Bigger and better this week!!!

Wow, what a great second week we had!  We had a very productive time in class discussing how things went last week,  what we wanted to change and do better, and priced our new items.  We expanded our inventory this week and it was a big hit!  We listened to what you wanted and the sales were a reflection.  The store did $54.25 today.  Next week we will take a look at our sales and see what sells and what doesn't, and calculate our true profits.  We will also be doing our pizza day next week, which we took orders for today.  We will be purchasing Little Caesars pizza, and charging a delivery fee to bring them to the school for you.  If you purchase a pizza, you may also purchase up to 4 drinks at a discounted price.  Thank you everyone for supporting the kids, they are having a great time learning the ins and outs of running a business.  We look forward to doing business again.

Teacher Becky + Teacher Shannon

Success!!

Our first week was a huge success!!!  Our store was busy all of lunch, and I'm pleased to announce that we made $35!!  Next week we will add a few more products to our line up, and we are happy to continue to take requests and suggestions.  Before we opened for business, the kids learned how to find the unit price of their items, and then they helped to set the prices of their products.  This week, we will discuss our first week's results, plan our expansion, and discuss a few other areas of running a business.  The students did a fantastic job at the store. They were polite, courteous, and helpful when they had customers.  They did a great job adding up sales and telling people what they owe, and making change.  Please congratulate your student of their success, and plan to support them again next week.  Great work everyone!! Also, because we were busy getting ready for the store opening, we didn't get to our presentations, so we will try and have two this week.  Thanks!

Teacher Becky + Teacher Shannon

Our store opens next week!!

Greeting from Commonwealth Corner Store (CCs for short)! That's the name that we have decided to give our student store that will open next week at lunch!! Thanks Amy E for the great name suggestion! The kids are all very excited to be open for business and start making some money.  Today we talked about profit vs. loss vs. break even.  We all decided that profit was the way to go!  We also talked about what goes into the price of a product, for example materials, labor (our time), gas to drive around and get things, supplies for running your business, etc.  We learned that although we may make $50 in sales, it does not necessarily mean that we made $50 in profit.  The kids are going to get a $25 grant from FILA to purchase their items for sale, then will reinvest their profits back into the business and expand their offerings.  They thought this was better than a loan from the teachers that would have to be paid back with interest.  They may also sell shares of their company in the near future to earn a little more capital and grow their business.  We need the kids this week to make some signs that can be displayed and will advertise who they are and what they are doing.  We may contact a few of them also to make signs with the prices of their items, but we have to see what we are getting and how much it will cost before we can do that.  They also went home with a small sheet that they can fill out next time they are at the grocery store that just asks for a product, its cost, and then a unit price if there is one.  We want to do some price comparisons next week.   We also need one small thing from parents.  We asked the kids to survey 5 people about what they would want to see sold at the store.  They were great at getting this done, the only problem is that they mostly asked their friends, so the list is pretty candy and junk food heavy.  We would like to have some quick feedback from moms or anyone else with a different perspective. The list doesn't have to be food specific either, we can sell other items as well (pencils and paper were suggested).  I will include a link to a brief 3 question survey that we would love if you could take a minute and fill out.  This will help us when we look to expand our inventory in the coming weeks.  Thanks so much for all of your support, I think this is going to be a great thing for the kids and the school.  Please don't hesitate to ask any questions. Also don't forget to check the presentation schedule from the previous post.

Teacher Becky + Teacher Shannon

http://goo.gl/forms/NA3Un3gwbW

Greetings to all future business leaders!!!  We and such an exciting class today, and we also want to say thank you so much to all of our students, nearly all of them came prepared with a name to discuss for their presentation.  Thanks also to parents for helping out with that.  We have put together a schedule for the presentations that I will put at the end of this post.  We talked today about what brand recognition is, logos, and ad campaigns.  Next week we will make the final decision as to what our business will be.  The kids are supposed to continue to think about what they would like to do to make money, and maybe conduct a family focus group to get some different ideas and perspectives.    The kids are fired up about this class, when we asked why they were taking it, almost all of them responded "to make money"!  Keep those creative juices flowing and let's start a business!!

Thanks,
Teacher Becky and Teacher Shannon H

2.11. - Ammon Miller - Willow Tufano
2.18 - Daniel Gardner - Elise MacMillan
2.25 - Amy Ellis - Cameron Johnson
3.3 - Emily Owen -  Leanna Archer
3.10 - Taylor Miller - Garrett Gee
3.17 - Mollie Quiton - Madison Robinson
3.24 - Jon Kloepfel - Robert Nay
3.31 - JJ Gardner - Jack Kim
4.14 - Jason Lettner - Andrew Gower
4.21 - Aiyanna Ellis - Lizzie Marie Likeness
4.28 - Elliot Hellyer - Jaden + Maya Wheeler
5.5 - Sabrina Claridge - Juilanne Goldmark + Emily Matson
 

Week 1

Hello young entrepreneurs! I hope you all got the email I sent out last week. Since the blog is up and running I thought I would post a week 1 recap here.  Last Thursday we talked about what an entrepreneur is, and watched a really inspirational video about a girl who started her business at age 11, and by the time she was 19 her company was doing over $3 million in sales!!!!!
     We gave a small assignment, nothing too involved we promise, that we want the kids to come to class ready for this week. We would like them to research and bring in at least the name of a young entrepreneur. Mostly we want to make sure that we don't have any repeats among the students. They will be telling us more about the person they select at a later date.  Also, the kids are going to be starting a small business, and we want them to think about two things and bring their thoughts with them: first, something they really like to do/are good at, and second, what need or problem they would like to fix at FILA.
     This week we are going to be discussing brand recognition, market research, and finding your niche. Parents, if you could help your budding business owners with their small assignments we would really appreciate it! Thanks, we are very excited to be working with your kids.
-Teachers Becky O and Shannon H