cute, huh?

The Solution...

Homeschoolers are nothing if not resillaint and adaptable. Especially unschoolers. Especially us!
So, after sulking for a minute or so we asked him why not. Turns out he thought that $1 was gouging! Nobody would buy nuts for that! (How little he knows...)

Still he does know our customers, so we started again. I love the nuts and had been drooling over the batch ever since I made it, so not in the least loathe, I bought it from the kids at cost. They broke even and learned a lesson. I'd say that was a profit!

We went back to the bulk store and bought peanuts instead. I carmellized them, the girls separated and bagged and curled them. We used the same photo and put in the new price 25c a bag!

What a difference a nut makes!

Now, although Renato had spoken to the wonderful lady in charge we felt, the girls had to go in and ask her themselves. They needed to get her permission to place the basket in her staff room. We ran through a script several times.

Cleverly they decided bribery was a good start and gave her a bag to try the nuts and then shyly asked if they could please put them in the room.
They were very cute! Even if I do say so myself.
Naturally she said yes. She is very gracious.

So we put them on the dining table and added a plate of samples for people who had never tried spiced nuts to get hooked on. We left ... holding our thumbs.

When Renato came home that night we all pounced on him for news!
He said.....

Overcoming the obstacles!

We went and discussed the idea with the person in charge of the tearoom. She (fantastic woman) suggested that we should use the "honour system". Bring the items the kids wanted to sell with a little note on price and a collecting envelope.

We considered that and decided to try it.

We all dashed into town and bought a pretty little basket and a little cardboard gift box to go with it - for $2 :)
Then we marched into bulk barn for almonds and sugar. At home we dragged out an old favorite cookbook and found the recipe for Lebanese spicy nuts. They are incredibly "more-ish"!

I discovered that I was not comfortable with the kids actually handling the caramellizing process and so I found myself stirring a deep pot of hot almonds and sugar for 1/2 hour while they vanished to play! The nerve! They didn't even do more they pay me passing attention as they chased past. Brats!

However, their time came. All the caramelized nuts were poured into a large lump on the trays and they had to come back, scrub up and start seperating them into individual nuts and small bite size clusters. Hot work and they weren't allowed to eat any of them! Revenge can be very sweet! :)

I wandered off and started doing the math and figuring out how much they would have to charge to make a profit. Turned out to be $1 for a 1/4 cup of almonds. That didn't astonish me, since I had been there when they paid for the almonds.

We made up the prettiest little packages. The girls tied bows on each one and curled the ends.

The little basket was shaping up beautifully. It needed a poster to go with it to say what it was, who and how much. We had learned from our studying that an honour system works significantly better if there is a picture of a person on the box somewhere. I guess people think they are being watched in some way and behave better? I don't know - I just know it works.

So, it seemed appropriate to put their photo on the poster. Photo time. One of my daughters has a love affair going with any camera and the other detests being phtogrpahed. She frowns or blinks or grimaces, sometimes she even manages to look ferocious while smiling.

I chased them all over the house looking for "the shot". We tried every conceivable background and posture. Their baby brother was determined to be in the shot too, just to add another level of complication.

We edited and printed the little poster and cannily attached it to the basket. We cut a money slot in the gift box and attached it too. We were ready!

We laid it out for their father to approve.
He walked in, took one look and said there was no way that would work! We had to do something altogether different. No-one would pay that price.

...

coming soon: how the kids found a solution and installed their first vending site!

How my kids earned their seed money for their business...

T and C immeditaley started asking for ways to earn the seed money.
"Can we wash the car?"
"Can we wash Daddy's car?"
"Can I make breakfast?"
They needed at least $50 to buy a vending machine and fill it.
I couldn't dirty the car up fast enough for that!


We deciding on a reading fee - every book they read would earn them a specific amount. T read fanatically at every moment. She earned $17 in one week! That was a lot of reading.

C and I descended to the basement playroom. Usually it is sacrosanct. Every piece is essential! No piece could possibly be passed on or tossed out.
Today, she quite willingly looked over the boxes and piles and heaps and casually agreed to sell anything.

Witness the power of a dream!

After much sorting (which I was happy to do in any case!) we took a car load of toys down to the local swop shop and returned triumphantly with $39.95.

We started bidding on vending machines on ebay.
While the auctions were running we convinced R (Daddy) to ask at his work if they could have a spot there for a vending machine.

We didn't win the auctions.
Thank Heavens.
The workplace was governed by an agreement with a vending company.
All the spots belonged to them.

Read on next time to discover how they created a business that has a return on investment of about 46%!

Wow - it has been almost a year!

So much has happened! Of course!
Started a couple of businesses and having just so much fun!
Steep learning curve!
Of course, I am a home schooler - learning curves fascinate me. Almost a bit like Everest ...Why climb it? Because it is there!

Most fun from a home school point of view:
1. Created all the info for the Benefit of Homeschooling web site!
It will be at www.benefit-of-home-schooling.com and it will be live ... (cross your fingers!) by the end of October!

2. My daughters started their first business! They are 9 and 7!

I plan to blog the story for us all to see how it turns out.

It started with them watching me doing all that learning.

Then we discussed the concept of the Golden Goose and how spending money is a bit like killing the Golden Goose since that money could have been out earning more money instead.

Girls were fascinated!

We discussed the various business models that they could try and decided on vending.

So we ebay'd vending machines and listened to courses on how to do vending properly. We all learned a fortune!

Then we scoped out places we imagined we might put a machine and discussed how we'd go about asking for permission. We looked at other people's vending machines. It is quite astonishing how many places have them. I had been blind to them before that. We were all astonished at how many are around our small town.
We looked at the supplies. All quite dazzling.

The girls realised they needed seed money for this project.

Tommorrow I will tell you how they came up with the funds!
:)
karen