Your kids are watching….
One of the reasons why I took the risk to start my own Career Coaching business was to inspire my kids to take that leap of faith into Entrepreneurship.
I’m very proud to say that my 11 yr old daughter, Mia, decided to take a leaf out of her daddy’s page and started her own little business of her own.
Noting that kids in school were spending $5 for a small container of Slime (Yes…it’s a craze in school now!), she decided to conduct her own research into the chemistry of ‘slime making’ and came up with her own formulation.
Her total R&D cost? S$7.50 (sponsored as ‘seed funding’ from her main investor, “Dad”). She managed to perfect the recipe and could create consistently good quality slime that could be marketed.
Last week, she sold her first batch and made a cool S$15.00 in profits… with more orders coming in.
Here’s what she learnt:
1. How to price her product based on material cost and profit margin.
2. How to differentiate her products (Hers is extra spongy and fluffy – she markets it as ‘Fluff-Slime’)
3. How to sell her products to friends and negotiate pricing.
4. She had a friend who backed out of the deal. She was upset at first, but now, she knows she has to collect a 50% deposit for pre-orders.
5. She realised that repeat customers are important, so product quality has to be very good.
But more importantly, here’s what I learnt:
- We are constantly being observed by our kids – whether we notice it or not. So, we have to be shining examples for them to learn from.
- We need to be supportive in our kids’ endeavours – When I started my first business selling real Human Skeletons when I was 19, the first reaction I got our of my parents was “You’re starting a business? Do you want to go BANKRUPT?!”
- We need to let our kids learn through play and make their own mistakes. We can’t be protecting them all the time and sometimes, setbacks build resilience.
All in all, profits aside, I think it’s a great learning experience for her…and for me too!
