Young Entrepreneurs – Taylor and Hunter Reilly
Welcome back!
You can never be too young to start learning the principles of entrepreneurship. That’s certainly what parent Cameron Reilly thinks. When one of his twin boys, Taylor, fell in love with an iMac computer he also realised how long it would take to save up his $7-a-week pocket money to buy one. To accelerate the process, Taylor thought he would be able to raise more money starting a business. His brother, Hunter, was also excited about the prospect.
That was about a month ago. Since then, Kids Candle Company – a business making and selling beeswax candles – has taken shape. Their Dad has helped them create a business plan. “I just outlined the structure and left all the bits blank for them to research themselves,” says Reilly. “They had to do market research on the price of candles and where they can sell them.”
Plans for growth
Currently, the boys sell online but plan to also sell at their local markets. They also made the decision to give 25 per cent of profit to charity, 25 per cent back into the business and they will split the other 50 per cent among themselves.
Like many other start-ups, they have a blog, where they have written simple posts like “What I have learnt about business”, “Making our first batch of candles”, and “How to be doing well”.
And the young entrepreneurs are already in demand. Their school teacher has already asked them to talk to their class about their business. What a great marketing opportunity.
The boys have already worked out that if the business does well, there are only so many hours in a day that one can make candles. So maybe they’ll rope in some friends – or there are rumblings that a franchising model may roll out.
I think it’s fantastic the spirit of entrepreneurship can be fostered in young kids. While they may not become mini-moguls overnight, it teaches them about taking calculated risks. I’m always amazed by number of intelligent, talented adults I meet who love the idea of being an entrepreneur. but are just too scared to take the leap. This is never going to be a problem for Hunter or Taylor.
