enterpriseforkids.com

Inspiring kids to be entrepreneurial.

Kaitlin’s “Enterprise For Kids” Idea!

May 19th, 2012

I admire those very creative people who can draw!

Sadly, I am not one of those people, although there are some very artistic people in my family.

My sister won first prize in Australia’s richest art prize. a $250 000 prize for an artwork she entered into “The Signature of Sydney”, which really kicked off her painting career. Also my grandparents and Aunt on my Dad’s side were respected artists. So it is not surprising that our eldest daughter Kaitlin has an exceptional skill with drawing, and in particular pencil portrait sketches. From when she was very little, she would draw for hours and over the years has honed her skill. Her Mum, Cathy, also has exceptional drawing skills and has encouraged and taught Kaitlin many of the skills she has today.

Kaitlin's drawing.

Kaitlin's portrait drawing.

When looking for an enterprise opportunity it makes sense to look at what one is skilled at, then see if there is a need or problem in your community where your skill could be put to use.

Up-skilling yourself in your area of interest and becoming the best there is in that field, will likely increase the demand for your kind of talent and services. As a result, customers will choose you over your competitors and are more likely pay a premium. I wrote a Enterprise for Kids post on this very topic a number of blogs ago, so if you would like to learn more about how up skilling creates enterprise for kids’ opportunities, then visit here.

Kaitlin’s talent with drawing is the basis of her enterprising idea and she explains her business plan in this short video.

Kaitlin loves drawing.

She plans on spending $70 to buy the drawing and framing materials she requires to run her business. She will draw people’s portraits from a photo and sell it either framed or unframed. She will market her service on Face Book. In our local area there is a classified Face Book Buy and Sell Bunbury. Her aim is to complete one drawing a week with a sale value of about $30. In her video Kaitlin considers the road blocks with her business and has looked at solutions.

So we have covered all our kids’ enterprising ideas except for one. In our next post we share Jai’s passion for electronics and gaming and how he plans to turn this interest into a money making enterprise.

Kit’s Pocket Money Idea

May 16th, 2012

Plenty of kids receive pocket money from their parents. The kids then either save it or spent it. When we used to give pocket money to our kids, they would spend it straight away. Usually they spent their money on “junky” things that didn’t last long. This was very frustrating as a parent, so we looked for ways to teach our children to use their money wisely and to build a money mastery mindset for them. From these early days we have come up with some fantastic ideas which we’ll share with you in a later blog. You may also be interested in our views on kids and pocket money.

Welcoming Kit and his Entrepreneurial Idea.

This particular blog is about Kit’s pocket money idea and how he plans to run his enterprise.

Looking for a need…

Kit saw that there was a need in his neighbourhood for dog walkers. Whilst many people in our community walk their own dogs, there were also many elderly or busy people who own dogs and either didn’t have the energy or time to take their pet for a walk. Kit figured that he could offer a service where he could take their pet for a walk on a lead.

At first, when he shared his idea, we thought that he had gone bananas! Firstly Kit has always been afraid of dogs and secondly, he’s only six years old.   Allowing a six year old to walk the streets with other people’s dogs was certainly not looking like a good idea!

However; one thing we have learnt is to never stifle a child’s enthusiasm and condition him to think that his ideas are not good enough, so we decided to play along with his pocket money idea.

Road Blocks…

We talked through a business plan with Kit and investigated the road blocks that he may be faced with. Then we investigated the solutions.

The main issue was that he was too young to walk other people’s dogs, so we discussed that he needed an older person to go along with him. This would also provide reassurance to the pet owners that their dog would be looked after. So luckily his grandad offered to help out (he reckons he needed the exercise anyway!).

The other issue was that Kit wasn’t confident with dogs. So the plan was to carry a pocket of doggy treats to keep the dog happy and obedient. In addition Kit would provide his own dog lead. By offering doggy treats and a lead Kit was “adding value” to his service.

Dog Walking was Kit's Enterprise idea

Could this be the next "Dog Whisperer?"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Fee…

Kit decided that he would negotiate a walking fee of $5 for a half hour walk and if he had one customer a day then he could pocket $35 a week.

So it was on. Kit was now officially a professional Dog Walker!

And who knows…..from these humble beginnings, he may even become the next famous Dog Whisperer!

In our next “Enterprise for Kids” blog we will introduce Kaitlin’s very creative,  enterprising idea and her well thought out business plan. Stay tuned for that one….

The Candy Man Planning an Enterprise!

May 13th, 2012

All kids love lollies (Candy for our American readers)! Chayse too really loves lollies! So it came as no surprise to see Chayse planning an enterprise that revolved around lollies.

Now Chayse is only four years old so he needed a little help formulating his plan. Initially he liked the idea of buying a heap of lollies, but I think he was thinking that he was going to be the one eating them!

Eventually, after much explaining, it became clear to him that he would be selling them, not eating them himself. His brothers and sisters all thought his enterprise idea was pretty cool and I’m sure were thinking, “Why didn’t I think of that!”

Chayse planning an enterprise with his $50 start up capital.

We don’t have a video of Chayse explaining his business plan. In fact, there isn’t much to it so I’ll just explain for you here.

We have lent Chayse $50 to run his business. He plans to buy large bags of lollies from the supermarket, bag them up into small mixed bags, then sell them for twice what he paid. His market will be all the hungry kids who play and watch soccer games on Saturday mornings at the local soccer fields.

If his enterprise goes to plan he will double his money or get 100% return! That will put a smile on any young four year old’s face.

We will keep you updated with how his money making enterprise goes.

Next up is Kit planning an enterprise. Kit is so excited that he reminds me of our late over-zealous Jack Russell Terrier when she used to go out for a walk!

Honey Pot of Gold!

May 11th, 2012

Flynn is a natural budding young entrepreneur and he is never afraid to chase an opportunity. He often comes up with brilliant enterprising ideas and the one idea he has planned to take on with ‘Enterprise for Kids’ is a definite money spinner!

Flynn - a budding Entrepreneur

 

 

 

 

Before I tell you all about Flynn’s awesome enterprising idea I want to introduce some “food for thought”.

 

 

 

 

Prior to us starting “Enterprise for Kids”, our children were following the same conditioning around money that we have, a conditioning that society encourages greatly……earn money, spend money, borrow money. Whilst many people may not see anything wrong with this, many of us actually spend far more than we have come in. So the cycle never gets broken and by the time we reach retirement age, we have very little to show for the many years of hard work we have put in.

That’s why building an entrepreneurial mindset is so important. Breaking old conditioned habits is even more important…and the younger you are, the less conditioning you have. So whilst we want to develop in our children, a great work ethos (work hard and with integrity), we want to develop a way to move beyond that….a way to spot an opportunity, then a way to take action and finally, a way to help others achieve the same success. This system moves a person from being the “worker” to seeing an “enterprising” opportunity, to switching on their “entrepreneurial” self, to finally becoming the “expert” in their field.

An entrepreneur’s focus is in the development of a great system and finding great people to run it. They use other people’s time and other people’s money to do the work for them. Their systems will continue even after they pass from this world. A classic example is Thomas Edison’s formula for General Electric. He is no longer with us, but his empire continues.

Enterprising Queen Bee

A Queen Bee is Entrepreneurial.

The Queen Bee most definitely comes under the bracket of entrepreneur! She controls her entire empire from within her hive.

Thousands of honey bees (the workers) head out of her hive each morning collecting nectar, pollen and other resources for the hive, such as water. The worker bees will risk life and limb and literally work themselves to death (a worker bee only lives a few weeks).

The Queen bee will have employees whose main job is to guard the hive from danger. Others clean the hive and many fan the hive to keep the temperature controlled. The queen will have her workers who care for the nursery and for her own needs.

All she has to do is eat and lay eggs!

A bee hive is a unique system consisting of many specialized individuals that each have a job to do. The system performs like it is a one large living organism. If the Queen dies, then she will be replaced by another Queen Bee, the workers keep working and the Hive goes on. Not a lot different to General Electric, Apple or Ford Motor Company!

Flynn's Awesome Enterprise Idea

Flynn negotiating a honey deal with his Grandad.

So What has Flynn’s Idea got to do with a Queen Bee?

Flynn’s enterprising idea has everything to do with our Queen Bee and her empire!

In fact his plan is to use her company’s product, honey.

Flynn intends to buy raw unprocessed honey at wholesale in bulk and sell it in smaller jars at retail. He has worked out his figures and can see excellent profit potential.

In fact, once his business gets underway he can see the potential for his business to grow quite substantially. So I won’t tell you anymore about his plans, but if you missed clicking on the link above, you can listen to Flynn himself by clicking this link which will take you to a short video of Flynn explaining his awesome enterprise idea and business plan.

Seeing as we’re on the topic of honey, I thought I’d share a few facts about honey, and in particular raw unprocessed honey…

Honey is considered a super food because it is a potent antioxidant crammed with rich nutrients. It’s a natural antiseptic, an antibacterial and a healing salve for wounds and burns, but not all honeys are created equal.

Raw unprocessed honey is one hundred percent pure, natural, unpasteurized and unadulterated. It is extracted from the bee hive in its natural form and bottled. It is not filtered or heated. Unlike processed honey, raw unprocessed honey retains all the enzymes, royal jelly, pollen, propolis, minerals, rich vitamins and carbohydrate content.

Mmmm… appears to be a fantastic product!

So what do you think? Is Flynn onto a real enterprise for kids’ potential success story! You will have to follow along with our blog to see how he goes.

In our next blog you’ll be inspired by another budding entrepreneur, four year old Chayse, as he show cases his business idea. It is as sweet as Flynn’s enterprising ideas!

New From Old!

May 9th, 2012

My family immigrated here to Australia from Kenya back when I was just a kid in 1970. They came out with little qualifications, money or possessions and were supporting a young family. In order to make ends meet, my mother became very good at hunting down a bargain at a variety of places, including thrifty stores, lawn sales, second hand shops and markets. Years later she opened her own second hand goods shop and did exceptionally well out of it as a small business.

Amber was looking for an enterprise idea. She knew her Grandmother was an expert at finding bargains and then on-selling them for a profit. Her Gran suggested that Amber start her search at the local tip’s recycling centre, a place where thrown-away items are put aside, then sold to the public for next to nothing. Here was a wonderful opportunity to buy something, fix it up and resell it.

Gran is a great bargain hunter.

Fossicking for "treasure"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The old saying…“One man’s trash is another man’s treasure!” was to ring very true here.

So that is the basis of Amber’s new business.

To create something new from something old.

Her business plan is very sound and she’s definitely onto a winner! She is very proud of what she has come up with and shares it below in this short video. Just click the picture of Amber to view her new enterprise idea!

Amber

 

 

 

Next we will share Flynn’s business plan for his new enterprise. It is really a honey pot of gold!

enterpriseforkids.com

Inspiring kids to be entrepreneurial.