care of other people and of the environment are much more important than wisdom, beauty, etc.
- When people are given the chance helping others through teamwork, they will usually be happy to do so.
- Teamwork helps promote agendas and projects.
- Doron recommended the film, Pay it forward.
- Don't be afraid to dream of ideas, even if the ideas seem very great. But it's better to start small and dream big.
- In team-building, it is important to find people who can complement your skills.
- It's important to ask others to help you realize your ideas.
- It's important to enjoy what you do.
Perry Shany - Volunteer at the SpaceIL Spaceship Project
The founders of the spaceship project SpaceIL set themselves an additional goal, apart from landing the first Israeli spaceship on the moon. They also decided to promote scientific and technological education, and to become an inspiration for an entire generation of kids.
As such, the project enlisted numerous volunteers who visit schools and speak about the project, connecting the students to the dream and getting them interested in technological science.
Perry Shany visited the school as a volunteer of SpaceIL and told the students how Yariv Bash is trying to fulfill the expected future that Bazuka jum predicted for him, "You will reach the moon by age 20". Although Yariv is no longer 20, he and his many partners set themselves this aspirational goal - landing an Israeli spaceship on the moon.
Here is a clip from Perry's lecture to the Tze'elon students:
Ran Ne'eman - Accells Project Partner
Ran Ne'eman, along with a group of entrepreneurs, founded the project Accells, a startup that provides security measures for a website and organizational log-in, through cell phones.
This project aims to replace the usernames and passwords used today, and make the identification process more reliable and simple.
During Global Entrepreneurship Week 2013, Ran gave lectures at the Tze'elon school in Be'er Ya'akov and at the Mordei HaGeta'ot school in Ramat Gan.
Here are some highlights that Ran provided to the students from his entrepreneurial experience:
- It's important to accept that we don't know everything.
- It's better to work in a team, so you get better results.
- Check yourself constantly and get better.
- Learn while doing.
- Know your project's target audience.
- Understand that projects have difficulties and challenges.
- An entrepreneur should know how to overcome difficulties, improve the project and move on.
- The project should be in a field that is important to you.
- Excellence in your field.
- Be alert to your surroundings and to new opportunities.
Roy Julus - Greenbo Founder
Roy Julus is the founder of the colorful potted plants project that has taken over balcony railings in Israeli homes and around the world. Roy came to tell the students about his business.
Roy told about how important it was for him that the production would be in Israel and thus contribute to the country's economy. In addition, Roy presented Greenbo's new product- flower pots that are a pillow as well as a bag, with a special technology that protects the plant's stability and allows water flow.
Roy shared this with the students and explained that it's important to always innovate and be aware of customers' needs. As a result, his company allows its customers to build flower pots in color combinations based on their own tastes.
Hani Pe'er - Author of Greetings, Ceremonies and Speeches
After eight years in a middle school in Rishon LeZion, Hani Pe'er was searching for a new direction and inspiration.
She turned her writing experience, gained from writing greeting cards for teachers at the school, into a career, and began writing greeting cards for anything from births to whatever else. She then developed her writing into speech writing, and today is a professional speech writer for CEOs, mayors, etc.
In her lecture she spoke about the bravery needed to make a career change in the middle of your life, to dare and succeed in your field, and the importance of developing and sticking to it, all out of a belief from pursuing a hobby and doing what you love will make you happy.
Rinat Ben Simon - Minglelink Founder
Rinat Ben Simon told the students that after 10 years of working in communication and marketing, she founded Minglelink, a company aimed at the B2B business sector. The company offers outsourcing for media management in social channels.
The company's vision is to enable every individual and business to maximize the benefits of digital media and help drive it towards success.
Rinat told about how she works with Keren-Shemesh (a philanthropic organization which aims is to assist young entrepreneurs) that helps her, along with a mentor, to set up her business and manage it, in order to success.
Rinat's tips for the young entrepreneurs:
- Do what you love.
- You can find areas you love and that you can work with in the future, even when you're young.
- Academic studies contribute to success.
- It's important to stay updated with courses because our world keeps changing.
- Advertising on Facebook is convenient, easy and accessible.
