If you think their success crowds out their other studies, Karen made the news for being one of the few from her area to make it to the national Bible Bee competition. As committed Christians, they enjoy giving kits and supplies to missionaries in other countries to help teach sewing to the locals.

I hope this interview will inspire you to consider starting a family business as part of your homeschool. The skills these girls have learned cannot be found in any textbook! Remember them when making your Christmas gift list this year.

Can you tell us a little about your family?

We are two sisters, age 10 and 12, who live in rural OK.  We have been homeschooled all our lives, and we enjoy the flexibility and family togetherness that comes with that.  We have a strong Christian faith and desire to serve God in all aspects of our lives.  Living in the country gives us lots of opportunity to learn practical life skills.  Our dad is a university professor in a town about half an hour away.

What homeschool curriculum do you use? We do a lot of unit studies.  We used KONOS in the past and now we create our own studies.  Our favorite topic to study is American History.  Mama tries to include a lot of hands-on learning.

What/Who inspired the idea for your business? When we were trying to come up with ideas of something we could sell to earn some money we thought about making crafts.  As we talked about it with our mom we decided that if we sold kits to make the crafts then kids could learn a skill and have a fun product.  We noticed that kids didn’t seem to be sewing as much as they had in past generations.  So we decided to create kits that would teach hand sewing skills through a simple craft.

Are you comfortable sharing any of your financial details? Such as, did you use your own money to start the business, or obtain a loan from a relative, and have you regained your investment yet? Do you have specific financial goals you hope to reach in the next 1-3 years? Do you have specific plans for your earnings? (such as college fund, car, charity, etc) Our first sewing kits were made from items we already had on hand at home.  We’ve been blessed to receive donations of fabric, trims, buttons and bluejeans from folks who want to encourage our business efforts.  We have been diligent to reinvest in the business to cover any expenses that come up.  40% of our earnings goes back into the business.  20% goes to each of us as owners and the remaining 20% is tithed to a missions savings fund.
When we first started the business we focused on getting more kids interested in sewing, as well as trying to earn some money.  As things have grown we’ve also come to see our sewing kits as outreach tools.  We have found out about some missionaries who teach sewing to women in the local villages.  We are saving up for a short term visit to Honduras to work with them.

Who in your family is involved in your business, and what part do they play? Our mom is a retired accountant.  She uses her background to help us learn the skills needed to manage a business.  She also works with us in putting the kits together.

What online services have you used-that you liked…and didn’t like. We use Paypal for receiving payments for orders from our website.  Recently we started using E-junkie to manage the shopping cart and the affiliate program.  E-junkie is reasonably priced and seems to be working well so far.

How do you schedule your busy day? Any time mgmt tips? During the school year we try to complete all of our schoolwork by early afternoon.  When it’s time to work on the business we plan ahead and try to make a batch of 20 kits at a time.  If we have all the packaging printed and trimmed in advance then we can usually put together 20 kits in about 2 hours.  We try to keep 15 – 20 of each item in inventory so we can fill orders quickly.

What do you like best about having your own business? The best part of having our own business is being able to earn our own money.  We enjoy the reward of doing something ourselves and getting paid for our efforts.

What’s your biggest struggle in your business? The biggest challenge comes in balancing time spent on the business with other things we are involved in or want to do.

Building a website is often the biggest undertaking for new business owners. Would you share a little about your experience building a website? We are fortunate to have a good friend who is our website manager.  She has taken care of the technical requirements and offered suggestions on design and layout.  Our biggest decisions have been deciding what to say about the business on the site and how to gain more exposure.

What advice would you give other families/individuals looking at starting their own business?
Go for it!  Apply what you know.  Be creative.  Identify your niche.  Find mentors to learn from.  Be financially responsible.
Also, find people and organizations that promote young entrepreneurs.  Partner with them for education, encouragement and support.

Looking back, what would you have done differently? We think we could have had more growth through getting out and telling our story more to others.

Assuming you have achieved some element of success, exactly how long did it take you from the time you started until you felt your business began to “take off”? Six months after our business started we entered a statewide competition for new products and processes. We won first place in the elementary category and third place overall.  With a portion of the $750 prize money we had the website set up.  After that our products began to get more widespread exposure.  Through Internet connections we have shipped products to more than 20 states and overseas.

