From Ice Cream Stand🍦to Real World Experience 🌎

It all started in summer 2022. ☀️

While 2020-2021 was a time of significant change and disruption, the post-COVID era was a time of adjustment. We found ourselves with new working situations, a new school dynamic, and an additional member of our family whom we welcomed during that time. Prior to COVID-19, we had found a balance and routine that worked for us and we were in our comfort zone, but now we found ourselves facing new challenges. Our 2 older children were now more independent and resilient, and we thought it was time to discuss some responsibilities they could potentially take on at home that would help out immensely. Much to our surprise, they jumped at the opportunity! They helped with small chores here and there and were very proud anytime they finished a task. We took time to have more complicated discussions with them and found they listened intently and were eager to learn. When eventually the topic of money came up (when we had to explain why we aren’t buying every toy at Target…), they were very curious and asked how they could earn money themselves. Thus began our exploration of finance together, and soon we had come up with an idea to give them a chance to learn about business and money first-hand.

We welcomed our daughter #3! Adding as much joy as new responsibilities, especially in Orange County, am I right?

Talking Money & Business to Kindergardener

With the new school year on the horizon, maybe the girls could start with a small fundraising project to get themselves feeling more ready for school. “It would give them a fun project to run during the summer, and who knows, maybe they can earn a little money for their school supplies” was my original thought. When I brought that idea to the girls, they were beyond excited and started shouting out all the things they wanted to sell without me even finishing my sentence. I went with the flow and together we brainstormed as many selling ideas as we could, and we finally landed on ice-cream (who could’ve guessed 😂). I let them take the lead in deciding what flavors and toppings we should include, while quickly researching if/how can we make this happen at our local community event. After I got a green light, we discussed some marketing strategies and had a great time making our old-fashioned marketing campaign, and it looked like this:

“MARKETING” = A unique way to let people KNOW you, LIKE you, and/or BUY from you

We came across the topic of “money” in a variety of situations. True, money can’t buy everything in our lives to make us happy, but it can certainly provide us with a greater amount of options and flexibility. With our little business idea rising up, it was time for that “money talk” more than ever. Like many families, we used to leave our younger children out of money conversations to shield them from misleading or misuse of this mysterious treasure, but we realized, that money talk doesn’t have to be serious or scary at all. Sharing stories about financial responsibilities and reading age-appropriate money books was an easy, casual way to help us normalize thinking about money and keeping the whole family activity money-minded.

We can’t make the bricks without straw. With that prep talk in mind and a shopping list in hands, we headed out to Ralphs, our local grocery store. However, instead of making this an easy peasy one-stop shopping experience, I added a little twist and turn with a flavor of “real life”. I had my kindergartener mark down the price of each item on her shopping list when we were walking down the aisle in Ralphs, and then we went to Grocery Outlet to compare the price and purchased what we decided was a better deal there before coming back to Ralphs to buy the remaining items. Sure, price comparisons can be exhausting especially when you’re also dragging a toddler during the shopping, but it is an amazing way to help grow the children’s saving mentality.

“INVESTMENT” = Spend money to make money, with a certain degree of “RISK”

LAUNCH DAY

Today is the big day! I’ve never seen the girls getting themselves ready so quickly and waiting downstairs at 8 am, even though they know nobody eats ice cream for breakfast. After making some advertisement hats and a quick meeting on the division of labor, we headed out the door not knowing what to expect at all. Will people care to buy ice cream from these two little girls? I forced myself to stop worrying and remembered what I always taught my girls — failure can be part of the learning as well.

Turns out, my worries were right at first. I tried to let the girls run the show and sat back to observe, but they seemed to get cold feet. Their little voices couldn’t be heard by anyone more than a foot away, a few ice cream toppings were forgotten or the wrong toppings were added, little sister was struggling to keep the cash shut tidily in her fanny pack, and some customers started to walk away. I could almost see the tears in the corner of my daughter’s eyes. “Hey girls, let’s take a break!” I pressed the reset button when the line cleared out, and let them each made an ice cream for themselves. They didn’t need me to say too much and were ready to try again after a little time and some sugar. What do you know — their next 10 ice cream sales built some solid muscle memory, their confidence and synergy were back, and it just went uphill from there. Practice makes perfect progress, it’s true in all kinds of learning.

Throughout the day, especially when mistakes were made, I noticed people were patient and understanding with smiles and encouraging words to my daughters. Some people even took the time to talk with the girls about their ice cream idea, school, or even life goals. It was truly a blessing to live in community like this that accepts and encourage children to learn, to receive feedback in a positive, but honest manner. Learning can begin in textbooks, but should never stop in textbooks.

Review & Recap of Our Day

What a long and fulfilling day! The children learned “Business” and “Entrepreneur” without even realizing it. We waited until the next day to sit down, played back our day, and had a discussion on parts that went well and parts that didn’t go so well, as well as how to improve next time if we are given another chance. Funnily, to our surprise, the most popular ice cream flavor was the mint chocolate chip that day, which we prepared in the least amount.

For those of you who are curious, yes, we did make a profit and hammered down the living formula of a successful business:

PROFIT = SALES — COST

“Earning money was so hard!” agreed by both of the girls. But it made our next money talk easier — budgeting our “needs” and “wants” with the money we earned, and even investing the savings into our next business idea.

Remember, money isn’t everything. It can’t buy us health, loving family, friendship, or kindness. However, having a healthy relationship with money and handling money responsibly can go a long way towards the development of less tumultuous life journey. Understanding how to efficiently budget, track, and invest your money not only are important tools to manage life, but also allows for more time to pursue passions and develop new skillsets. This is the mindset I want to pass on to my children, and as many families as possible through Biz4Kidz!