Training Your Kids to be Entrepreneurs
All parents have big dreams for their children, “My son will be the next Steve Jobs, or Bill Gates, or Warren Buffett, or Henry Sy, or Andrew Tan, et al.”
How do you raise your children to become entrepreneurs? There could be a hundred and one answers to this question – from they should experience hunger, to drop out of school(?), to go to the top business schools, and so on. The truth is there are different paths to being a great businessman. But what if right now, you give your child the opportunity to be a businessman?
Maiki Oreta and six year old daughter Brielle were once discussing about the latter’s Math lessons in prep. It was about money. Maiki noticed that her daughter was not very interested as she tried to study the peso denominations. So she thought of a way to make the lesson more meaningful to her six year old. She remembered her growing up years in the US East coast suburbs when she and her friends sold lemonade, cupcakes and brownies in their front yards.
After a few more discussions they decided to come up with an activity that would allow Brielle to have the same enterprising experience and the happiness she and her friends had to have their own money. Maiki shared, “Here in Manila kiddie businesses are not easy to execute so Brielle and I decided to create a venue where kids like her could become entrepreneurs, even for just one day; thus, the birth of Kiddo-preneur!”
Kiddo-preneur is a bazaar where all the sellers are kids. They not only sell but they also come up with the business plans. The first Kiddo-preneur Bazaar happened on December 4, 2011 at the Rockwell Tent, “Our first participants were the kids of our friends but the idea caught on quickly like wild fire. We were overwhelmed with the volume of participants.” It was jam-packed with kids and customers buying all sorts of things. One group of little boys stood out with their “Cookies for a Cause.” Can you imagine these kids made a whopping P102,000.00 in sales for one day? And they sold all their P100/box cookies in just five hours!
As for Brielle, she also made a handsome income from organizing this event. All her hard work paid off. One of the greatest challenges she faced was to restrain herself from dipping into the cash register to buy all the exciting goodies being sold at the bazaar. And that’s when the lesson on delaying gratification had to be learned, “I had to teach her that money should not be spent in one swoop. It needs to be saved, donated and reinvested.” shared Maiki.
After the event Brielle set aside an amount to open her first savings account. A portion was set aside for the next run of her business. A part was donated to church and what was left was used to buy herself a pair of diamond earrings to mark her first big paycheck! Wow!
The greatest outcome of this endeavor is that Brielle learned hands-on about the meaning of money. She now knows that it’s something you work for, save, invest, and share. She learned that sometimes making money is even more fun than spending it. A nine year old boy who participated in the bazaar slumped on the couch after a whole day of selling and said, “Dad, now I know why you are so tired after work and why sometimes you can’t make it home for dinner!” The dad was so happy he was about to cry!
Kiddo-preneur has made a few runs after its launch in 2011 and they are coming up with a bigger and better bazaar on November 30, 2013 at the Alphaland tents. Over the years, Brielle’s participation in the event has increased. Maiki organizes the event and Brielle helps sort through the application forms and map out the layout of the bazaar. She also helps in the promotion of the bazaar talking to friends and even guesting on tv shows. Eventually, when she’s more mature (maybe in her teens), she will take the lead and mom and dad will just paly support roles. Younger sister may then play a bigger role in helping her.
So this sem break consider asking your kids (aged 5 to 17) what business they might want to put up and sell for a day – on November 30, 2013 when people buy their Christmas presents. Your happy customers on that day may even place additional orders after the event.
Each booth costs P3,000.00. And here’s a chance to get a free booth: Email me your business idea in 2 short paragraphs or so. Send it to maryrose_fausto@yahoo.com with subject: KIDDO-PRENEUR BUSINESS PROPOSAL and we will choose three for the free booths! That’s P3,000.00 additional profit for your kiddie business. Non-winning entries will be forwarded to the organizers for possible consideration for regular application. Please include the name(s) and age(s) of the kiddo-preneurs and contact details.
Cheers to entrepreneurship!
