Young Entrepreneur Development Initiative
YEDI Camp Notes
This year 13 kids completed the camp, which is a program designed to teach our young future business people how to plan and open their own businesses.
All the steps of planning and opening a business are covered: How to research your market, how to make a business plan and how to present the plan to a bank in order to qualify for a business loan and how to make a budget.
The kids attending the camp formed teams and brainstormed together to come up with ideas for the products to sell at the Farmer’s Market.
They made their own budgets, and bought their own supplies and then made the products they would sell at the market.
When I hit the booth I found some very nifty products indeed!
- Homemade Dog Treats
- The Smoothie Shack
- Cookies
- Friendship Bracelets
- Christmas Card Hangers
These card hangers were a decorative and crafty method to display Holiday Cards. The young ladies whose business this was painted wooden clothespins to look like snowmen, then fastened them to a strand of sisal rope to clip cards to. They were very pretty, and useful to boot.
(So much so, in fact, that when I stopped by my sister’s house to show off my new swag, she promptly confiscated the card hanger by pointing out that I always come to her house for Christmas anyway! )
Perth-Andover businessman Dean McAllister, who owns Automotive Village, volunteered his time and expertise to offer advice on how to manage a business, how to generate profit and that all important issue of how to keep your expenses in line!
Mike Allen, the manager of the P-A branch of Scotiabank, instructed the workshop group on the fine art of applying and qualifying for a business loan. Furthermore, as a concerned and hands- on bank officer he was at the Farmer’s Market to encourage and support his young protégés.
Mr Levesque, the CBDC coordinator, says that the Grand Falls YEDI is the second largest camp in New Brunswick with 90 local kids on average attending the camps over 6 weeks during the summer. Only Fredericton is larger with 100 kids coming to the camps. That seems to indicate a healthy dose of local entrepreneurial spirit, don’t you think?
Stephanie Kelley