- Every business can advertise locally to its target audience through Facebook.
Eli Vidabsky - Webshout Founder
Eli Vidabsky exposed the students to the subject of online marketing, and told them about the technology tools that his company developed and provides to help promote businesses online.
The students were interested in the technological methods he spoke about, and thanked him after his lecture.
Ofra Avramovitz - Mamanet Founder
In 2005 Ofra Avramovitz joined a mother's netball team in her daughters' school in Kfar Saba.
Ofra fell in love with the game and the idea, and decided to set up the Mamanet league. Since then she has been voluntarily managing the growing and developing league.
The goal of the Mamanet project is to give mothers the opportunity to play as part of a team in a competitive sport.
30 cities already take part in Mamanet, and about 5,000 mothers play in hundreds of teams around the country.
Ofra told the students how she came up with the idea, how it grew to be so big and how she aims to make it even bigger, and spread to more schools.
Eyal Amiel - Project to Inspire Children
Eyal visited two schools during Global Entrepreneurship Week 2013: The Tze'elon school in Be'er Ya'akov and the HaShalom school in Mevaseret Zion.
Eyal told the students about the bicycle business he founded abroad, about his failures, and about the lessons he learned and the experience he gained.
Eyal's personal story of failure, and how he grew from that into self-confidence and starting a new project, inspired the students to believe in themselves and in their abilities.
Eyal was able to tell the story at a level the young students would understand, and this ability helped him create much interest among the students, and get his message to them.
Thanks to Entrepreneurs
At the end of the lectures, each entrepreneur received a certificate like this:
Sigal Hadad, the Amirim coordinator at Hashalom school, leads a group of fourth graders at weekly meetings on entrepreneurship..
During GEW the students watched a slide show about this week and heard an explanation about their part in it.
In addition, Eyal Amiel, a guest entrepreneur visited the school.
Eyal told the students his personal story, which led him and his girlfriend to move to Manhattan in New York, establish a business of American rickshaws connected to mountain bikes and offer ride services around Manhattan. This led him to a great opportunity in the bicycles field, and provide him with a wonderful journey of experience and adventure. However the project did not become a reality, and so he experienced failure.
In his lecture, Eyal gave the students insights and inspiring beliefs about success and failure.
For example: The fact that failure is part of success, just as success stems from the ability to keep going on and on, despite failures along the way, until one day you experience success. Just like a toddler taking his first steps, who stumbles and falls until he succeeds.
Today Eyal works in a pet store in Holon, where he helped the owner to expand the business, thanks to his academic studies and experience as an entrepreneur.
At the same time, Eyal told the students about his new project, which focuses on different and creative education for children up to age 20, which aims to provide them with practical tools to create happiness, wealth and achievement in their lives.
The goal is to teach them that there are no failures in life, only results, and if we don't reach the results we strive for, we must learn from that experience and use the lessons learned to make better decisions and strategies in the future.
The new project combines many additional examples that will enrich the children and inspire them.
Orna Naftali, social coordinator at Aley Givah shared a presentation on GEW with a selected group of students participating in the Entrepreneurship for Kids program.
The students were first exposed to the existence of this week, and learned that it is celebrated in many countries around the world, through thousands of events and millions of participants, and that they too have a part in these events.
During the week, students learned a lesson from the entrepreneurship program, and after a successful cooperation with the SpaceIL entrepreneurs, they got to hear a lecture about the first Israeli Spaceship that will fly to the moon.
Noam Tene, who is an active participant in the spaceship project, lectured to the students about the spaceship project and told them about all the stages of the project, from the birth of the idea by Yariv Bash, CEO and founder of SpaceIL, through to enlisting project partners using Facebook, signing on leading Israeli companies in the flight and space fields, and enlisting volunteers to lecture in front of students. In doing so, they hope to develop a new generation of Israeli students who aspire to be space scientists.
About a month prior to Global Entrepreneurship Week 2013, the Lev HaSharon Democratic School joined those who teach the Entrepreneurship for Kids Program.
Shoshi Amrami, a teacher at the school, said that she led the school to join the program, and convinced the school's principal, Yuval Shapira.
