The school gave them a small business loan of $5.oo which was to be paid back with an additional 10% of their profits. Parents could either gift or loan their kids up to $5.00. The kids had to develop a business plan, rent a shop, buy all of their supplies, produce their product and then sell it.
The kids were generally trying to make the cheapest item they could make to maximize their profits. None of them seemed to understand their market (the lower class men of the school), or how to determine what was already available out there. They came up with some pretty interesting items. Firstborn was actually thinking of getting dirt from outside and making terrariums. We decided that this would be hard to take home. He also understood that Market Day was only 2 weeks before Mother's day and he could use that as a marketing tool.
We finally settled on rainbow makers using the prisms from our old chandeliers in Tewksbury. We had two very gaudy, very old-lady-looking chandeliers that we replaced in the old house and since DH and Firstborn are so enamored of anything glittery, we saved all the prisms.
He strung these, along with some seed beads and Swarovsky crystals on a length of
Fireline. He worked out that the cost of the materials was about $.75. So he charged 1.50 for each rainbow maker.
One day in class, as he was researching the cost of his materials ( he was pretty much using my beads and Fireline, but he had to pay me market price for it), one of the boys caught him researching the price of beads and began laughing at him and telling the class that Firstborn was making girlie jewelry. Firstborn remained quiet and told me about it that night. He was a little shaky on going forward with his plan until I explained to him that the boys in class obviously haven't done their homework. They should know from all the commercials on TV that girls are the ones who will drop money. If you want to make money, sell something that girls like. He liked this explanation and used it the next day. The boys still laughed.
They told him that his materials cost too much and he was never going to sell anything. They told him his idea wouldn't work.
Meantime Firstborn continued to make his rainbow makers and also he made some bookmarks using just seed bead strings with a Swarovski on each end. He carefully made a variety of colors to appeal to everyone. We packaged everything up and drove to school with it.
DH helped Firstborn make a display case. It was a cigar box with a glass top. DH painted the inside black and lined it with reflective paper. Then he rigged up a flashing LED key chain that changed colors from red to blue to green. They hung one rainbow maker inside. Flashing lights and sparklies, the perfect recipe for bringing in the crowds.
The day of the sale came and we were all nervously anticipating his results.
Well Firstborn came home elated. He sold every single piece he had made and sold $10 worth of orders that he would have to make up that weekend and deliver on Monday. After all his expenses and loan, he had $20 in profits. He had made more money than any other individual in the market. The rainbow makers were the talk of the school.
And many were purchased by the boys in the school.
His teacher purchased one and asked to keep the display box to show future classes. I think he got an A on this project.
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