This 5 Year-Old Starts A Business, Saves for College and Disney World
Every once in a while you hear a story so inspiring, you just have to share it with others. This is one of those stories.
Recently we received an email from Marie, a mother in Ireland who has a very impressive son named Joseph. When Joseph was 5 he asked his parents (as all kids do) if he could go to Disney World. Instead of saying no, Marie told him that they would go if he could pay his own fare. Later in the day, Marie was surprised when Joseph returned to ask if she would buy him some hens. Joseph told his mother, “I am too young to get a job, so if I have hens I can sell their eggs and save for Disney”, and with that a business plan was born. Rather than becoming Joseph’s obstacle, Marie and her husband decided that they would help Joseph with his plan. She writes, “He could see his goal and knew how to get there. So I knew that as a parent I had the option to provide support and use this as a learning tool for him”. Joseph’s parents bought him 4 hens and 3 years later Joseph had saved up enough money for his trip to Disney World. The whole family went and enjoyed a really fantastic vacation.
Marie relayed to us how during the process Joseph learned a lot; he learned about the animals he was caring for, how to sell a product and how to turn a profit:
Now the moral of this story is not just about getting to Disney World, but I saw a 5 year-old learn the foundations and gain an understanding of business. He discovered that if he did not get up at 6am to feed his chickens and look after them, then he had no product to sell, which meant he did not get any money for his goal. He also had to pay for feed and this also started us looking at the area of recycling of food. All scrap food was stored in a bucket and used as feed for the chickens. He also discovered that after he paid for feed and hay, what was left was profit = savings.
Now Joseph is 10 and has expanded his business to 16 chickens, a sheep, a lamb and a special Limousine Heifer calf. The calf “was his Christmas present. It’s the same price as an Xbox, but he will learn so much more from it than an Xbox can ever teach him”. He now plans to use his profits to pay for college as well as a couple trips in the meantime!
When Joseph was 9, he was invited to speak at the Young Entrepreneurs Awards, where he met countless other kids who are running profitable businesses. Joseph now wants to set up a website to help other kids start up their own businesses. Joseph recently signed up for Tykoon, and we are thrilled to have him!
Hope you all enjoyed this story – I know everyone here at the Tykoon offices did. Also, thanks to Marie for sharing this inspiring story about her very accomplished young Tykoon, Joseph!
-Natalie Wilbur