During the week, a group of students from the 7th, 8th and 9th grades, who chose the entrepreneurship and smart consumption track, learned one module from the program.
In addition, the students learned about the GEW, watched a slide show that was made for them and saw how they, too, participate in the week.
The Ramot Weizmann School in Yavne took part in Global Entrepreneurship Week for the first time, with the help of the Entrepreneurship for Kids Program.
The school held a ceremony for all of the students, and invited guest lecturers who shared with the students their stories as entrepreneurs.
The Entrepreneurs who Visited Ramot Weizmann School in Yavne:
Sharon Mualem - Social Entrepreneur and EVT Online Sport Founder
Sharon is a social entrepreneur who works to help sick children, as well as a business entrepreneur who founded, along with her partner Sasi Mualem, the Online Sports Project, EVT.
EVT lets people train and improve their fitness without leaving their homes, with certified fitness trainers and programs based on individual abilities. This is all achieved through an internet connection.
Also available are tips, guidance and support, just like a fitness gym, but at home.
Sharon told the students about the process of setting up a project, the difficulties they met with along the way, the dream that comes true and the need to fundraise in order to market the project.
At the end of the meeting, the students were happy and excited when Sharon showed them part of a fitness class on the website.
Ilanit Beno - A Taste of More Confectionery and Catering Founder
Ilanit always had a sense of design and aesthetics, and from a young age, she loved baking cakes and cookies, cooking for family and friends, and decorating cakes for birthdays and family occasions.
At some point, she decided to turn her hobby into a career, and studied design and confectionery. Afterward, she specialized in chocolate and desserts.
Today, Ilanit specializes in baking cakes and cookies, in cooking and baking for orders, in chocolate creations and she leads workshops.
Ilanit founded the A Taste of More Catering in Rehovot. It is a daily catering service for private customers and events with up to 100 guests.
Ilanit told the students how she got to her current occupation, how she founded her business, how she markets her catering service, and more.
Here is a short clip of Ilanit's lecture:
Ilanit shared some tips with the students for starting a business, from her own experience:
- Do what you love
- Consult with people you trust
- The support of your local surroundings is important to help a business get on its feet.
- It's better to focus on one specialty
- It's very important to study your field very well
- A business' name and logo need to be related to the business concept
- We need to be aware of our limits and get help from professionals in areas we don't understand, and which aren't at the heart of the business.
Sarit Maor Circles Shop Founder
Sarit opened her store, Circles. It is a small shop for clothing, accessories and gifts for babies and children, which offers a different shopping experience.
The store is in Moshav Bnaya and provides a calm and relaxing environment, appropriate for mothers with babies and children. The store also has a yard, a lactation station, a changing station and a changing room.
Sarit told the students how she had the idea as a mother of four, how she fitted out the area of the store to her customer needs, and how great the satisfaction is, despite the difficulties.
Here is a short clip from Sarit's lecture:
Sarit spoke to the students about the project's advantages, and the difficulties she'd undergone, and shared the lessons she learned from the entrepreneurial process:
- A project turns an opportunity into something real.
- Define a target audience.
- Find your business's uniqueness
- An entrepreneur must always think about renovating and improving.
- An entrepreneur often works alone.
- The entrepreneur should be aware of customer responses and adapt the business to their needs and expectations.
- An entrepreneur should know how to manage time and budget.
- An entrepreneur should deal with challenges and difficulties and know how to turn difficulties into challenges.
- The upside of entrepreneurship is joy and fun, because they chose what to work in, and are independent in decision making.
- The greatest satisfaction is when others, especially customers, see that I love what I do.
Rakefet Becca Moses - A Gift for Life Founder, Fitness for the Third Age
Rakefet discovered that fitness helps improve health and became a fitness trainer.
When she discovered that her mother was unable to walk due to knee pain, even after undergoing surgery, she decided to help her, and from there she became an expert in elderly fitness.
Using methods she'd learned and those she developed on her own, she found a way to help elderly people in dealing with pain and feeling better.
In this clip, you can watch parts of Rakefet's lecture to the students.
Rakefet gave the students some tips and advice from her experience as an entrepreneur:
- Every project begins with an idea.
- An idea comes from a need.
