It has been my daughter’s long-time dream to sell things on the side of the road. Just what every parent hopes their child will aspire to, right! Our own home does not face a street and it does not have a front yard so, alas, this has not been a simple dream to fulfill. Personally, I do not have the time or inclination to sit around on a street for hours on end with her.

Last summer she was able to sell some of her used toys on her cousin’s front lawn which is on a street. She made one sale. It was to her cousin. I heard the news before picking her up and although I knew she would be disappointed I was relieved that this would be the end to her latest career aspiration. So as we headed home, I asked her how she felt about her day. She told me that she thought things would have gone better if she’d had a commercial advertisement on television. Her dream was still alive. I decided then and there that my daughter was a budding entrepreneur and not an underachiever.

So this week, since I was already going to be spending hours street-side, due to the B.C. teachers’ strike, I thought why not kill two birds with one stone. My sister had offered my daughter some free herbs from her garden, for an herb sale. We had two other children with us and I figured it would be a great way for the kids to stay occupied and learn some business terms. A business meeting was called and we discussed what the signs might say, what the prices would be, and how the proceeds would be used. More specifically we determined what percentage of the proceeds would be used to pay back the interest free start up loan, what percentage would be used for reinvestment, and what percentage everyone would get to keep as her share of the profit.

On day one, the girls had two generous customers. They made a total of $9.  My daughter thought it was a shame that they didn’t have a debit machine since a number of potential customers had remarked that it was too bad that they didn’t have any money with them. We discussed who would be their ideal customer (people who like to cook with herbs) and where might be a better location to sell to that target market (outside a grocery store or at least an area with more foot traffic). On day two, my daughter had a different friend with her. This time they had a total of three customers and they made total of $4. Mind you, there were two more customers who would have liked to buy the homemade organic perfume. Fortunately my daughter realized that these customers/kids’ parents might be upset when they got home with bags of dirt water that they had spent money on. So those were given out for free instead.

Now my daughter is now richer by $3.50 and she has $4 to reinvest in a new product. Her friends are richer too. Since kids seem like a better “target market” we have discussed how much might be reasonable for a child to spend and what kind of product would their parents be okay with them spending their money on. Your advice and ideas are welcome!