It was an exciting day at Henderson Place Mall on November 24th! 16 Build a Biz Kids, bright eyed and primed with nine weeks of business launch preparation stormed the mall to set up shop. Armed with their handmade signage, display decor and for some, copious amounts of product; the kids each built their own stands ready for their first customers.
Branding and merchandising lessons prevailed as we watched each of the unique businesses take shape. From disco lights & music to chalkboard menus for gift set options and even a ‘Square’ device to take card payments, these kids came ready to impress.
With a bit of nervous excitement and an encouraging high five, each business ‘opened’ and our KidPreneur Students became Real Business Operators. As the typically quiet mall was quickly transformed to a bustling marketplace, it wasn’t long before my shoulder was being tapped by a lineup of kids full of pure joy because they wanted to tell me they made their first sale.
For four hours, we watched our entrepreneur lessons come to life with professionalism. We were so impressed by how disciplined each student was as they presented their products and turned each onlooker into a paying customer.
They practiced! There wasn’t an excuse to not buy that they didn’t have a rebuttal for. “I don’t have a dog that needs a leash” was answered with “Do you have friends that have dogs?”. “I’m not hungry at the moment” was quickly converted with “but you might be hungry in an hour.”
But not every customer was so kind. “I don’t like slime” and “No, no, I don’t want any” were also met with smiles. In fact, the kids all giggled it off saying, “Wow, they are grumpy!”
These encounters, although at first glance may look negative, will build up thier resilience & communication. This one day will provide years of confidence and empowerment for them to draw upon when life starts to feel tough.
The amount of support from parents, friends and our incredible community has left us speechless. Before the market ended, more than half of the business had completely sold out of product. But even though they sold out, not one child left but rather stayed to support one another, talk to customers and some even took back- orders for more products.
Not only did every KidPreneur have an incredible day of success, many, if not most, overcame some form adversity to do it.
We can’t wait to hand out these hard working graduates KidPreneur Certificates and celebrate graduation next week.
We also can’t wait to meet our next group of students in our Winter/Spring program starting next January. If you would like to learn more or enroll your child into one of our programs, Visit Our Website Here