- It's important to enjoy what you do.
- For a project to succeed, you need to qualify your target audience.
- It's important to always be studying your field, and keep developing, and learning how to manage and market the business.
- Build yourself a goals board, strive and act to make it a reality.
- Adjust yourself to the abilities and desires of your target audience.
- Believe in yourself and act to achieve your goal.
- An entrepreneur needs to take risks, and they should be calculated risks.
- It's good to set goals for one year, and make short-term goals from them.
- Dream big.
Dana Eisner - SpaceIL Spaceship Project Volunteer
Backed by Google, a few Israeli entrepreneurs decided to join a competition to send a spaceship to the moon.
The mission: Be the first team that can launch, fly and land a robotic spaceship on the moon.
The spaceship will land and transmit pictures and video from the moon back to earth.
This will make Israel the third country in the world to land its flag on the moon.
The SpaceIL team set the goal to launch the smallest spaceship ever to land on the moon, and to contribute to Israeli society through an advancement of technological science education and a promotion of scientific innovation.
The Entrepreneurship for Kids Program contacted the SpaceIL team and they were glad to visit schools that implement the program as guest entrepreneurs during Global Entrepreneurship Week. One school they visited was the Ramot Weizmann school in Yavne.
The spaceship project was presented to the students by Dana Eisner, a SpaceIL volunteer.
Ynet, in the Sderot and Southern Settlements section, wrote about the school's events during GEW, and mentioned some of the entrepreneurs who came to lecture for the students.
Thanks to the Entrepreneurs
Every lecturer received a thank you letter.
The Yad Mordechai school in Bat Yam took part in the Global Entrepreneurship Week for the second year.
The week was opened with a school ceremony, and during the week, the students attended lectures of various guest entrepreneurs.
The week was organized and coordinated by Orly Maimon, the school's Entrepreneurship Coordinator.
The Guest Entrepreneurs at Yad Mordechai School in Bat Yam:
Noa Katanov - a volunteer in the spaceship project
Noah joined as a volunteer the spaceship project, and told students about the idea, the goals and the application.
Yariv Bash, who came up with the idea, and his partners, have a goal beyond landing an Israeli spaceship on the moon. Their goal is to encourage an entire generation of children to be interested in science in general and space science in particular.
About 60 students from Yad Mordechai attended the lecture, and the students showed interest and asked questions.
Ofra and Idan Einav - Sing and Sign Project Founders
A personal acquaintance with a hearing-impaired man motivated Ofra and Idan Einav to learn the sign language to communicate with auditory livers.
Ofra and Idan are brother and sister, who come from a musical background, and started the Sing and Sign project among hearing children. The goal is to help kids communicate with to the hearing impaired people through singing accompanied by sign language.
The two won the ACUM prize for their important project. The prize was given to promote the creation of videos for children.
This is a short clip from Ofra and Idan's meeting with the students:
Ofra and Idan believe that music is a way for people to interact.
Ofra and Idan advised the students to think about other peoples' needs, and take them into consideration.
Meir Shoaf - Fat Meir's Kitchen Founder
After Meir Shoaf experienced a stroke, he found it hard to speak, and only after three years, he was able to speak again.
At this time, Meir volunteered at the Shanti House kitchen, and at the end of the three years, he decided to open the Fat Meir's Kitchen. His goal was to provide sandwiches to children at school, who forgot, or who can't afford a sandwich.
The project has gained great success and recognition in the educational institutions.
The Yad Mordechai students also receive fresh sandwiches from Fat Meir's Kitchen. They are placed in a basket by the teacher's lounge, and by the end of the day, all of them are eaten by the students.
In the photo, Meir is telling first-grade students about his project, and how last year, first graders grew vegetables on a farm and brought them to him as an appreciation for his work to help feed children.
Shirly Schneider - "I Arrived" Website Founder- Create Online Invitations for Free
Shirly, a lawyer by profession, has a Bachelors degree in law and a Masters degree in Business Management and was in the excellent students track at Bar Ilan University. She is also a mother of four daughters and has been working as a lawyer for more than 10 years.
