Do YOU Have a Dream?
As we approach this year’s celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King’s Birthday, your team from FUTURES: Financially Literate Kids for a Financially Literate Society™ is focusing our next few blog posts on entrepreneurship. It’s our way to honor Dr. King’s belief in everyone’s ability to have—and strive to realize—a big dream. While even our biggest dreams cannot compare to those of Dr. King, the passion, commitment, and energy that entrepreneurs bring to their businesses is a powerful way to grow and deliver results that can make a big difference.
Many entrepreneurial accomplishments begin with a dream. While dreaming is the first step, there are many steps and mis-steps that must happen to transform a dream into an entrepreneurial reality. In today’s post, we’ll cover the fundamentals of entrepreneurship by exploring a tasty transaction. In Blog 11, we will showcase the amazing entrepreneurial content within the FUTURES program.
With the right amount of drive, tenacity, commitment, energy and of course, knowledge, there is no wrong age to become an entrepreneur. You’re never too young and you’re never too old. Whether you have kids of your own or have kids in your charge in your classroom, why not start exploring entrepreneurship with your children? Discovering what they know, believe, and want to learn can help you chart a bigger FUTURE course for your own learning, too.
Know Any Entrepreneurs?
Start by asking your kids or students if they know what an entrepreneur does. “Do you know any entrepreneurs? Have you ever been an entrepreneur?” If they answer “no,” suggest they think again. They might not realize that anyone who has ever had a babysitting gig, a paper route, a dog-walking job, or set up a corner lemonade stand has actually worked as an entrepreneur. Share examples of entrepreneurs in your neighborhood—the dry cleaner, the food truck owner, and even the tech lady who drives around in that little bright green car with the computer magnet on top.
Thirsty for Success?
Start with a simple and familiar example that’s also delicious. Take a closer look at what it takes—from logistics and planning to investments and profits—to create and run a successful lemonade stand. Ask the following questions:
What happens at a lemonade stand?
Is it transactional? Experiential? Both?
Who are the different people who must participate in the lemonade stand?
How do you get ready to open a lemonade stand? What do you need to accomplish?
Walk kids through these steps.
The entrepreneur finds the right location.
The entrepreneur buys lemons, sugar, and cups to make lemonade.
The entrepreneur makes lemonade.
The entrepreneur sells lemonade.
The entrepreneur buys more supplies to make lemonade.
The entrepreneur needs to promote the lemonade stand (with a sign, by shouting at passing cars, by creating 2-for-1 sales, and more)
The entrepreneur needs a table, some chairs, and other materials like a table cloth, cash box, and perhaps a roll of paper towels.
Produce It and Consume It!
Once kids grasp the concept that running a lemonade stand is like running a small business, build upon the lemonade stand model to introduce two economic concepts—producers and consumers. Explain that when an entrepreneur buys lemons, sugar, and other supplies to make lemonade, she or he is a consumer. When the entrepreneur makes and sells lemonade, he or she is a producer. Explain that the people who buy the lemonade are also consumers.
Ask kids to make a list of examples of times they’ve acted as a consumer and times they’ve acted as a producer. Can a person or business ever be both a producer and a consumer? You can ask these questions while you’re out and about or when kids “consume” paper and paint for their next class project. Make this set of questions a habit and before you know it, they’ll be asking you about these two powerful terms.
Let’s Make a Deal!
Now that you’ve explored how a lemonade stand works, ask children how they think they would decide what to charge for each cup of lemonade. Begin by prompting them to think about everything they need to “consume” or buy in order to make the lemonade. You should then ask how they think they should decide on pricing. Does their answer indicate that they’ll make a profit?
Pricing Process
Have kids look up the cost of all the ingredients online or by asking family members what they last paid for these items at the grocery store.
Remind them that lemons and sugar cost money, but they also will need many other things—materials for a sign, a table for the stand itself, a pitcher, cups, and ice.
Based on all these factors, ask kids to come up with a plan.
How many cups need to be sold to “cover” costs? If the price is too low, the stand isn’t profitable. If the price is too high, no one is going to become a customer.
Try to settle on what is a reasonable price to charge for a cup of lemonade at a lemonade stand.
Ask kids to think about how much THEY would pay for a cup of lemonade—with their own money? This is a great way to tap into the concept of fair market value.
Coach kids to consider how many cups they must sell to cover their costs. Invite them to estimate how long they think it will take to sell that many cups.
Remind your budding entrepreneurs that consumers have to want or need what they are selling much more than those consumers want or need the dollars in their pocket. Coach kids to think about why people buy lemonade on a hot summer day.
This may spark your entrepreneurial team to reconsider selling cold lemonade in January. What might happen if they switched from lemonade to steamy hot chocolate instead? While hot chocolate might appeal to more buyers on a cold winter day, what new challenges does this create? How will the hot chocolate stay warm? What about marshmallows? Can you charge more for those?
Lead kids through this process and let their ideas lead you through the “teachable moments” by creating more and more questions for them to answer. After all, asking and answering questions is a big part of becoming an entrepreneur.
Questions to Grow On
Ask practical questions like:
How will you make change?
Do you need money to begin your business?
What’s the money for?
How much money do you need?
What could happen if you buy too many supplies? Are any supplies perishable?
What could happen if you buy too few supplies?
What will you do if you run out of lemonade?
What is your plan for any leftover lemonade?
Will you have a sale to “drink up” the excess? (Or is lemonade on the menu for dinner?)
If you switch to selling hot chocolate, what additional costs might come up?
Is there a location that lets you run your hot chocolate stand even when it is snowing?
Can you inspire your kids to DREAM BIGGER and create one combined seasonal “beverage company” that sells iced lemonade in the summer, warm apple cider in the fall, hot chocolate in the winter, and flowers in the spring?
Safety First!
Hot drink of cocoa or cool glass of lemonade—who’s feeling thirsty now? If your kids want to plan a real lemonade or hot cocoa stand, remind them that safety always comes first. While it’s easy to set up an indoor stand in the wintertime, it’s a smart idea all year long. Lemonade stands and any other sort of child-centric entrepreneurial adventures should take place in a safe place such as a community center, as part of a school event, or at a block party or other neighborhood gathering, and with adults present. Stress that even budding entrepreneurs need permission and approval from adults first. If your kids are permitted to venture outside for their lemonade stand, an adult should always be close by even if it is in a place you know well. Besides, you can later share that first business with your grown child someday when a FUTURE, more grown-up business is launched.
Bigger Entrepreneurial FUTURES!
The FUTURES Program, FUTURES: Financially Literate Kids for a Financially Literate Society™ helps entrepreneurs. Check it out! By considering the various factors in starting a business and the importance of goal setting at the beginning stages of the business—and every single day thereafter—readers will become more aware of the realities of entrepreneurial undertakings. True entrepreneurs won’t be discouraged—they’ll just get smarter about how to tackle each and every potential obstacle.
The Entrepreneurship strand helps kids and adults think clearly about and explore how they might want to run their own businesses one day— which might be tomorrow with our help! Many FUTURES users just might start their very own businesses—with this strong jumpstart from FUTURES—and from you!
Dreaming of lemonade? Hot chocolate? Baked goods? Eager to launch a store on Etsy or other marketplaces? By digging into this strand of FUTURES, your entrepreneurial future will be poised to take off!
