Annie loves craft and took up the hobby of making beaded jewelry quite a while back. Grandma is into making rosary beads, so she had been encouraging Annie and also gave her some of the necessary tools and taught her some basic techniques.
Since then, she made quite a few pairs of pretty earrings, bracelets, key-chains and necklaces. So, I suggested to her that she sell her creations so that she can use to money earned to buy more beads to continue her hobby.
The beads and other parts like earring hooks and necklace clasps can actually be quite pricey. I estimated the cost of making a pair of earrings to be around RM3-4, so I instructed her to sell them for RM4-5. She could then keep RM1 for herself and give the rest to me for buying more beads and other materials.
I thought this would also be good exposure for her to learn about the world of business!
Thus, she brought her creations to school to market them!
She has since then learnt quite a few lessons on "Economics 101":
1. Don't count your eggs before they hatch.
On the first day of peddling her ware, a lot of friends reserved items and told her they would bring the money the next day. She was very excited indeed and was convinced that making money was going to be a breeze! She was going to be rich!
Unfortunately, the next day, no one paid up! :)
2. You have to sell your product above cost price to actually make a profit!
After a couple of days, she proudly announced that she had successfully sold off a pair of earrings!
Then I asked her how much she sold it for, and she replied, "RM1"!
I then asked her why she sold it off so cheaply and she said simply, "Because nobody wanted to buy!" :)
This was a good time to explain to her about the concepts of cost and profit!
3. In all endeavours, perseverance is a virtue. (i.e: not easy to make money!)
Since then, there have been a couple of sales and many given out free! Currently, she has more or less given up, or forgotten about what she had set out to do the weeks before! The excitement has worn off I suppose...
Well, at least she tried and learnt a few things in the process eh? Isn't that what life is all about?
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