After encountering a personal need when she tried to find an online service to send invitations for an event, she decided, along with two partners, Gal and Shlomit Naor, to set up a website for online invitations.
Over the last two and a half years, she has been involved in the planning and establishing the "I Arrived" project.
Since then she has been managing the development, marketing and business cooperation of the website.
Lately, the founders acquired another website, which is now part of the "I Arrived" website, and will widen its activities as a party and event portal. It will include a magazine and recommendations for attractions and performers for events, in addition to the invitations and the creation of an event page for users.
The entrepreneur's goal is to introduce the Israeli market to the way that invitations are sent in the USA.
Shirly says that the market is growing, as printed invitations are rarely needed anymore.
At "I Arrived", they take the invitation one step ahead, and while creating the invitation, users also create an event page for users, all in the same design as the invitation. The page shows the user the RSVPs, comments and well-wishes, and lets them upload pictures, videos, and more.
The website updates monthly and the entrepreneurs build up and expand on the features available at "I Arrived".
Shirly says that from the beginning there has been a growing demand for the site and the number of surfers is jumping significantly from month to month and this is only the beginning.
Galit Zamler- Business and Social Entrepreneur, Entrepreneurship for Kids Program Founder
During GEW, Galit Zamler told students about the part the Entrepreneurship for Kids Program plays in encouraging schools to celebrate the week, and spoke about the her program.
Additionally, the students took part in a meeting that dealt with teamwork, and which included a fun activity.
Thanks to the Entrepreneurs
After each lecture, the guest entrepreneurs received a certificate, like this:
The HaIrisim school celebrates GEW every year, thanks to the English teacher Ronni Shtekler, who developed the Learn English and Remember kit. This kit allows students with learning disabilities to learn a rich English vocabulary easily and in a fun way.
During Global Entrepreneurship Week 2013, Ronni taught all 5th and 6th graders the first lesson from the Entrepreneurship for Kids Program, which deals with the questions: who is an entrepreneur? The students greatly enjoyed the different learning experiences.
Noam Tene visited the HaIrisim school as well. Noam is a volunteer and an active participant in the SpaceIL Spaceship project. He led a lecture about the project for 5th and 6th graders.
Read Ronni Shtekler's letter after the GEW events at her school on the recommendations, thanks and opinions page.
The week was opened with a ceremony for all the students of the school, during which the students received notebooks made by the their teachers. The notebooks deal with entrepreneurship according to the different age groups of the students, and they will learn from them during the coming year.
As an entrepreneurial school, they presented the various student projects over the week, and the crowning project was one that helped sick children in the Schneider hospital, which is near the school.
The students visited the patients, and through various projects, raise funds for the hospital.
Watch a clip of the ceremony at Kaplan school:
The Entrepreneurs who Visited the Kaplan School in Petah Tikva:
Zofit Rosen - Light & Flower
Zofit Rosen has an international N.D.S.F. Diploma in floral design and arrangement.
She runs Light & Flower, a college for floral design and arrangement, and develops the Light & Flower method for treatment and personal empowerment in flowers.
Zofit also wrote the book The Amazing Powers of Flowers, and made a flower card deck, which informs and instructs on different flowers.
Zofit arrived with an impressive bouquet that looked fake, but turned out to have been arranged by her with real flowers.
Zofit told the students about her field of practice, and about the challenges she has faced in spreading the special treatment method that she developed using flowers.
Angela Ben-Eliezer, Furniture Design from Cardboard Founder
Angela is the founder of a business named after her, Angela, Furniture Design From Cardboard.
Angela creates and teaches design and cardboard creation. She creates furniture, light fixtures, home accessories, useful tools and even jewelry.
Angela showed up with a wood-colored table, but which was made entirely of cardboard, in order to show the students the beauty of cardboard furniture design.
Angela told the students how she found the cardboard design field, how those around her responded, where she gets her materials, how she markets her business, and the challenges she has faced.
Sibel Zuaretz - Developer of the Yoga Flowers Method
Sibel found that yoga saved her from non-stop pain.
She specialized in the field and developed the yoga flowers method, based on yoga poses and imitating nature and animals.
At first, Sibel only worked with children, but after requests from parents and teachers, she began giving lessons to adults as well.
