The TREP$ Marketplace on Wednesday, April 18, was home to about 50-60 fifth grade students; we learned how to make our own new businesses and some of us made a nice profit! I feel so blessed to have had a tremendous new experience at TREP$, because I was given this opportunity to showcase my creativity and entrepreneurship to my family, peers, and consumers.
It all began when our teacher presented this project to the class and asked us to brainstorm ideas of products we could produce and sell. I decided to sell Finger Hockey sets, since I always loved the game, but it could not be brought into the car on long trips because the board was simply too long.
After coming up with the idea, I then pondered how I was going to create my own version of a Finger Hockey set. At first I thought I would use cardboard, but then I found wood and started to build the idea off of that because this material was more durable. I set goals for myself such as making two sets a day, and by the time of the TREP$ Marketplace sell date, I had eight wooden, handmade Finger Hockey sets to sell. Some challenges were that at one point, I had to buy three longboards from the Home Depot, and I needed my Dad to handle the power tools and control the wood cutting.
During TREP$ workshops every other week, we learned how to advertise, how to make our unique products, and how to make sure that people will buy said products. All of these skills were things that I learned to do at school and will help me in the future.
As I walked into the decorated gym, I felt nervous to sell my product. I saw many other stands, selling various goods. I wondered if my product would sell because there were lots of options for my consumers to choose from. Many interested consumers approached my stand and at the end of the day I made money and I again feel blessed to have been in this program and to have been able to distribute my work to my buyers and teachers. I plan to make more sets soon, using a portion of my profits as startup money.
Ultimately, I think that the most important thing I learned was that you can not just think that something is going to happen, you have to put work into it and put your whole heart into what you are doing, and sometimes things don’t always turn out the way you want them to but that’s okay. Overall, I have had many memorable experiences at school, but the TREP$ program takes the win!
