Core Skills Analysis
Entrepreneurship
- Understanding the basic concept of starting a small business, specifically a roadside bakery stand, including planning and execution.
- Learning about customer interaction and salesmanship in a real-world setting.
- Gaining insight into product selection and presentation to attract buyers.
- Recognizing the importance of pricing strategies and managing simple transactions.
Mathematics
- Applying basic arithmetic skills for pricing baked goods and calculating total sales.
- Using estimation to anticipate ingredient needs and expected revenue.
- Recording sales and expenses to understand profit and loss.
- Developing skills in budgeting and money management relevant to a small business.
Life Skills
- Building responsibility through managing a mini enterprise and accountability for products sold.
- Improving communication and interpersonal skills through customer engagement.
- Enhancing problem-solving skills related to supply and demand or unexpected challenges at the stand.
- Learning the value of hard work, persistence, and creativity in a practical setting.
Tips
Encourage the student to develop a more structured business plan, which can include researching local competitors or customer preferences. Have the student keep a daily sales journal to track progress and reflect on lessons learned. Introduce basic marketing concepts such as designing flyers or social media posts to advertise the roadside stand creatively. Consider involving the student in budgeting activities where they list costs for ingredients and supplies and compare those to revenue, helping them understand profitability in depth. Finally, encourage experimenting with different baked goods or pricing strategies to see what maximizes engagement and earnings.
Book Recommendations
- The Lemonade War by Jacqueline Davies: A story about two siblings who start competing lemonade stands, exploring business ideas, pricing, and sales in a kid-friendly narrative.
- Kid Start-Up: How YOU Can Become an Entrepreneur by Mark Cuban, Shaan Patel, and Ian McCue: A guide full of practical advice and real-life tips for young entrepreneurs interested in starting their own business projects.
- The Everything Kids' Money Book by Brette Sember: An engaging book that introduces kids and teens to money concepts including earning, saving, budgeting, and entrepreneurship.
Learning Standards
- CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.7.NS.A.1 - Apply and extend previous understandings of operations with fractions to add, subtract, multiply, and divide rational numbers.
- CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP2 - Reason abstractly and quantitatively when calculating costs and revenues.
- CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.8.2 - Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas clearly, useful for business planning and marketing materials.
- CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.8.1 - Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions, applicable during customer communication and teamwork.
Try This Next
- Worksheet: Create a profit and loss statement template for the bakery stand including costs, pricing, revenue, and profit calculations.
- Writing Prompt: Compose a customer feedback survey to understand what products and prices customers prefer and why.