Watch this clip of Sibel's lecture:
The lessons Sibel learned from her entrepreneurial experience:
- Love what you do.
- Always keep evolving.
- It's important to enjoy what you do.
- An entrepreneurial idea can come from a personal need and a solution.
- Build plans for the future.
Galit Zamler - Founder of Entrepreneurship for Kids Program
Galit Zamler also visited the Kaplan school and told about GEW, and how Kaplan school students take part in this week, along with other schools, all with the support of the Entrepreneurship for Kids Program.
Additionally, 5th-grade students attended a meeting that dealt with teamwork. The session included video clips and a fun activity with a bed sheet.
Thanks to the Entrepreneurs
At the end of each lecture the entrepreneurs received a thank you letter like this:
The Mordei HaGeta'ot school in Ramat Gan, which teaches leadership, entrepreneurship and business management, celebrated its third Global Entrepreneurship Week.
Like last year, this year various entrepreneurs came to talk to the students, and to share their entrepreneurial experience.
Vice Principal Sara Bachar, who in charge of the entrepreneurship subject at the school, prepared for two focused days where many entrepreneurs came to talk with the children.
Ran Ne'eman, Accells Project Partner
Ran Ne'eman founded Accells with a group of entrepreneurs. Accells is a startup which provides security measures to enter websites and organizations by using cell phones.
The project aims to replace the username and password which are used today, and so make the identification process more reliable and simpler.
During this week, Ran lectured at two schools: Tze'elon school in Be'er Ya'akov and Mordei HaGeta'ot school in Ramat Gan.
Here is a short clip from Ran's lecture, and on this page above, in the description of his lecture at the Tze'elon school, you can find the lessons Ran shared with the students regarding his entrepreneurial experience.
Gilad Polak - Audio Didact Project Partner
For several years now, Gilad Pollak has been a guest entrepreneur at the GEW.
Gilad, along with his partners, founded Audio Didact, and each year tells the students how the project is progressing and growing in different areas, all while keeping the same goal: Helping and enabling people to achieve personal and financial freedom by providing enriching educational materials.
Here is a short clip from Gilad's lecture:
Gilad's lessons and recommendations to the students, based on his entrepreneurial experience:
- There is a direct link between how much we value the world and our ability to profit from a project.
- A project is a response to a need, or a new invention that improves life.
- The idea for a project stems from identifying a need.
- I recommend creating collaborations to push the project forward.
- Set a goal and work to reach it.
- It is best to work with a few clients rather than relying on just one.
- Identify what works, and build a method from that. This saves time, energy and money.
- Set measurement goals.
- Get the team on board with the project's goals.
- Our product should be easy to use, and collaboration should be simple and clear, just like the project's concept.
- Work out of desire.
- Enjoy the process.
- Keep going until you achieve success.
Shirly Schneider - Founder of "I Arrived" Website- Creating Event Invitations Online for Free
Shirly Schneider, Founder of the "I Arrived" website for creating online event invitations for free, lectured at three schools during the week: Mordei HaGeta'ot school, Yad Mordechai school and Kaplan school.
Shirly founded her website out of a personal need, when she could not find a way to create Hebrew invitations online.
Shirly collaborated with her entrepreneurial friend and together they founded "I Arrived".
Shirly told the students about the stages of building the website, and one of the most important lessons she taught the students was that it's impossible to be sure if a project will succeed or not.
Shirly's advice is to believe in your project and keep trying to succeed. If you encounter challenges, find a way to overcome them.
A short clip from Shirly's lecture:
Barak Manbar - Founder of Bertha, My Mobile Supermarket
Barak is responsible for a number of projects, the last of which, Bertha, he discussed with students, and which he recently sold.
Today Barak is in advanced stages with an advertising project at the points of sale.
Barak taught the students about smart shopping and about the price of products at different supermarkets.
Barak shared the lessons he learned as an entrepreneur:
- Desire is what pushes entrepreneurs to start projects.
- In entrepreneurship, you need to give up on many things.
- The project should be useful to consumers.
- You don't have to be rich to start a project.
- As a person and as an entrepreneur, you should be humane and care for your workers, even after the project is sold.
