by Ashley
After my last post about teaching teens to budget, it occurred to me I had never shared a fun venture my teens tried out last year (with hopes of continuing in the future)….they started a little side hustle moonlighting as the Easter Bunny!
Yes, seriously!
They had the idea around February. They wanted to offer a service where they would buy and stuff eggs with candy and small toys/prizes and deliver them – hiding them in the front and/or back yard – either at night (after kids had gone to sleep) or super early morning (before the sunrise) so parents the Easter Bunny could have the night off.
I helped them get organized with a list of what they would need. First, they worked together to create a flier on Canva that I could share on social media to our local neighborhood facebook group. They had to think through things like pricing and package options (e.g., 30 eggs for $40; 60 eggs for $65) and how payments would be handled (50% deposit due at time of order, the other 50% after service was completed). They even did some goal-setting: their goal was to get 4 orders for the season.
Once I posted the ad on social media (I waited and posted in mid-March, about a month before Easter), orders started coming in! They got 3 orders right away. I helped them set up a shared Google Sheet (like an Excel spreadsheet) so the girls could collaborate together. The sheet had columns for information like the person’s name who placed the order, their address, their preference for delivery timeframe, what their order size was, what was owed, and what had been paid.
Busy entering Easter egg orders!
Next up, we went shopping! I told the girls they would need to fund their business themselves. I was willing to help as an intermediary (posting the ad online and communicating with interested buyers), but I wasn’t going to fund the start-up process. So the girls dipped into their own savings and I took them to different stores to get supplies. We ended up at Dollar Tree for easter eggs and small toys, and Walmart for candies. The girls weighed decisions like chocolate candy (more expensive) versus non-chocolate candy (cheaper) and how much to buy, knowing that they wanted extras in case additional orders came in across time.
I helped encourage them to track their costs so they would have an accurate idea of their true profits at the end.
As Easter drew nearer, I re-posted the ad and had 2 additional sign-ups: 5 in total! Four of the orders were for the minimum quantity of eggs (a $40 order), but one was for a larger quantity (a $65 order)! They had exceeded their goal in terms of number of houses and in terms of amount ordered.
In the end, we ended up with exactly enough eggs and had to turn down one final family that had reached out the night before (we ran out of candy!). And the girls were rewarded handsomely. After subtracting their costs, they each made right at about $100!
It’s so funny seeing their different reactions. One of my daughters was thrilled and determined to hold the business again next year. My other daughter ended up being tired and grumpy from lack of sleep (they delivered late at night and pre-dawn so there was very little sleep that night), and she said the $100-ish wasn’t worth it. LOL!
Regardless of whether they do or don’t (or if one does and the other doesn’t), I’m thrilled for the lessons in entrepreneurship that the whole experience created. Such great lessons were learned about marketing/advertising, setting prices, tracking profits and losses, etc.
And a bonus for me – seeing what the girls put together with the free version of Canva was pretty impressive too. Since I’ve now officially opened an LLC, I’ve had the girls use Canva to create some social media “fliers” for my business. I’ve encouraged them to create a portfolio of their work, as these are real-world skills they’re developing. As a mom, it’s so rewarding to see my kids growing and developing in this business sense. I can’t wait to see what their future has in store!
Hi, I’m Ashley! Arizonan on paper, Texan at heart. Lover of running, blogging, and all things cheeeeese. Early 40s, married mother of two, working in academia. Trying to finally (finally!) pay off that ridiculous 6-digit student loan debt!
What a fun experience!