by Creel Price on April 4, 2011
Attending our second Sydney Kids’ markets at the Carriage Works yesterday brought me back to earth on two levels. The first is that it’s been over 3 months since my last blog post. Literally days after the inaugural Club Kidpreneur markets in December (the subject of my last blog post), we were blessed with the arrival of my firstborn – Connor John Price. It’s been the most amazing adventure to ever happen in my life – hopefully you can forgive the temporary MIA sign in my cyberworld. To see how quickly Connor (Australia’s latest aspiring kidpreneur) has grown and developed in 3 months has been truly a life changing experience – and one where I was determined to spend every last minute involved up to my arm pits – which included minutes previously allocated to my blog.
In one of my key-notes to entrepreneurs I often parady how they seem to start their businesses naively thinking it will be a “walk in the park” – an amazingly joyful experience where they think within months that they can build their business up to a stage that they can do what they want, when they want with the people they want to do it with. Unfortunately, it’s not long before their walk in the park soon becomes a “struggle in the dark” – at which point I show a picture of Bear Grylls (from Man vs Wild fame) emerging from the jungle as if he has been in World War III– usually to knowing looks of ‘that’s exactly what my business feels like’.
Well after 3 months of fatherhood I seem to be waking each morning to look in the mirror to see a similar Bear Grylls character staring back from another sleepless night – so I’m tossing up whether to start my own show entitled “Man vs Child”. Stay tuned . . .
The second thing that brought me back to earth was the power of kids to get out there and get stuff done. A message many of us procrastinating entrepreneurs could take a lesson from. Our markets have grown by 400% to almost a hundred mini stalls over two shifts – with kids selling everything from plants, to cup-cakes, smoothies, bookmarks, Easter cards, figurines, jewellery, candles, and all manner of inventions including pillows with tooth fairy pockets. Lessons learnt varied from giving free tasters, sandwich board promotions and the JJ Lemon Slicers Jennifer and Jasmin who learnt that $1 / piece was obviously too cheap and increased it to $3 and they still sold out. This exerpt from an email Luka Farquhar (we think age 11) sent us after the event pretty much sums up the day:
Today was an amazing experience for me to feel what it is like to run my own business. With Mum’s help, I made play dough, slime, cards, bookmarks, and we repackaged wacky bands and lolly snakes. It was such a successful day and I made $131.20. Costs were $38.50 so the profit was $92.70. Normally I get $5 per week pocket money if I do my chores, so this is the same as 18.54 weeks of chores! So that’s a lot!
It didn’t all work out so well, though. We had a disaster with the slime! We made 12 containers of slime but ended up throwing it all out because even for slime it was too slimey. We figured that the slime had too much liquid in it because it was off. So we thought that next time we would have to make it closer to the date, look at a new recipe and maybe test them first and also put it in the fridge straight after making it. However, this wasn’t a very expensive mistake because slime is cheap to make and we can re-use the containers. Luka Farquhar (age 11)
Sounds like Luka has a career ahead of her as a serial entrepreneur – I know adult entrepreneurs who can’t figure out how much profit they make! A big thanks to our volunteer mentors: Ann, Jason, Sean, Seb, Eamon, Louise, Emma, Peter, Gennedy, Steve, Bryan, Sha-Mayne and Nikki who volunteered two hours of their time once a week for the eight weeks of the after school program. If you would like to be a volunteer for the program in term two or want more information email Wendy at wendy@clubkidpreneur.com.
by Creel Price on December 13, 2010
What happens when you mix 25 business kids with 2,500 Xmas shoppers – well lots actually. Last Sunday was the inaugural Sydney Kids Market on behalf of the Club Kidpreneur Foundation and what a day it was. There is something quite special about kids learning the highs and lows of business, how to handle customers and building their financial literacy skills around handling cash and setting prices to make profit. Not to mention the initiative and sense of ownership they get by coming up with their own business name and logo, producing their products and then setting up their first ever market stall to sell their wares.
It was a day of high paced commerce with some products faring better than others. We had fancy dress photo’s, Xmas decorations, hand made clothes and jewellery. There were jams, toffee’s and cup cakes and of course the obligatory lemonade stand manned by the brothers Byron and Conner – destined for business success once they cottoned on to giving out free tasters – selling out within hours.