- The entrepreneur's advantage is that a project fulfills dreams.
- It's important to have a business plan.
A clip from Barak's lecture:
Yamima Bismot- Owner of The Final Word
From the place of receiving income support, Yamima Bismot came to a place of safe income through the business she established: "The Final Word".
Yamima founded her business with the help of Your Own Business project, which aims to empower religious mothers and enable them to operate their own business from home.
Today Yamima is a copywriter and a website content writer, and teaches how to influence and achieve desired results through words.
Yamima was a guest lecturer at the school where she studied as a child, which was then called Pardes, today, it's known as Mordei HaGeta'ot school. Tamima told the children about her process, and how they must always gather the courage and achieve the goals they desire.
Yamima's tips for starting a business:
- Keep the Sabbath - it works great for her.
- Go with your truth and don't let criticism guide you.
- Dare and try and don't fear of negative response.
- Don't devalue your competition, support them. It displays your ability and your belief in yourself, which makes your customers believe in you too.
- There are many free things online, you can exchange knowledge and other services.
- Get support from your family.
- Do what you love.
- Identify and take advantage of opportunities.
- Ask for help when you need it.
- Share your knowledge with others and show that you value them.
Ronit Levinstein Meltz - Author of A Journey after my Name Series
For many years Ronit Levinstein Meltz was a teacher at high schools and a bible teacher. Today she is mainly a writer.
When Ronit decided to start writing, she immediately knew that she would write a series, not a single book, even though she had not written a single chapter before.
A search for topics that will interest children led her to write stories about the names behind the children's names.
Searching for names for her protagonists is a challenge, and sometimes the names change based on the characters she writes about, who also have opinions of their own.
Thus far, the series has six books: Green and Open Blinds, A Miracle of Love, Moving to the Corner, From Sea to Sea, 13 Red, and the new book: A Mission of Brothers which is about a secret operation of the Mossad and the Aliyah of Ethiopian Jews to Israel.
Ronit shared the lessons she'd learned while writing books:
- At first, you decide if the protagonist is a boy or a girl, and decide on their appearance and personality.
- As soon as you create a character, you can see that they have their own opinions, and they take part in deciding on the book's plot.
- While writing a book, part of the influence comes from the author's work, but some of the influences on the plot and the characters are independent of the author.
- Choosing a name for the book is a complicated process, and so it's one of the hardest and most important things for an author.
- It's important not to give your book the same title as another book.
- An idea to write a book can come from something that happened to the author.
An edited clip of Ronit's lecture:
Rotem Eyal - Boo Designer Clothing Founder
Rotem is a designer of Boo Designer Clothing in Shenkin, Tel Aviv. She lives, breathes and creates fashion.
t is important for Rotem that the production be Israeli, thereby also promoting employment in the country.
Rotem came to talk with the students dressed in clothing she'd designed, and so served as a presenter for her own business.
The lessons Rotem shared with the children:
- A project starts with a dream and setting a goal.
- Even though a dream is the foundation of entrepreneurship, it needs to be based in reality in order to come true.
- Having determination is important for the entrepreneur, but ability is equally important.
- Children of entrepreneurs have the base and confidence to be entrepreneurs themselves.
- Entrepreneurship involves hard work.
- Every project will encounter difficulties that you will need to overcome.
- It is impossible to know in advance whether or not the venture will succeed or not.
- Before starting a project, make sure there's a need for it.
- Production in Israel is more expensive, but allows flexibility and supports the local economy.
- You need to love what you do.
- Always learn and evolve in your field.
- Perseverance is crucial for success.
- Believe in your project and don't give up.
- Be aware of your surroundings.
- Don't be afraid, fear paralyzes.
Watch a clip from Rotem's lecture:
Ayelet Israeli - Owner of Bronxy, Designer Wooden Flip Flops
Ayelet Israeli discovered the flip-flops, which she loved very much as a teenager, in a small shop in Brooklyn.
Right there and then she decided to import the flip flops to Israel.
With determination, love, belief in herself and a lot of help from her friends, she began importing the flip flops to Israel, even while she still lived in New York.
