Day: 1 September 2015

Making money.

Sibo 5

Last week we had entrepreneurs’ day at school.  I enjoyed it much more than I did the year before – probably because this time I actually made money!

Last year I didn’t give much thought to what I sold. I had lots of beans growing in the garden and so decided to sell fresh beans at school.

Silly me – I just didn’t think that kids don’t particularly like eating beans. And they definitely would not spend money buying them. So I landed up giving all my beans to the teachers instead.

Dad said I was a bit of a nutter – I should have offered them at a discount, rather than giving them away.

Oh well! Live and learn.

But learn I did. There has to be a market for what you are selling, otherwise you are wasting your time (and money).

This year I sat and thought long and hard about what to sell that would make money.

Mum suggested making cupcakes. That’s always a good idea because they sell, but the problem is – lots of other kids do the same thing because it is easy.

The same goes for popcorn and chips – junk food always sells well.

Dad offered to take me to Macro to see what was available and how much everything cost.

We trawled through the sweetie aisle. There was so much stuff it was unbelievable. I wandered up and down taking notes.

I only had R100 to spend. I also had to give R10 of that to the school to have a stall – which meant I really only had R90 to spend. I needed to buy something that everybody would want that I could make money on.

In the end I bought 3 bags of different flavoured Fizzers for a total price of R77.85. There were 24 Fizzers in each bag and one bag cost R25.95. This meant that one Fizzer cost R1.08c.

Fizzers take long to eat and are value for money.

I sold them for R2 each.

After paying R10 for my table, I had R12.15 left over.  I asked Dad to give me R1’s and R2’s for this money so that I had a float in case I needed to give somebody change.

I sold all my Fizzers in the first hour and made a total of R144.00. That was R66.15 profit (excluding the R10.00 I paid for the table).

Smart thinking hey!

Sibo

 

Word of the week: Profit

Meaning: a financial gain, especially the difference between the amount earned and the amount spent in buying or producing something.

Example: I made a profit of R66.15 at Entrepreneurs’ Day – which I am saving so that next time I will have more money to spend to make money.

Life.

Sibo and mum

The other day one of my uncles passed away. When my mom told me about it my first thought was… well, okay – he was old and we did not see him very often. So how does this affect me?

I went outside to play.

But then I started thinking… I quite liked that uncle.

He always used to come and visit and produce sweets out of his pocket like magic. Sometimes he pretended he found them in my ear! But more importantly, he talked to me like I was a real person. Not just some dumb little kid. He used to ask me questions about school and what I was doing – it seemed like he cared what the answer was. He listened to me.

I just took that for granted and maybe did not appreciate it enough.

You know, we often take people for granted. We just assume that they are going to be there forever more. And then sometimes… pooof! They are gone.

People pass away. Important people in our lives, people who we care about. And once they are gone, they are gone for good.

We will never, ever see them again in real life. Sure, we can look at photos but it’s not the same, is it. You can’t touch them. Or talk to them.

We won’t be able to hug them. Or ask them questions about special stuff that only they knew about. They are just not here anymore.

But we are just little kids and we are not supposed to worry about stuff like this… are we?

I sat on the swing and thought about my uncle. Realising that he was no longer here anymore made me so sad that I cried a bit. I went inside and gave my mum a hug. I was glad that she was real, and warm… and here.

I think Mum thought I was a little bit crazy – but she hugged me back anyway.

Your uncle will always be with you, she told me. Just think about him – and he will be there in your head and your heart.

So I thought about him and could almost see him. It made me smile.

I guess people really do live on in our hearts forever.

We should appreciate the people around us. We never know when they will be snatched away.

Hugs,

Sibo