When kids mean business
Our signature program for kids and teens is Maker Kids Club, a 14-week program that teaches kids to launch their own businesses. It aligns with Years 5 and 6 of the Australian Curriculum in the areas of Business, Economics and Mathematics.
We teach our students to become ‘kidpreneurs‘. In the process, they:
- learn essential life skills like money management, time management, team work and sales,
- build confidence in their capabilities, and
- astound their teachers and parents with their creativity and enthusiasm!
Being a ‘kidpreneur’ is a common theme among some of the world’s most famous business people such as Warren Buffett, Richard Branson and Melanie Perkins. We like to think our kidpreneurs, such as Ash of Beauty from Ash’s Products, are the Buffetts, Bransons and Perkins of the future.
Maker Kids - Kidpreneurs that grew up to be business whizzesWhat do Warren Buffett, Richard Branson, Estee Lauder, Mark Cuban, Cameron Herold and Melanie Perkins have in common?They all had businesses when they were kids. Yesterday's #Kidpreneurs became today's #SuccessStories. Today's #Kidpreneurs will become tomorrow''s #SuccessStories.
Posted by Maker Kids Club on Monday, April 17, 2017
Meet a Kidpreneur: Ash of Beauty from Ash's ProductsWANT TO MEET A KIDPRENEUR? | Ash is 11 years old and has been running her own business Beauty From Ash's Products for seven months. This interview with Ash (and her mum, the delightful Ezer Eve, sitting beside her) was recorded at a market in May where Ash was selling her divine lip balm. Ash has sold around 800 lip balms so far. That's $8,000 gross revenue, and it's enabled her to donate $1,300 to Big Brother Mouse charity to convert a book into the Laotian language so Laos kids can learn to read. All from an initial $1,000 investment that came from Ash winning a competition at the cricket. We're all inspired by Ash and her mum, we hope you are too :)If you'd like to learn more about being a #kidpreneur, head to https://makerkids.club/test-idea/ to check out our free video series.
Posted by Maker Kids Club on Sunday, June 4, 2017
How Maker Kids Club works
We offer our course in two ways:
Privately, for individual kidpreneurs and their families:
- We open enrolment twice a year, in June and December.
- Join the waitlist by signing up for our eBook.
- Join our Parents group to connect with fellow kidpreneur families.
In schools, for Year 6 classes:
- Teachers can run Maker Kids Club in the classroom (one hour per week for 14 weeks).
- Enrolment includes:
- individual access to the online training platform for every student and the teacher for the duration of the course,
- detailed lesson plans with all links to the curriculum outlined, and
- online support.
- A typical lesson includes:
- watching a training video (6-20 minutes),
- discussing the content following the lesson plan, and
- student group work to complete the activity sheet accompanying the lesson.
- Week 10 is nominally launch week (though it’s up to each school when they want to run their market)
- This typically lines up with the end of school term.
- We’ve found it’s great to run the launch market on the same day as end-of-term assembly so parents can attend too.
- Contact us to enquire about running Maker Kids Club in your classroom.
What’s it like for the kids?
We’ve worked with dozens of young business owners privately and in school settings. Meet some of our kidpreneurs in the videos below as they explain their businesses and share their advice for fellow kidpreneurs.
Emma's Story - Emma's Soda StandEMMA'S STORY | Why did you start your business? "Well, I drink lots of lemonade, so I wanted to do lemonade" - no messing around with this #kidpreneur, simple and straight to the point from the 7 year old.Join the Kidpreneur revolution HERE: https://makerkids.club/
Posted by Maker Kids Club on Tuesday, May 9, 2017
Emma, 7 years old
Emma’s Soda Stand sells homemade lemonade made in her parents’ commercial kitchen. She started the business when she was six using a converted sewing table and an abundance of lemons in her backyard.
Stella's Story - Little Bursts of HappinessSTELLA'S STORY | Hear from Stella (10) who's little affirmation cards are making such a BIG difference to her and others #Makerkids #Kidpreneurs Get on board by joining the #kidpreneur revolution HERE: https://makerkids.club/
Posted by Maker Kids Club on Friday, May 12, 2017
Stella, 10 years old
Stella recently went through a rough patch. She found that reading affirmations helped improve her mood and outlook. Stella wanted to help other kids in a similar situation, so she created Little Bursts of Happiness. Stella now sells online, at markets, and in a store in Fremantle.
What’s it like for the parents?
