While some kids spend their school breaks and summer vacations playing video games, exploring the outdoors or catching up on sleep, others prioritize organizing product inventory, learning marketing strategies and ringing up sales. The next generation of Oklahoma business owners is coming in strong, with an eye for profit-making and hearts for giving back. Serenity, Malachi and Sophie share how their respective businesses launched, what they’ve learned and their plans for the future.
Serenity Jade
Serenity JadeOwner: Serenity, age 11
Product: Beaded bracelets with messages of positivity
Serenity will be in the seventh grade at Deer Creek Middle School this fall, a time in many kids’ lives when they are plagued by feelings of inadequacy and awkwardness. Not so for this confident, affirmative tween, who has built a business based on helping others see the best in themselves and the world around them. Spreading positivity, one bead a time, is Serenity’s mission, and mom Chasity says her daughter’s determination, thoughtfulness and sincerity in seeking to help those around her make her incredibly proud.
Why has it been so important for you to focus your business on positivity?
Serenity: I feel like there is too much hate and bullying, and people don’t understand how much it affects people. It’s not right, so I want to spread positivity. I’ve learned that being positive makes me feel better about myself, and I want to inspire others to be happy. I put my creativity and the power of positivity together, and Serenity Jade became a business.
With negative self-talk so common among kids and adults alike, what advice do you have for
other kids your age to think positively?
Serenity: I’d tell them to think about how they were put on this earth for a reason. They were made the way God wanted them to be. Everyone has a purpose in life; they are unique and they don’t have to be like everyone else.
What have you learned by starting a business?
Serenity: I’ve learned how to set up a website. And I’ve learned that I have to trust the process, that I won’t be successful right away but not to give up. I’ve learned to be more confident in myself.
What’s been the most fun?
Serenity: The most fun part is making the bracelets and thinking of the words to put on them. It’s fun to think about inspiring others and making a difference.
What advice do you have for other kids wanting to start a business?
Serenity: Be confident in yourself and be positive in everything
you do. Believe in yourself and trust the process.
What are you most proud of about your business
and yourself in being an entrepreneur?
Serenity: I’m proud that my bracelets are handmade and that I’m making a difference, not just selling a product.
What’s next for Serenity Jade?
Serenity: I want to get a bigger inventory, and I want to do birthday parties where I bring the beads and make bracelets with people.
Malachi’s Workshop
Malachi’s WorkshopOwner: Malachi, age 10
Product: Bluebird houses
Malachi was unsure about launching a business on his own, so he enlisted the help of older brother Elijah and Malachi’s Workshop was born. Malachi is the ringleader with Elijah offering quiet encouragement and confidence-bolstering advice to his younger brother. Now Malachi is stepping out to run the business on his own, assured in his in his abilities both to build and sell.
Malachi’s business was inspired by his grandfather, who builds birdhouses with all his grandchildren. That experience ignited a spark in the kid entrepreneur, who offers both ready-made birdhouses and kits for buyers to build the houses themselves. Malachi’s mom Trish says when his homeschool work is done, her son immediately rushes to tinker with building or engineering activities. She’s been especially proud to watch her once-shy son thrive as a confident business owner who prioritizes giving back, giving a portion of profits to a nonprofit.
Why has it been important to you to donate a portion
of your profits?
Malachi: Compassion International helps kids around the world get out of poverty, get an education, go to church, get meals and medical help. I feel like we need to be helping those people that need to get out of poverty. My mom has sponsored a child since she was 16, and then I started sponsoring a child who [shares] my birthday. He is from Ghana. We send him letters and he sends us letters back.
What has been the hardest part about owning a business?
Malachi: Getting the products done in a timely manner can be a challenge.
What have you learned by starting a business?
Malachi: I have learned a lot about birds and how to make the birdhouses, like if you put a perch on the house, blue jays can perch there and eat [the bluebirds’] eggs. At my first business fair I was nervous to talk to people when they came up to our table, but my brother helped me and encouraged me, and now I’m more confident.
What’s been the most fun?
Malachi: Bossing people around, especially my brother! I like doing stuff with my hands and I always have. I want to be a carpenter
one day.
What advice do you have for other kids wanting to start a business?
Malachi: Dress nicely and present yourself well to people and they will take you more seriously. Take notes and learn from other people in the same [industry].
What are you proudest of about your business and yourself in being an entrepreneur?
Malachi: It feels good to accomplish something and to know that I’ve done something to help people around the world when I sell my birdhouses.
What’s next for Malachi’s Workshop?
Malachi: I’m making bat houses and stove top covers, starting to do cutting boards and really anything I can make with wood.
Fifi
FifiOwner: Sophia, age 11
Products: Origami crane earrings, knitted animals, molded crayons
Sophia, whose nickname is Fifi, built her business of the same name around her artistic expression. Though her initial focus was on origami crane earrings, for which she won a 2019 Oklahoma State Fair blue ribbon, she’s continued to expand and grow her business with new product offerings. The creative tween will be in sixth grade at Summit Middle School in Edmond, where she gives a portion of her proceeds to the Kindness Club, founded by a friend who passed away. Sophia’s close-knit family enjoys both creating and serving their community together, Sophia’s mom Lingchu laughingly recalling a toilet paper pendant necklace made as a tribute to the family’s COVID-19 quarantine. The pandemic also prompted Sophia’s latest commitment to donate to OU Children’s Hospital through Fifi.
What’s been your favorite product to make?
Sophia: My crane earrings. I saw the earrings in the Oklahoma City Museum of Art and just followed the design of the crane. They are all different sizes and no crane is the same.
What’s so special to you
about origami?
Sophia: It’s like I am at peace when I am making it. Each little crane becomes part of someone or something bigger.
What’s been the most fun?
Sophia: The best part is creating new things.
What advice do you have for other kids wanting to start a business?
Sophia: Figure out what your merchandise is going to be, then figure out an allowance for getting supplies and then how much they are going to cost [to sell].
What are you proudest of about your business and yourself in being an entrepreneur?
Sophia: I’m proud of myself for stepping into the light. I’m not a big people person and I don’t even know the people who are coming up to buy things [at craft fairs]. I think I’m more confident. I’m proud that I make my products by hand.
What’s next for Fifi?
Sophia: At first I just had crane earrings, then I started making molded crayons and now I am starting to do string art and getting into carpentry. I’m thinking about setting up a website, too.
Learn more about these super kids, including their best business advice for other kid-prenuers, at metrofamilymagazine.com/
