Teen Entrepreneurship

The second chapter in the Money Champions book is about earning money. The chapter explores the various ways youngsters can make and keep money of their own, one of which is through starting a kids friendly business (pages 10 – 13). Kids entrepreneurship is not a new concept, and in fact it is encouraged by most people (and even experts) who are passionate about the topic of money. I think this is because in my native language which is Northern Sotho/Sepedi there is a saying that ‘thutela bogolo e ya roba’ which simply means that learning new ways or topics at a later stage in life ought to be more challenging than if the same things were learnt much earlier.

There is also a saying that ‘charity begins at home’, which for me simply means whatever your heart is set on, identify who within the home environment needs similar help, as it is a place where one would be at close proximity to identify and monitor what is needed and how to best empower someone within, both their reach and lineage.

It is for this reason that I had to normalise business and money conversations with my niece, Lethabo, who also contributed a great deal to the Money Champions book. She was one of my teen editors, which meant I had to be guided by what she thought would work best in packaging the information I wanted to communicate via the book to her age mates and younger. One thing that she used to emphasise a lot was that the book needed to be colourful, thin and also not too wordy☺. I think I did well in executing those recommendations☺.

Fast forward to a year after the book was launched, she was ready to trial her first business idea, i.e. MayLee Handmade Jewellery business, which has been running since January 2023. I have witnessed her hard work firsthand which ranged from doing research about the products to crafting, identifying suppliers, deciding on product pricing etc. One thing I did not do was to hand her information on a silver platter and always told her to have possible solutions to a question or challenge she faces, and mine was to either affirm or redirect her. Obviously that was not always fun for her but I bet you now she knows enough about her business than I do, and it should be that way. Also when it came to capital, I offered her a loan which I am proud to mention that she has fully paid back in the last 3 months, and has now started making money for her business. Here is some key information about MayLee Handmade Jewellery: