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Business:

Brainstorming Your Business

 

Today's Snack: Make a salad with these foods, which are all important for your fabulous brain: spinach leaves, hard-boiled egg slices, small chunks of leftover steak or other red meat (encourage your parents to bring home a doggie bag next time they go out!), a scant handful of walnuts, and a half-teaspoon of flax seeds. The dressing is up to you! 

 

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Supplies:

Paste this into your browser, print out and fill in:

http://bizkids.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/Kids-Business-Plan.pdf

 

 

            New businesses usually start out with a flash of inspiration that helps you solve a problem. You get an idea, and suddenly, your mind is flooded with all the possibilities. It's fun to dream up a business that will be raking in millions of dollars in just a few short weeks.

 

            But . . . you have to keep in mind these three restrictions:

 

1.                  Keep your business plan practical, realistic and achievable. It has to make sense in the real world. What you charge has to be fair compared to prices people are paying for other things. Make your goals modest, and when you meet or exceed them, you'll gain a lot more confidence than if you set goals that are 'way too high, and fall short.

 

2.                  Keep safe. Work with your parents and other trustworthy adults to make sure your interactions with other people are safe for you. In terms of work, wear sturdy shoes (not sandals) any time you are working outside or around equipment. Stay away from saws, grinders, meat slicers and patty-making machines. Wear safety glasses whenever it makes sense.

 

3.                  Keep legal. Under age 15, you can't be working very long hours, nor can you work very late in the evening. Check local rules by calling your city government. Check with the IRS, too: after you make a certain amount of money, you have to pay income taxes on it, and if you don't, you can get in big trouble. Also check with state or local authorities about if you need special training, have to pay a fee, or obtain a license, permit or certificate to make money in certain fields, such as hairstyling, giving massages, selling plants, selling foods you made from plants you grew, and other services for the public.

 

But when it all works out, it's awesome! Consider 11-year-old Greyson McClean of Milwaukee, Wis. A few years ago, he was playing with Lego's but didn't like the stickers that come with Lego's because they don't come off, so you can't re-use those Lego's for something else.

 

He tried drawing little graphics on tiny slips of paper and taping them on. But then one day, his mother was peeling a decal off a new pair of sunglasses, and they tried it on Lego's. It came off easily!

 

So they came up with the idea of reuseable static-cling graphics for Lego's and other toy bricks. His whole family is now involved in www.BrickStix.com. It's a wonderful, growing business!

 

As you dream and brainstorm about the business that you would like to start, be thinking of problems you or your family and friends encounter in everyday life, and what you could invent or do to make that better.

 

As with almost everything else in life, things will go better for your business if you think it through, thoroughly. The link above from Biz Kids is a guide that can help you do that:

 

 

 

(This guide provided courtesy of www.bizkids.com)

 

By Susan Darst Williams • www.AfterSchoolTreats.com • Business 02 © 2014

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