A guest blog from Lynne Lawson Fugate, GSCSA CEO

Needing to get your Girl Scout cookie fix? Cookie booth season runs Feb. 28-Mar. 22. Find a booth near you!

Entrepreneurs are people who create new businesses, products, services, or processes, or find ways to improve what currently exists. Whether it’s making available a new treatment for cancer, modernizing a business model, or creating new jobs, entrepreneurs are the game-changes. They are go-getters, innovators, risk-takers, and leaders, ready to change the world for the better. So how do we inspire today’s girls to aspire to entrepreneurship?

Well, girls themselves have already done some of the work. According to the Today’s Girls, Tomorrow’s Entrepreneurs study released by GSUSA in 2019, girls are already thinking like entrepreneurs! In fact, 89% of girls surveyed have already done something related to entrepreneurship, like volunteering, selling items as part of a fundraiser or school club, encouraging someone to join a social cause, or finding a new way to use a product or service. According to the study, girls with entrepreneurial mindsets are:

Challenge-seekers and Risk-takers
About nine in ten (87%) girls say that even when they’re afraid of making a mistake, they still try new things and that they learn from making mistakes (93%). Eight in ten say they aren’t afraid to try things that are hard (84%) and that failing at something makes them want to try harder (82%).

Curious Learners
They like to ask a lot of questions (85%) and like to find new ways of doing things (89%). Additionally, they often have ideas about how products, services, or processes could be improved (79%).

Socially Conscious Problem-solvers
95% of girls want to make the world a better place to live in.

Collaborative
An impressive 90% of girls are willing to try other people’s ideas about new ways of doing things. These girls are resourceful and know how to find others who can help them complete their goal (86%), which is especially important because social capital is necessary to getting new businesses off the ground. And when we play as a team, everyone wins!

With girls predisposed to be entrepreneurs, why is it that just 5% of CEOs and 12% of other top executives in the S&P 500 are women? How come less than 20% of start-ups have a female founder? Why is it that only 37% of full-time students pursuing a Master of Business Administration degree are women?

How can we cultivate this entrepreneurial mindset to continue into adulthood? According to the Today’s Girls, Tomorrow’s Entrepreneurs study, girls need additional support and encouragement in the entrepreneurial space. They’re clear about what they want: more learning opportunities. 64% of girls want entrepreneurship courses or programs, but only 12% of girls get them. This gap between what girls want and what they are given is where the Girl Scout Cookie Program comes in.

The Girl Scout Cookie Program teaches all girls, Daisies through Ambassadors, five essential skills to keep an entrepreneurial mind growing. 

Skill #1: Goal Setting
Goal setting is a key part of entrepreneurship. If you don’t know where you want to end up, how will you ever get started? Goals for cookie season that a troop or an individual girl have could be a certain number of boxes sold, an amount raised towards a troop outing, or an amount raised towards funding a service project. Challenges are sure to come their way, but the girls will have a plan to reach their goal and will face these challenges head on!

Skill #2: Decision Making
Will this product sell well? Is this service provided by anyone else? How much should I charge per hour? What should I call my company? All these questions and more are common in an entrepreneurial space. Making decisions is key to getting things done, and the best way to learn good decision-making is with practice in a low-risk environment, such as cookie season. Girl Scouts also teaches girls the difference between healthy risks and unsafe risks, so girls can be smart risk-takers both behind a cookie booth and in the real world. 

Skill #3: Money Management
Making money is fun and learning how to manage it can be fun, too, if cookies are involved! During cookie season, girls learn about bank accounts, budgeting, how to manage their cash flow, and how to make change for customers. This hands-on learning experience is unique and turns curious learners into business-savvy entrepreneurs! 

Skill #4: People Skills
The world is full of people. Therefore, people skills are essential in an entrepreneurial setting or elsewhere. Girls work together as a troop to manage a cookie both. They interact with customers who are either family or friends, or strangers passing by their booth. They learn and practice being respectful and helpful to everyone. They learn how to talk about the cookie program and the cookies themselves. The collaboration between girls in their troop and between those girls and their cookie customers, fosters a lifetime of excellent people skills.  

Skill #5: Business Ethics
The world of business can be brutal, but it doesn’t have to be. Cookie program participation teaches girls principles of business ethics such as honesty, fairness, and responsibility. Troops often put cookie proceeds towards doing a service project and take responsibility to solve a problem in their community. Learning business ethics prepares girls for a lifetime of making the world a better place. 

The girls of today are already exhibiting entrepreneurial mindsets. They are collaborative, challenge-seekers and risk-takers, curious learners, and socially conscious problem-solvers. What they do need, though, to grow into the next generation of entrepreneurs and game-changers, is more learning opportunities and more chances to grow their skills. The Girl Scout Cookie Program gives them just that. By participating, girls learn five essential skills that keep their entrepreneurial mindset evolving. Becoming proficient in goal setting, decision making, money management, people skill, and business ethics sets girls up for a lifetime of success whether in a corporate office, boardroom, at a start-up, or elsewhere. See what all a box of cookies can do! 

Lynne Lawson Fugate is the Chief Executive Officer of the Girl Scout Council of the Southern Appalachians. The Council is comprised of 46 counties in eastern Tennessee, southwest Virginia, and northwest Georgia. With nearly 14,000 members, the Council has service centers in Johnson City, Knoxville, and Chattanooga. 

Join Girl Scouts today!