This summer past, my kids set up a lemonade stand, just like thousands of kids across America. The lemonade stand – make lemonade, sell for 50 cents, use the profits to buy something the kids want – has been a staple of American “kidpreneurship” for generations, tracing back to an enterprising New Yorker in the 19th century.
These days, kids not only make money through babysitting and lemonade stands, they start successful jewelry businesses, online magazines, and fashion brands.
Other than a good idea, kids need help and guidance. First-time mom and entrepreneur, Leslie Feinzaig, has made it her mission to make it possible for every child to be an entrepreneur with her innovative product, the Venture Kit.
Venture Kits are designed by real entrepreneurs and Harvard MBAs, reviewed by grade and high school teachers, and tested by kids. Venture Kits arm kids with tomorrow’s must-have skills: initiative, grit, creativity, and problem-solving.
Each kit contains the Venture Plan, a totally unique approach to learning entrepreneurship. Its combination of “steps” and “tips” strikes the perfect balance between strict instructions and total freedom, and provides a manageable guide that kids can follow through to the end.
Venture Kit’s first product is Treats To-Go: a real baking business in a box appropriate for boys and girls ages 10+. Younger kids can get involved too, if they get extra help with the math and problem-solving part of the kit.
What’s in Treats To-Go?
- The Venture Plan.
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Recipes: three easy and delicious recipe cards, with clear steps on the front and tools to calculate the cost and price on the back. Also included are two blank recipe cards for kids to create their own treats.
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Packaging: 20 cellophane bags and colorful seals to package the treats.
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Order forms: five forms ready for kids to fill out and start selling.
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Menus: five blank menu cards that kids can decorate and give to customers
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A Venture Kits marker.
My 12-year-old daughter has an entrepreneurial spirit and I love for baking cookies and cakes so she absolutely loved the Baking Treats-To-Go Venture Kit. She decided to make the Peanut Butter Candy Treats and calculated the cost per bag. I was impressed that the Venture Kits layed out a step-by-step plan for my daughter so she could actually figure it out on her own and learn how business in the real world works.
We love that the Treats To-Go Venture Kit helps children with skills such as creativity, problem-solving, communication, math and simple food preparation. They also learned concepts like costs and how to calculate them, what investors are and how to find them, pricing and how to set them, and how to sell to customers.
Leslie explains why she created Venture Kits, “Like you, I am an entrepreneur, and we both know what it takes to take the leap. I believe that the skills kids acquire via entrepreneurship will be helpful in every endeavor they undertake. Too few kids are exposed to entrepreneurship today. In my research, I learned that it’s common for parents to teach kids how to save and budget money, but less common to teach how to earn it. I also noticed that most kids have no idea what an entrepreneur or CEO is, and many have acquired a negative view of the word “boss.” The business world lacks diversity: only 4% of Fortune 500 CEOs are women, and 1% African American; only 8% of funded founders are female, and 1% Black; and only 10% of Venture Capital dollars are invested in startups with at least one female founder. I want to change all that.”
Treats To-Go is the first kit available to the public, and it is out on limited release with only 400 prototype kits available. Kits cost $25 and can only be purchased on Venture Kids. Buy one now before stocks run out!
We are also happy to partner with Leslie and Venture Kits to giveaway one Treats To-Go Venture Kit!
We were given a Treats To-Go Venture Kit to test out, and all opinions are our own.
This giveaway is open only to residents of the United States. It’s open from October 6 – 12, 2016.