Six Small Business Basics - Keiki Pop Up Market
Our kids’ school had a keiki pop up market opportunity for the students to make and sell their creations for 1 hour at the school fair. If this is something you are prepping for you kid too, here are the super simplified six small business basics I went over with my kid who really wanted to do this on her own.
Goal - What is your #1 big goal for this project?
This will help keep the focus when things can get complicated. There’s always more you could do and as a parent, can get frustrated and want to control the outcome, but need to look back at what their goal is.Costs - How much will it cost you to do this?
Add up the cost of your supplies, the booth fee, the packaging to put your product in. Do you also want to pay yourself for labor costs? Then time how long it takes you to make your product and divide the minimum wage by the quantity you can make in one hour.Price - What do you need to charge to cover your costs?
My daughter’s second goal was to break even or recoup all of her costs that she put into this. So she first had to know her cost per product for the supplies and packaging and her labor. We then had to estimate how many people she thought might come by her booth in the hour and how much each of them might spend in order to simply cover the amount of money she put in to do this.Set Up - How will you display your products for sale?
She then had to think about what she wanted on her table to make it presentable and show off her products, but not be too difficult to set up or break down as their time was limited. The basics included a table cloth, signage with pricing, display shelves, and she thought up a tip jar (which turned out to be a really good idea)Other Stuff - What other things will you need for a pop up sale?
Sketch out what you want your booth to look like and make a list of what you think you will need. She knew she needed change and a cash box, but a fanny pack turned out to be more convenient, post-it notes and pens just in case which came in handy for when products sold out or was requested to be put on hold, hand sanitizer, and tapes for signs were just some of the few.Inventory - How will you keep track of your products and sales?
Before the sale, products were counted and the cash change was verified. As items were purchased, they were logged. And at the end, the amount of cash that came in minus the starting cash in the change was compared to the amount of products that were sold.
There were and are many, many, many other things to cover, but this is just a simple less to help you get started or think it through. There were other things I wish she had done such as a better quality control check, spell checking her signage, etc, but this was the first experience and we continue to do, we continue to learn and grow. For this first one, I didn’t want to kill her spirit to try it and so allowed her to make minor mistakes and learn. By also standing back and watching her take the reigns, I also realized that she is much more capable than I sometimes give her credit for.
At the end, she sold out and when I asked her why she thinks she did well, she said because of God, supportive parents, and my partner and friends. I did a reflection with her and asked what were the three lessons she learned from this and she said they were to one pick a good partner, two don’t be shy, and three plan ahead.
Overall, these Kawaii Kitties worked hard and learned not only some basic business skills, but life lessons too!
"But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, so as to confirm his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today." -Proverbs 14:23
