When both the sun and school are out, Bowen Island’s young entrepreneurs hit the streets. Most often, they have handmade signs and big grins. While the standard offering for the roadside stall is lemonade, young business people on Bowen seem to make a somewhat wider variety of offerings.
A few weeks ago, Ella and Amelia Sorrentino spent a day selling flowers on the side of Grafton Road.
“They’ve tried the lemonade thing but didn’t get many customers,” says their mom, Tanya. “With flowers they’ve sold out, and they’ve tried rhubarb and zuchinnis too.”
Inspired by other roadside stalls, Hannah and Abbie Florendo recently made their foray into the business world with a sale of home-made cookies and pickles.
“We didn’t sell anything, but we will try again,” said Hannah.
Briar Blomberg, Shelby Murphy and Gabby Lalonde stopped traffic with their exuberant sale of lemonade and kale at the corner of Miller Road and Melmore. As I drove away and told them I had more kale then I could handle, Gabby yelled out, “When you run out of kale, be sure to come find us!”
Twelve-year-old Jayden Serna is preparing to launch a business that evolved out of his hobby collecting amphibians and reptiles. Serna used to spend money on buying crickets to feed his lizard, but then learned how to breed them.
“You just stuff these little cups full of dirt and moisten them with a bit of water, then you put them in with the crickets, and they lay eggs,” he explains.
Jayden’s cricket breeding operation is set up in his bedroom, alongside his pet snake and pet lizard. He says he will launch his business selling them when he gets back from a holiday with his mom.
Fifteen-year-old Sarah Holm started her first business this summer out of necessity.
“I have back problems and other jobs I’ve had – like working at Tuscany – have made them worse because I need to be on my feet all the time. So I decided to come up with my own business.”
Her idea, which she’s carried out through the summer, has been to purchase wholesale fruit and berries and vegetables from farms in Langley, and delivers them to the doorsteps of her customers on Bowen. Sarah says she has on average 40 customers per week.
As she’s only 15, Sarah does rely on her parents to drive her to the pick up and drop off locations.
“I really appreciate their help,” she says. “But I do pay them for gas, and cover the ferry costs.”
Sarah says she’s made some money from the venture, and learned a lot.
“I used to think you needed a job to make money, but I realize now that you really can just make up your own.”
Rob and Laurel Bailey were motivated to help their sons, Miles and Isaac, to set up a business so that the boys could earn money for the things they wanted.
“We used to do allowances, but we stopped doing that. The boys were not interested in doing extra chores around the house to make money, so we encouraged them to start a business making and selling Rob’s killer salsa,” says Laurel.
Laurel says that at first, there was a lot of parental involvement in the enterprise, but the second year in to the business, the division of labour has changed.
“This year we’re playing to each kid’s strength,” says Laurel. “Miles is not so into sales and it shows, but Isaac is really great at that part. So Miles makes the product, and packages it while Isaac spends time selling down at the summer market.”
Also, the second year in to the business, Laurel says Miles and Isaac are not only gaining a better understanding of profit margins (“Isaac complains if Rob eats too many of his chips while he’s hanging around the market,” says Laurel) but also, their making more money than either one of them could at this age working a regular job.
“Sometimes I worry that if this takes off, Miles will never get an actual job and learn the very important skill of working for someone else,” says Laurel.
Kristin Jarvis, says that Laurel has no need to worry, because every business will teach a kid something and lead to the next step.
Jarvis organized a course called Workplace Skills for Teens, to help them tap into their interests, creativity, and find their place in the workforce and economy. (Unfortunately, due to the teacher’s strike, the class never actually ran.)
“There are two very important skills that will result in success in just about any job: the ability to work independently and make decisions, and customer service, which is about relationships. If you can set up and run a business, you’ve proven that you have these qualities.”
Jarvis says that on a personal level, she relates strongly to the kids on the side of the road selling whatever it is they can get their hands on.
“When I was 14, my uncle planted an acre of corn for me on our farm in Manitoba. It was my job to pick it and sell it at a roadside stand. I made several thousand dollars those summers, which was a lot of money at that time.”