Poppy one of the veteran kidpreneurs from our DVD – check it out on the web site www.clubkidpreneur.com – had a great day selling over $300 worth of her hand drawn Xmas cards. And Zoe the sometime face of Club Kidpreneur (with a live radio interview and Total Girl Magazine profile under her belt) almost sold out of her clay figurines. Though it was touch and go as half way through when I suggested that it might be good idea to put her prices up rather than sell them all in the first few hours – Zoe’s well meaning cousin conspiratorially whispered in my ear ‘Excuse me – isn’t putting up the price against the law’ – maybe a future at the ACCC looms.
Banjo’s Rubbers (thankfully the eraser kind) were slightly harder going. Though in true entrepreneurial spirit he realised that whilst the adults weren’t keen to buy his Japanese imported products the kids were more than happy in a contra deal – swapping their much higher valued items for a smiling face or doe eyed monkey. It was also impressive to see that he kept the wheels of commerce flowing by giving most of his profits to the couple of kid buskers playing Christmas Carols for the shoppers.
This altruistic spirit pervaded the day with many of the kids pledging a percentage of their sales to some kind of charity. Hopefully this sends a message to the sceptics of mixing kids and commerce that business really can be a force for good.
But as the day drew to an end it seems the kids salemanship might have shown me up – as Eamon director of Club Kidpreneur pointed out in his lilting Irish accent “Say Creeeel – Ye must be a wee but imbarished – I tink ye sold less dan the kids.” Still at least my first foray into publishing is completed and the kids seemed to enjoy their free signed copy (even if the sell it to their friends at school for a nice little profit). Next time I’m going to get 6 year old Bryon to help me – with his Lemonade sold out he took a stack of books hawking them to anyone who would listen – more than happy to undertake this adventure before he even realised I was giving him a $5 commission.
A huge thanks go to the Club Kidpreneur team for having the vision and making the day a reality – Wendy, Emma, Seb, Louise, Tania, Roman, David, Rita and Eamon were inspiring. Also we would like to acknowledge the generous support of the Artesian Markets at the Carriage works in Redfern for giving our band of kidpreneurs the stalls.
Here is a link to a short video of the day thats sums up the vibe better than words can: Club Kidpreneur D2
by Creel Price on November 22, 2010
Finally some exciting news on the literary front! The children’s book I co-authored for aspiring entrepreneurs went to the printers last week. Curtis the Kidpreneur will be ready for launch at the Sydney Kids Markets on Sunday the 5th of December. The markets will be held at the Carriageworks in Darlington and any kid aged 7-14 is welcome to join us for free. They can come and sell their products to make some pocket money for Christmas.
The Club Kidpreneur team are also very excited that after the success of our trial last term we already have ten schools signed up to our Ready, Set and Go program of business for term one next year. Many of the kidpreneur graduates who participated in the Bondi and Manly Schools program will also be selling their wares at the Sydney Kids Markets. So check out www.clubkidpreneur.com for more information.
On another note it’s great to see that schools are embracing entrepreneurship more and more. I spoke today to 150 year ten students at SCECGS Redlands High School in Cremorne. A great bunch of students who have taken a week off their regular studies to take control of a (fictional) failing enterprise and turn it around. With mentoring from the business community they need to launch a new product and enjoy the ups and downs that is the amazing game of business.
Having students ,who will soon need to make their own choice of career, have this exposure to business through school is quite ground breaking. It would be my hope that this exposure could mean that at least a few of the students might chose a path less followed. To follow their business dreams rather than take the expected path into university, then into the corporate world and then spend the next 50 years working for someone else until they retire – a somewhat daunting path for a 15 year old.
In truth it doesn’t matter what they do providing they follow their chosen vocation. To consider what they love doing rather than what sounds prestigious, what their parents want them to do or what will make them the most money.
Whilst a little out of the age group for Club Kidpreneur – I shared with them the vision we have to inspire more entrepreneurs on the planet who are committed to using business to make social change. I think a few extra lights were turned on.
The word is slowly by surely getting out there.