Just like any extra-curricular activity, parents are involved in their child’s entrepreneurial journey. Fortunately, they seem to love it! We often hear that the process brings families closer together. It’s wonderful to see the pride in our Maker Kids Club parents’ eyes.
Parents of Kidpreneurs - Kat, mum of AshHow do parents feel about their kids running businesses? We are deeply curious about this at Maker Kids, so we ask the parents we meet regularly. As many of you know, Ash of Beauty From Ash's Products is one of our most successful kidpreneurs. In this video, we asked her mum, the marvellous Ezer Eve, what it's like. Hope you enjoy it 🙂
Posted by Maker Kids Club on Monday, June 26, 2017
Kat, Ash’s Mum
Ash is the eldest of Kat’s four children. In this video, Kat talks about what it’s like to have a kidpreneur in the family.
(PS. She now has three kidpreneurs!)
Parents of Kidpreneurs - What's it like?ONE FOR THE PARENTS | If you've wondered what it's like to have a kidpreneur in your home, here are thoughts from four of our kidpreneur parents on the good AND the bad parts of the experience. Thank you parents for your candid thoughts, and thank you kidpreneurs for being so kind as to lend us your folks!With Little bursts of Happiness, ILOOMinate Perth, Emma's Soda Stand and Mosey On Magic.
Posted by Maker Kids Club on Monday, July 17, 2017
Parent Compilation
In this video, you’ll meet four of our kidpreneur parents:
- Mel, Stella’s mum.
- Nicky, Ben and Holly’s mum.
- Tennille, Emma’s mum.
- Scott, Riley and Georgia’s dad.
Testimonials from our kidpreneur parents
Please note we omit surnames for our kidpreneurs and parents to protect the privacy of the kids.
“My son Jacob has just attended his second kidpreneur market organised by Lacey at Makers Kids.
His first one was a bit of trial and error, but he learned a lot about business and what works and what doesn’t. He is only 8 years old, so this was a steep learning curve.
After his markets and with some guidance from Lacey and us, he invested some of his earnings back into his gardening business and started to create some more products. I think he made $58 and was very happy with this.
Last week, we went to the Makers Markets in Mandurah with some improved products and it was all a lot let stressful and more exciting the second time around.
He sold 95% of his plants and went home with a profit of $148 which absolutely made his day. He has learned so much from this process and has banked all of his profit with the intent of investing a portion back into the business.
Cannot say enough about what a inspirational program Lacey runs and what a big difference it can make in kids lives.”
My 11 year old daughter Ashleya is a member of Maker Kids Club and sells her own homemade natural lip balm. Ashleya attended one of the markets organised by Lacey from Maker Kids Club and it was an amazing experience. It was a safe, friendly and welcoming environment for the kids to sell their wares. Ashleya made a couple of hundred dollars from it!
She also learned about presentation, using testers so potential customers could try the lip balm before they bought it, and learned about money. She donated 20% of her earnings to a charity and banked the rest of it.
This has opened up an incredible opportunity for my child that wouldn’t be possible without the support of Maker Kids Club. Ashleya will continue to donate 20% of her earnings until she reaches her goal of raising $1300 for Big Brother Mouse who publish books for Laotian kids so they can learn to read.
The online support from Maker Kids Club has been fantastic and I hope we can attend more kidpreneur friendly markets in future!
“Maker Kids Club has inspired my children to use their imagination and be creative as well as understand the process of starting their own small business.
With many co-curricular activities, the online videos allow the children to watch and learn in their own time. By funding the markets, the children can experience the whole process of designing, producing and selling their product, without having to worry about the cost of the market.
Such a great opportunity for Kidpreneurs.”
“My daughter Emma has always wanted to have her own business, with the tools that Lacey and Fran provided with the Maker Kids Club she has been able to turn her idea into a reality and learn really essential life and business skills.
Her confidence in speaking to people, calculating change and sharing story shows how positive the effect of being members and having that support really is, all at the age of 7!”
“The Mosey on Magic dynamic duo of older brother Riley (10) and little sister Georgia (9) absolutely love being kidpreneurs.
My wife and I have seen a huge boost in our kids confidence, particularly our daughter Georgia who has gone from a very shy and introverted little girl to a confident young lady who is becoming very adept at dealing with her customers. We have no doubt this is due to the Maker Kids Club and the amazing opportunities they have given our children. It’s been incredible to watch these little people of ours grow and blossom under Lacey and Fran’s incredible assistance.
