Little entrepreneurs rock

This weekend will be super busy but exciting for 10-year-old Brielle Oreta. While other kids her age will probably be glued to their tablets or out in the playground, she will be at the Glorietta mall on Sunday. It’s not to shop nor to play but to operate a business together with her five-year-old sister Ava.

The Oreta girls will be among at least 180 kids who will participate in the “Kiddo-preneur” bazaar to be held at the Glorietta Activity Center.

The girls will be selling caterpillars in jars.

Young as she is, Brielle is already a veteran of “Kiddo-preneur” bazaars.  After all, this is an advocacy started in 2011 by Brielle and her mom, business journalist Maiki Oreta, to instill the spirit of entrepreneurship among kids even before they reach their teens. Beyond reporting business news, Maiki heeded a calling to inspire entrepreneurship among kids.

“The goal is to get them to enjoy it so much, that when they grow up, they’ll want to become entrepreneurs—entrepreneurs who will provide jobs, drive economic growth, and shape the future of the Philippines for the better,” Maiki says.

Twice a year, “Kiddo-preneur” holds a bazaar to provide a venue for kids to have a first crack at entrepreneurship, particularly through retailing various stuff. The participants are between the ages four and 17.

For Brielle and Ava, selling caterpillars is selling science in a jar.

“I sell caterpillars because it is cool and interesting. I think that it is a great product, if I were one of the customers, then I would also buy it,” Brielle says.

“I also like selling this product because, it is fun and easy to sell. Lots of kids are interested in animals, and especially butterflies. The stages of the caterpillars are also really interesting to watch… from caterpillar to cocoon and to butterfly,” she says.

Caterpillars In Jars Sell

By packaging the caterpillars in pretty jars, Brielle and Ava are able to make profit. In the last “Kiddo-preneur” bazaar, their investment was P3,000, which was used to buy the caterpillars and the jars.

“We made around P20,000 selling. We had a hundred caterpillar kits and we sold them each for P200. It’s great that we found something so sellable,” Brielle says.

There’s also a group of 10-year-olds selling Oreo butter. They are joining the “Kiddo-preneur bazaar for the second time. They joined the summer bazaar just a few months ago at the Shangri-La Mall and their Oreo butter was such a big hit that they were inspired to come back to sell the same product in time for the Christmas season.

The Oreo butter team includes Sasha Lee, daughter of veteran entrepreneur and Yellow Cab Pizza creator Hanky Lee.  Her teammates are Hannah Talusan, Sam Sicam and Teuila Va’aelua.

“We chose this (Oreo cookie butter) because we thought it was unique and different. We thought no one else would sell this,” Sasha says.

“It is unique and new, so we thought it would be a good product to sell,” Hannah adds.

The Oreo butter team borrowed P3,000 from their parents, which they used to buy ingredients and other materials.  The team earned P8,000 from the last bazaar, Sasha notes.

Wise Beyond Their Years

Asked what they have learned from operating their businesses, the “Kiddo-preneurs” reply with insights beyond their years.

“I have learned a lot, but let me start with one that I will never forget—I’ve learned that it is not easy to earn money, you have to go through a lot of hard work to get the amount of money you would like. That is why some people say: Spend your money wisely. And I do that now,” Brielle says.

Long before “Kiddo-preneur” was set up, Maiki recalls Brielle would ask money for ice cream, for carousel rides, for toys, crayons and many other stuff.  The persistent begging stopped when the little girl started learning how to handle money.

With the hands-on approach of “Kiddo-preneur,” these youngsters have learned core values that others take years to fully grasp.

“Another lesson I have learned is to always be hardworking, energetic and friendly. If you do all these, you can attract more customers, and the more customers, the higher your sales,” Brielle adds.

Sasha, on the other hand, has acquired insights on basic marketing and pricing strategy and is aware of how to harness the Internet.

“We learned that it is really hard to attract customers (with black cookie butter, they didn’t know it was made from Oreos). You should also have discounts so more people will come in,” Sasha says. “Also because social media can cause a big change, you should have a social media-marketing platform.”

This is also a great way of learning the risk-reward dynamics in investing.

“We learned that it is stressful and time consuming, but it is fun and you have a good result in the end (money),” says Sam, Sasha’s teammate.

Starting Early

“It’s nice to see entrepreneurs getting their kids interested in business at an early age,” Maiki says.

Entrepreneurs need mentorship, not just funding. Thus, having entrepreneurial parents may also boost the chances of children turning to entrepreneurship, she says.

For the “Kiddo-preneur” bazaar this Sunday, half of the 180 young participants are joining for the first time.

“We intend to broaden participation by mounting more and more events within and around Metro Manila—to give kids all around the country a chance to embrace entrepreneurship,” Maiki says.

“To do this, we are looking to tie up with high-traffic venues, like malls, to ensure that the kids who join have a comfortable and a relatively profitable experience as ‘Kiddo-preneurs,’” she says.

“Kiddo-preneur” organizers currently hold events twice a year, but they plan to increase these events to four times a year by 2016.

Maiki has also taken her “Kiddo-preneur” advocacy to television through the “The Kiddo-preneur Show,” which airs on her home network ANC at 11 a.m. every Saturday with replays on Sundays at 2:30 p.m. “TV is a great platform to reach Filipino families both here and abroad. It also helps raise awareness for our causes in general, which are to promote financial literacy and to promote entrepreneurship among the Filipino youth,” Maiki says.

Science and Math For Kids

Moving forward, the plan is to roll-out the “Kiddo-preneur” program to other key cities around the country, she says. Anywhere there is a big city and a big mall, a “Kiddo-preneur” bazaar can be organized, she adds.

But more than organizing a marketplace for young entrepreneurs, Maiki says the goal is to mount other projects that will raise the competitiveness of Filipino kids in general. “That being said, we are looking to launch a Science Fair, a Math-athon, and a nationwide spelling bee,” says Maiki, who is married to Quinto Oreta, president of property developer Major Homes Inc.

“As parents of three kids ourselves, we really want to create programs that will bring out the best in all our kids. This is our advocacy,” she says.