Hello, my name is Esther. I am in 6th grade at Tenakill Middle School in Closter,NJ. My experience in TREP$ was amazing. I thought it was a great opportunity where young entrepreneurs like me get to run their own business.
My TREP$ business was named 2 Heart Creation. At the TREP$ Marketplace, the products I sold were paper quillings. To explain a little more about them, you use a paper rolling tool to roll long and thin strips of paper to create shapes. You can make anything with paper quillings. I decided on my product by researching and discussing it with my dad. I wanted to do a product that was unique and also a product I can keep selling after the TREP$. When my dad got an idea of paper quilling, my dad and I took some time to see some examples. When I took a look at the paper quillings people did, I loved it! It was unique and something I thought I could keep doing even after the TREP$. Also, it looked very easy to do.
My dad ordered me a kit I could use to make paper quillings. I was very excited. The price of the materials, small and big frames to put the quillings in, and Christmas cards I can make because it was getting towards Christmas, was very high, but I told my dad that I was going to still pay him the money I needed to owe him.
In the beginning, there were some struggles I went through such as knowing each equipment and practicing to succeed, but the more I did, the more I got better and faster.
I decided to make different designs of them to look creative and designs that people might like. Towards the day of the TREP$ marketplace, there was a huge problem that I needed to face. The problem I had was that the paper quillings took too much time. It took at least 2-3 hours of making one product, and also I was worried if I made enough of my product or if I was going to need more. I was telling my dad and he said that the products I made was enough. He encouraged me that it was going to turn out well even though I had a loss. I listened to him and decided to sell my product even though I thought, in my opinion, it wasn’t enough. On the day of the Marketplace, I was frightened and also terrified. I didn’t set up my booth because I was going to set it up with my dad later, but before the Marketplace started.
I was jealous of my other friends because I thought their booth might be more creative and better than my booth, but I knew that even though I might think of all of these problems, no matter what, I was going to get at least customers that would like my product. It was finally time for the Marketplace to start and people started to enter. I was surprised that a lot of people stopped by my booth. At the end, I wasn’t sold out, but I had made a lot more money than I expected. It was a total success! I just felt like a real business woman. It was also so fun that I even wanted to do it again next year. I will be donating some money to charity because I want to help others.
