A 13 Year Old Entrepreneur in the Making

John,

I would like to share an interesting business story with this group. I
hope this story will bring out the fearlessness of a child in all of
us when we are starting any new business venture.

Last year, my twelve-year-old daughter, Alina, racked up a $500 cell
phone bill. I took her phone away and told her that as soon as she
pays her bill, she can have her phone back.

She had only $200 in her savings account, and earned $12 in weekly
allowance. It would have taken her more than 6 months to accumulate
$300 to payoff the balance amount and to have her phone returned,
while she would not have any spending money during this whole period.

So, Alina and I sat and discussed ways for her to increase her earning
potential. I suggested that she should scavenge for items in our
garage and I'll help her sell it on eBay. Instead, she decided that
since we had a bag of leftover candies in our pantry, she would try to
sell it at her school. She figured that because the school
administration had recently removed all candy vending machines at her
school due to health reasons, some of the students were having sugar
withdrawals and would definitely buy her candies . . . she was right!

Alina's first bag of candies sold fast. From the proceeds, and her
allowance money, she purchased more candies to resell at school and
continued repeating the same process. She regularly surveyed her
clientele to find out what type of candies they preferred to buy; and
found out that they wanted cheap, spicy Mexican candies, and then she
catered to their demand. Soon afterwards, her business really took
off. She paid off her phone bill within a month, and saved enough
money to put towards her travel fund to go to Europe next summer with
her older sister.

Although she got permission from her favorite teacher to sell candies
on school premise as a "fund-raising" activity, but no one bothered to
check out the details of what cause the fund-raising was really
helping! So, she continued selling, until one day when she heard it on
the news that Mexican candies have very high level of lead content and
they are unsafe. Due to ethical reasons, she decided not to sell
Mexican candies anymore at her school, and closed her business.

A few weeks later, Alina took classes at Red Cross, earned her
certification in Adult and Infant CPR, First Aid, Automatic Electronic
Defilibrator (AED), and Babysitting. She named her business Cuddles
Babysitting Service, and posted fliers in our neighborhood. Now she
has a flourishing babysitting business servicing her clients (who are
now regulars), and earns as much in tips as she earns in fees.

From this experience, she learned how to:

1. Buy in bulk and save;
2. Sell to new customers;
3. Conduct customer surveys;
4. Experiment to set market price for products;
5. Package goods (buy 2, and get one free);
6. Filter out slow-moving items from inventory;
7. Avoid stock shortages;
8. Convert one time customers into regular clientele;
9. Have principals and ethics in doing business;
10. Boldly face demise of one business and start fresh;
11. And so much more . . .

However, Alina has come up with a new idea for a food product. She and
I surveyed a few restaurants in our neighborhood and asked the owners
if they'd seen anything like it. They all told us they haven't, but if
we brought it to the market, they will definitely buy it. So, we
researched on the Internet and found a company that sells a
mold-making kit for food items for less than $100. She purchased the
kit and raw material; she is in the process of making prototypes of
her food product. Once she has enough prototypes ready, then we are
again going to survey the market to see if we can secure any tentative
orders.

If the market reacts positively to Alina's prototype, and she secures
a few orders, then I've promised her that I'll invest a few thousand
dollars to have professional molds made, and rent a commercial kitchen
to start production of her food product. She has already selected a
brand name (we are going to secure a trademark), and wants to start a
nationwide public relations campaign to promote herself and her brand
name.

She wants to have a successful PR campaign, and hopes to be called on
Oprah's show some day. She has already met with Nathan Osmond (son of
70's pop star, Alan Osmond, elder brother of Donny and Marie Osmond)
who has promised Alina that if she is successful in her business
endeavor, he is going to write and sing a theme song for her business!

So, let's see how far Alina can go with this venture. She's got a
whole life ahead of her and can afford to make mistakes along the way.
I'll remain her mentor and guide her.


Ismail Zehri

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