Thank you Weckler family, may you be blessed in your entrepreneurial journey! Visit their website at:  http://sewingkits4kids.com/

You can see more videos on their website, or do a search for “sewing kits 4 kids” on YouTube.

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photo credit: khrawlings

I read an excellent interview with Robert Kiyosaki (Rich Dad, Poor Dad) regarding prospering in a tough economy..and wanted to share this particular portion:

Q: What one thing would you tell someone who feels that this is the wrong time to be thinking about starting a small business?
A: I’d tell people to invest in themselves and teach their minds to see opportunities that their eyes don’t. This comes with financial education and personal development. This may be the very best of times for entrepreneurs with business ideas. Technology has leveled the playing field in terms of ease of entrance. In addition, there are more outlets than ever before to communicate your messages and tell your unique story.

One of the main missions of Homeschool-Entrepreneur is to encourage parents to equip their children with the ability to “see opportunity” in all situations. Like any other acquired skill, it takes instruction and practice. Once learned, it’s like riding a bike, it’s there for life.

The question still remains: HOW do you teach it to your kids?

First, I think parents have to have a good understanding of what it means to recognize opportunity -if they don’t already. I grew up with generations of entrepreneurs, so I thought everyone thought “entrepreneurially”. Discovering quite the opposite, I am seeing evidence every day of what John Gatto talks about how our culture (government?) works hard at creating ‘worker bees’.  Homeschooling gives parents a fresh opportunity to teach . . and equip . . .our children to be everything God created them to be.

Don’t worry if you are learning right along with your children. It’s a great bonding process when you are on a somewhat level playing (learning)  field with your children. If you are both learning how to think entrepreneurially, or to see opportunity, it’s a great confidence builder when your kid sees an idea first and you love it!

Secondly, the condition of the economy is a constant source of news headlines and can offer fertile ground to talk about solutions. There’s more talk every day about 2009 becoming the “Year of the Entrepreneur”. Never before has there been so much encouragement coming from every possible venue to think of ways to start your own business.

Another way to stimulate conversations about how different businesses survive economic pressures is to play Investopedia with your older student. Age is relative to maturity and competence, but this is a great time to have 2 Investopedia accounts and watch what happens to the stocks as conditions fluctuate. For those that aren’t familiar with Investopedia, it’s a stock simulator that uses real time numbers with your virtual $100,000 worth of stock investments that you buy and sell. No previous stock knowledge required. (and it’s free)

Another way to teach entrepreneurial thinking is to watch (suitable) TV. Really! Commercials on TV are usually only endured or used as time to grab a snack, but try to look at those commercials through the advertisers eyes. If that was your business, or your competitor, do you think you got your money’s worth? Was it effective in motivating the viewers to buy the product? You could even make it a school project to rate the commercials for effectiveness.

Another way TV can be an entrepreneurial learning tool are the many reality shows that demonstrate various business ventures. Cake Boss is a show about the inner workings of a cake decorating bakery, Everyday Edisons is a show illustrating how inventions are brought to market. I hope to compile a list of these type of shows for you soon. HOWEVER…always watch these shows with your student, you can discuss different situations in a light that suits the values that your family supports. It’s almost like having a chance to view the work world that your child will someday be immersed in, but now you have a chance to point out the good and the bad with them by your side.

Be on the alert for consumer frustrations such as products that don’t work like they should, or a problem that doesn’t appear to have a solution. How would you solve it if you had the money to develop a new product? A young lady (I think she was 12 at the time) that didn’t think the bacon was cooking efficiently in their family’s microwave designed a better way and it’s on the market and can now be found on Walmart’s shelves! I’ll have to look it up to be sure, but I think she’s a homeschooler!

These are just a few ideas to get your entrepreneurial gears turning, I’m sure you can come up with ways of your own. Be sure to keep a journal of all your observations, looking back later will be very enlightening, I promise! Starting a business of any kind is probably the best way to begin thinking like an entrepreneur, most people have no idea of all the details involved. The Small Business Administration has many resources to help you learn everything you’ll need to know and it’s completely free. Start Up Nation and Entrepreneur Magazine also has a wealth of ideas and information to help get you started. Of course, there’s our Homeschool Entrepreneur course too….

The important thing is to do just that…GET STARTED! Just DO it!

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