Summer Day Camp
Description:
This job required the employment of at least two individuals, including myself. Services were to care for elementary age children during summer vacation, in essence a nanny or day care program. Responsibilities are to provide entertainment, leisure activities, and a growing environment for those who attend the Summer Day Camp while ensuring a wholesome and safe locale.
How I got the idea / found the employment:
I did this myself, so the idea essentially came from personal experience. It began because my friend/partner and I had a goal to earn money for the summer to spend on clothes. As friends, we would often babysit together for the same family who were our neighbors and our conversation about how to earn our goal was focused around what our skills and capabilities were. From the past experience of babysitting we contemplated we could earn more money on an even larger scale, by watching more kids. All of this was in order reach our summer goal more easily.
Challenges I faced, and how I overcame them:
There were many challenges; the questions who, what, and where were the main concerns. My partner in this conveniently owned a storage building on her families property. We were given permission to use this if we cleaned it out, so that is how I overcame where to host the Summer Day Camp. Next we needed to establish clientele, and we did this by putting up informational flyers and inviting people we knew who might be interested in our services. For the most part the flyers were not successful, but we still gave them a try. Once a few kids had signed up for the Summer day camp my partner and I started to worry about what activities to do. We planned together different lessons, games, and things to occupy the time we would be watching kids.
What I learned:
Networking is by far the most effective and successful way to get things done, it is really important to use the resources available to you. Don’t be afraid to ask someone who you know can help you out, as long as you know them, otherwise it would be rude. Also, anticipate on the work to be harder than you imagine, starting up a business is hard to do.
Supervisor of Boy-scout merit badge camp
Description:
This is the creative teen business that my husband ran for 2 summers when he was in high school. Each summer he ran eight 1-week camps ( 4 hours a day, 5 days a week)for boy scouts to earn a merit badge. There were 10-12 boys at each camp. He was very good at science and would read up the requirements for the merit badge. Then he would facilitate doing all of the requirements mixed with fun and games. He went around the neighborhood and asked all the mothers if they would like their sons to come to this camp and earn a merit badge. The mothers thought that this was a great idea and paid 60 dollars per child for the 1-week camp. Costs were minimal. Each child brought their own lunch, but my husband paid for supplies for the merit badge requirements (such as a rocket kit to build and shoot off a rocket). He was the only employee. He had to be accountable for all the boys, provide a fun time, but also have the knowledge base to help the boys learn about the merit badge they were completing. In order to do a camp like this, it would be helpful to have been a boy scout and it is best to do these camps in the summer months when the weather is nice. My husband made $4,000 each summer for just 160 hours of camp. That means that he made 25 dollars an hour. Not a bad pay for a summer job.
How I got the idea / found the employment:
My husband got this idea when he was 15 years old. He was sitting down with his mom trying to find a way to earn some money in the summer. My husband and his mother started talking about how his mom didn’t have time to help his younger brothers do all of their merit badge requirements. Josh thought that probably a lot of moms felt this way. Josh went around asking moms at church if they would pay $60 dollars for their sons to be out of their hair for 4 hours a day and earn a merit badge as well. The moms were very excited about this idea. In fact, the moms were so eager to participate in my husband’s business that he had to do 8 separate camps with at least 10 boys in each camp.
Challenges I faced, and how I overcame them:
It was hard to find new people to do these camps after the group of boys had completed the merit badge. It was a challenge to call people and sell this business to them, it took a lot of courage for a high school kid. But over all the moms were very excited about this. When he would get scared to make a phone call, he would just remind himself that so many people loved this business and all he had to do is let them know it was available. If my husband were to mentor a teen doing this business he would advise them to spend a good amount of time recruiting and advertising and not get discouraged.
What I learned:
My husband learned how to make an idea profitable. He learned how to interact with younger children. He learned how to make science fun, this is a skill that he has taken with him in his adult years in teaching and tutoring people. This was a useful entrepreneurial experience because it made a lot of money that helped my husband pay for his mission, and it also taught him to be creative. To this day he has an entrepreneurial mind set and is able to be successful in all of his endeavors.