At her lecture, Ayelet told the students about the response from her community to the idea, about her fear of changing a career after years of being a hip hop teacher, and how her determination to make the dream come true surpassed all of this.
Some of those around her told her the project wouldn't work, but her sister, who lived in Israel, supported her. Ayelet discovered a niche for people who love the shoes, some of whom became loyal customers.
Ayelet's tips for the beginner entrepreneur:
- If you find the will to succeed within yourself, then you will succeed.
- Be brave and follow your dreams to the end.
- Be stern, it will help you overcome difficulties.
- Believe in your idea.
- Do not be afraid of failure
- Get help from people you trust.
- Learn every possible thing about your field, and become experts.
Here is a short clip from Ayelet's lecture:
Danny Deutsch - Guest Lecturer, SpaceIL project volunteer
Danny Deutsch joined the SpaceIL project as a volunteer lecturer for students, and inspires them to be interested in space and technological science.
Tali Toledano, the Kaplan school principal, asked Danny to speak at the school ceremony, and tell students, teachers and parents about the ambitious and progressive project, in order to encourage them to dream big.
Some tips Danny gave to the students:
- Always stay motivated.
- Success doesn't come from just one project.
- When you begin a project in a certain field, you sometimes need to make changes based on market changes and demands.
- Entrepreneurship should come with a lot of determination in order to succeed.
- Take into account that there may be changes that will affect your project, which we cannot control.
Here is a short clip out of Danny's lecture at the ceremony:
At the end of the ceremony, the school's 5th graders gathered in the auditorium and Danny told them about the spaceship project, how the idea was born, how they enlisted partners and others who helped the project succeed.
The spaceship project competition that Google founded has 33 participating teams. Israel joined last, but as of November 2013, Israel is in 4th place in its chances to win.
NASA's CEO said he has a feeling that the Israelis will win, and will be the first to land a spaceship on the moon. The spaceship will move a few meters and transmit pictures from the moon back to earth.
Here is a short clip from Danny's lecture:
Tamir Schwartz - Guest Entrepreneur
Tamir's daughter is in the 2nd grade, and he came the school for the second year to tell the students about entrepreneurship.
Tamir told the students about turning a difficulty into an opportunity, and how he started a project with his partners. They turned the Real Estate crisis into an opportunity and established an online board.
He spoke about how the project failed, and how this did not break his spirit. Today he is working and developing a new project.
Tamir believes that the entrepreneur doesn't encounter difficulties, but obstacles, and he can overcome them.
Michal Brotfeld, Art in Threads Founder
Michal is an artist and public relations worker, who, following her love for art, founded "An Art in Threads".
Michal holds original birthday workshops for girls ages 8 and up, for young women and soldiers.
As part of the workshops, the girls learn to decorate using wax strings, beads and more. They make flip-flops, hairbands, bracelets and more, and make the items fashionable, unique and special.
Here is one example:
A short clip from Michal's lecture to Mordei HaGeta'ot students, who found it very interesting and asked questions.
Here are Michal's tips for young entrepreneurs:
- It's important to have a target audience for your project.
- Focus your marketing efforts on this target audience.
- Know the difference between marketing, advertising, and public relations.
- Entrepreneurship comes with challenges.
- Everyone has advantages and you need to use them to succeed.
- Facebook is an easy, convenient and useful marketing tool.
- Be creative in your marketing.
- An entrepreneur does everything alone - the product, marketing, sales and business management.
- Sales through channels in which you have no control over the price are problematic.
- It's important to create uniqueness for your products.
- An entrepreneur needs to find ways to cut costs.
The Entrepreneurship for Kids Program would like to thank all of the entrepreneurs who shared their stories with the children, and did so as volunteers.
We wish great success to each one of the entrepreneurs.
To read about events over other Global Entrepreneurship Weeks, click here:
Global Entrepreneurship Week 2019
Global Entrepreneurship Week 2018
Global Entrepreneurship Week 2017
Global Entrepreneurship Week 2016
Global Entrepreneurship Week 2015
Global Entrepreneurship Week 2014
Global Entrepreneurship Week 2012
Global Entrepreneurship Week 2011
Global Entrepreneurship Week 2010