Mel and I are bursting with pride – we simply had no idea Riley and Georgia would create such a wonderful business. It has helped them become closer as brother and sister and also brought the entire family together as we all pitch in to help out.
I am the P&C President of my children’s school and also on the Executive of the West Australian Council for State Schools Organisation (WACSSO) and I have long been advocating for children to learn real world life skills, particularly around financial literacy. I love that I can help my child develop skills that will genuinely be useful to them in the real world and would love to see more kids get that opportunity.
We love being members of Maker Kids Club. The work Lacey and Fran have put in to the education and development of the kids is truly inspirational and the amount of work that must go into coordinating the markets is amazing.
We simply could not recommend highly enough the Maker Kids Club, we honestly believe this is life changing work they are doing in setting children up on a path to financial freedom.“
“My daughter has been doing the Maker Kids online video course to build on her understanding of business and financial literacy. The course is well set up and the concepts easy to understand. I believe this is a vital learning area for all ages and something that is often missing in the school curriculum. The Maker Kids program would benefit any school or learning group that want to give their children real-life skills and confidence to have a go.
The markets that have been hosted by Maker Kids are an important feature of the program and have been fantastic as a safe environment that gives the children outlets to actually sell their products. We have attended 2 markets and seen the excitement of the children on all the stalls as they get to set up their displays and interact with customers. Direct sales experience and money handling skills is again an important learning experience and I have been grateful that Maker Kids has provided these opportunities for my daughter. “
School Case Study
In Term 2, 2017, we launched our pilot program with three Year 6 classes at Riverton Primary School in Perth. 86 of the 87 students that participated said they would recommend this program to other kids their age. Here are some videos from the launch market and interviews with the students.
Market Day Promotion video
One of the tasks students complete during the program is developing and implementing a marketing plan. This video is part of the plan the students came up with, and features several of the students promoting their businesses. This video was originally posted on 20 June on the school’s P&C Facebook page.
Market Day Event
If you’ve ever wondered what it looks like when 86 students launch their businesses on the same day, here’s your answer!
Student Interview – Sienna
Sienna had an outstanding experience on market day. She took orders for her slime, then made the products to order over the school holidays. This kept her upfront costs down, and it meant she had no need to deal with excess inventory.
Student Interview – Gabe
Gabe used the kidpreneur program to launch his business as a musician. His single almost sold out, and he earned money from busking.
Student Interview – Angelique
Angelique made environmentally friendly bees wax wrap to replace cling film in your kitchen. It smells delicious.
Student Interview – Compilation
Mackenzie, Milly, Riley and Liyasha talk about launching their businesses and share their advice for other kidpreneurs
Testimonials from School-based participants:
“It was wonderful to be approached by the various learners requesting inclusion of their advertisements in the school newsletter and the P&C Facebook page, and to hear them speaking about what they were planning, making and selling with such enthusiasm.
The Market Day was a fabulous experience, it filtered down through the school, and ended up being a great learning opportunity for the younger kids in the school too, about budgeting where to spend their money and what to buy. Many of the younger kids were inspired too. The feedback from the parents was that it was an amazing opportunity for the learners to gain real life practical experience about business.
We would look to do this each year for our learners.
Financial literacy is a must, and the method Lacey uses is engaging and practical and the content is delivered with such passion and conviction. Highly recommended!”
“The students thoroughly enjoyed the program and were working in groups to work towards a common goal. It was a great program which gave the students a taste of what it is like to run a business. The concepts were directly linked to the Australian Curriculum and the program was an excellent link between study and practice.
The launch market was absolutely brilliant, the students were super excited about selling their goods /product. I highly recommend this program and I think that it should be compulsory for all Year 6 students.”
“The Maker Kids Club program was a fantastic program that really highlighted a strong link between study and practice.
I noticed some students really came out of their shell during the process, especially at the launch market. I had many parents come to me and comment on the enthusiasm their children had shown for their businesses and their eagerness to work on it outside of school hours.
Parents really saw the values of the program. I look forward to using the program in the future.”
“The Maker Kids Club classes were a fantastic initiative and I was extremely happy to be a part of its beginning.
From the start, Lacey ran an interesting and informative program that the students really looked forward to. The incorporation of a variety of learning styles (independent, group, whole class) meant students were able to keep up and thrive in the short weekly sessions. The launch market was an amazing experience that stood out as a highlight of the school term.
Some of the products produced by the students were amazing which was a testament to the student interest in the program. I truly hope to continue to use this program in the future.”
