Girls’ Biz – Teaching Young Entrepreneurs
Welcome back!
Young entrepreneurs learning business skills from Girls' Biz.
Girls’ Biz teaches girls what it takes to become an entrepreneur — an experience that provides a number of lessons along the way.
Seven girls are involved in the organization, which guides them through choosing a company name, selecting products, marketing them, handling the revenues and choosing a charity to receive some of the money. The girls also learn about various careers and at the end of the yearlong program, they will take a trip with the money they earned.
Michelle Morency, a sixth-grader at O’Keeffe Middle School, said she liked her networking experiences with the Madison chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners, which is a sponsor of Girls’ Biz.
“They were surprised you know all this stuff about business,” she said. “I think running your own business would be fun.”
Alexis Johnson, a sixth-grader at Sennett Middle School, said this year the girls chose the name, YES, which stands for Young Entrepreneurs Succeed.
Girls’ Biz targets girls in grades six through eight, especially minority girls. It was started in 1996 by a committee of Wisconsin Women Entrepreneurs, the predecessor of the Madison chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners.
The Girl Scouts of Black Hawk Council is a co-sponsor and the girls meet at the council office as Troop 1099, a special troop that revolves around the entrepreneurial activity.
While some of the girls already have an entrepreneurial streak, they start with basically no business knowledge, said director Sally Hestad.
“It is a pretty ambitious program,” she said. “They learn about planning and they learn about bringing an idea into reality.”
This year they are selling spice blends from White Jasmine of Madison, chocolate sauce from Gail Ambrosius Chocolatier of Madison and soap, lip balm and lotion from LuSa Organics of Viroqua. Recently, they also made special gift tags for Valentine’s Day. They feature a replica of an old key and messages like “key to my heart” and “key to joy, peace and happiness.”
The girls have sold their items in a variety of venues and learned tough lessons about sales as they watched people take their samples but not purchase. That was particularly difficult for the girls who felt they spent a lot of time on preparations and thought everyone should be buying.
They also learned how expenses reduce profits, said Bailey Bennett, a Sennett sixth-grader.
So far they have grossed about $3,900 while expenses, which include unsold items, total about $2,900.
Source: Wisconsin State Journal
