Monday, June 18, 2007

Industrious Young Men


The garage sale was a success! And we were able to shut down at 1:00 pm, an hour earlier than my 2pm deadline. We sold all of our "big ticket items" (jogging stroller, bike trailer to haul toddlers around, and indoor tunnel and fort set.) Everybody in the family earned forty bucks. After we closed up, we loaded up the truck and took the leftovers to the Good Will drive-thru -- very easy and painless
R and T did a great job at their lemonade, water, and cookie stand. They sold about 20 bottles of water and three pitchers of lemonade. M took the opportunity to teach the boys about business -- how important location is (they were right at the end of the driveway); the key to timing (selling cold drinks on a hot day); and marketing (the sign has their products -- water on one side and lemonade on the other with prices). He also taught them about the cost of doing business. The boys had to pay for the ice and bottled water out of their sales. They didn't mind this at all, since they were solidly in the black. I think that they made about thirteen dollars just from the refreshments that they sold.
They sold a few cookies, but not much. As T said, "people don't like to eat cookies when it's hot." The boys waved to all of the cars going by, and after one stopped and "ordered" one water from the car window, R declared "we have drive thru too." R was the hawker, yelling "get your water and lemonade Heee-ear" to each car that drove by and each person that walked by. M and I were amazed that anybody could pass up these adorable boys! But some just drove on by. There were plenty of folks that made up for those drive-bys -- like the man who declared that the lemonade "was better than any he's had before" as he paid for a second cup. And there was the lady that asked how much the lemonade was, after hearing that it was fifty cents apiece (prices went up from twenty-five cents at about 11:00) she said to the boys "here's a dollar; buy yourselves each a glass of lemonade." T excitedly ran up to me and said, "can we really buy ourselves a glass, mom?" He was thrilled. About three people overpaid by fifty cents and told the boys to keep the change -- which the boys loved.
All in all, it was a successful day.

2 comments:

CaliforniaGrammy said...

Oh I'm so proud of R and T for being such great entrepreneurs! And making a great profit too! And I'm proud of M, too, for teaching them good basic business skills. And what a great picture . . . love the mohawk with the crocs. That was one successful event, alright! Way to go.

jennavar said...

Good for you guys! What a great business day. I'm sure clean sweep would be proud. I love the lemonade stand. How dare anyone drive by my nephews without stopping. I can just hear R yelling for people to come get their lemonade. I'm glad you were able to close shop early. Did you do any shopping yourselves?