This kids business story shares how Flynn turned 90kg of raw honey into his first small enterprise. From filling jars and creating labels to pricing, selling, and solving problems, his honey business became a real-life lesson in initiative, confidence, money, marketing, and responsibility.
A Real Kids Business Story from Our Family
Flynn’s honey enterprise became one of those practical childhood projects that taught far more than we expected. It gave him the chance to handle a real product, work with others, think about presentation, understand pricing, serve customers, and solve problems along the way.
The Opportunity: 90kg of Raw Honey
When we last visited Flynn and his Honey Enterprise, he had just acquired 90kg of quality raw honey from his Grandad’s bee hives in Geraldton. Flynn had also placed a bulk order for plastic honey pots. He was now ready to fill them up and make his first sale.
Preparing the Honey for Pouring
His honey was held in buckets that weighed over 10kg. Getting the honey from the buckets into the 400g honey pots was not going to be easy. Firstly, the honey was very thick, making it tedious to decant into the pots. Secondly, it required strength to hold the honey bucket while pouring.
Flynn called on his mates to help. He poured the buckets into a large pot and heated the honey to 50 degrees Celsius. This temperature wasn’t high enough to destroy the enzymes that make raw honey so beneficial, but it was high enough to make the honey more fluid and easier to pour.
Setting Up the Production Line
The kitchen table was wiped down and set up for the honey pot production line. The team were excited about finally seeing the product in the pots. I helped pour, while Flynn and his gang filled and capped jars.
The jars were washed on the outside to ensure there was no stickiness, then labelled with Flynn’s “Howitt’s Honey” labels. This was one of the first times Flynn could see how much work sits behind a product before it is ready for customers.
Packaging and Branding the Honey
Flynn’s product looked clean, pure and professional. He understood that to get a market edge and sell his honey for a premium, his first-class product needed to be well packaged and hygienic.
Flynn carefully drew up a poster pointing out the benefits of his product. This was attached to the boxes containing the honey pots. He was not just selling honey; he was learning about presentation, trust, product quality and brand identity.
Pricing and Selling the Honey
Flynn researched what honey was selling for in shops and online. He worked out what he could sell his honey for and still make a decent return. To provide an incentive to customers, he offered a special price if they bought more than one pot at a time. There were plenty of money lessons for kids in this project.
Marketing his honey required little effort at first. Visitors to our home took an interest in his honey, and his honey began to sell. He gained permission from his school principal and left a box in the staffroom. He organised with a teacher friend of ours from another school to place a box in their staffroom, and he approached the local general store, where he was allowed to sell his pots of honey for a small commission.
A Real Business Problem: Crystallised Honey
His honey was selling well, and it wasn’t long before he needed to restock all his boxes. As word got out about his product, people even began placing small orders by telephone.
Flynn’s “Howitt’s Honey” business went very well, except for one problem.
Raw honey has many benefits that you would be hard pressed to find with heavily processed honey. However, a downside with raw honey is that, over time, it can candy, or begin to solidify. This occurs especially when the room temperature drops, such as during winter.
Flynn’s honey that had been waiting to be sold began to candy in the honey pots. People don’t generally want to buy honey that has hardened, which is why commercial honey producers often process honey using heat to reduce crystallisation.
Luckily, this problem only happened to the last remaining pots that had been waiting for sale. He brought these home, opened them up, scraped the honey into a pot and heated it back to 50 degrees Celsius. This liquefied the honey again, and he returned it to the pots. We bought those last pots for our family.
The lesson learned was that Flynn needed to sell his raw honey product before it showed signs of candying. He also needed to inform customers about what to do if their honey began to crystallise.
Profit, Pride and What Flynn Learned
Flynn’s net profit from his honey enterprise was outstanding. He achieved the goal he set before he began, plus much more. He learned many lessons along the way and recognised that it was a lot of work, but satisfying work.
Flynn became an expert in his own honey business and gained enormous skills and understandings of how to run an enterprise. This is one of the real family enterprise stories that helped shape how we think about raising entrepreneurial kids through everyday experience.
Flynn may now be ready to take his honey enterprise to another level. We hope to guide Flynn to move from being a small business owner to thinking more like an entrepreneur. How we do that will be shared in another Enterprise for Kids blog.
As a kids business story, Flynn’s honey enterprise shows how a simple family opportunity can become a real lesson in money, initiative, marketing and responsibility.
For Families Interested in Honey Enterprise
For those interested in having your own honey enterprise, or keeping a bee hive for a regular supply of raw honey for family and friends, you could seek out an expert, such as Flynn or his Grandad, or do a course.
For readers interested in honey handling and food safety, the Australian Honey Bee Industry Council provides information about Australian honey and beekeeping.
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