The “shop local” campaign is focused on supporting small businesses and is especially imperative during the holiday season when consumers buy from independent retailers during the busiest shopping season of the year. Here in the Tri-Community, the shopping local frenzy kicked off immediately after Thanksgiving with the Wrightwood Mountain Holiday Celebration and the Shop Small Business Saturday event which brought all of our local businesses into the forefront for this past holiday shopping season.
This year, the support for local businesses was extended into Sunday, and on November 26th a Kids Market was presented at the new Community Arts Center & Gallery in Wrightwood to highlight the newest small businesses in town. But this wasn’t your normal artisans market, instead, each product at the event was locally made and run entirely by young girls ages 10-14 years old.
Leading up to the big event, each girl completed 8 weeks in an Entrepreneurial Track homeschooling program lead by local business owner and homeschooling teacher, Daniela Rey. “It’s good to start learning about businesses at this age where they have their own ideas and you can see everyone had their own personalities reflected in their products” said Daniela, who sells her own herbal teas and natural products called Growing Up Rooted, made locally in Wrightwood.
During the program, the girls experienced exactly what it entails to start a small business. Each participant had to come up with a business idea by developing a product, perform market research to set pricing structures, design a logo, make labels, and photograph their final creations to be sold. Another key focus of the program was community feedback where the girls helped each other develop their brands. By listening to their peers in a group setting, the young ladies were able to better understand their consumers and make adjustments to their product offerings. “What I learned is to come up with a prototype and start trying it out because it’s important to understand that it takes a community [to support a business] and it needs to include your community” said Daniela.
The community support was clearly in effect at the Kids Market that day, as the arts center was packed full of customers. The young businesses included: body scrubs being sold by Emilia’s Essentials, colorful bracelets by Bestie Bracelets, greeting cards by Reagan Cards, dehydrated fruit snacks by Rooty Fruity, lip balms by Lucy Loves Cosmetics and wand creations by Weirdo Wands. The Kids Market was so successful that each young entrepreneur ended up making $100+ in sales that day. “That’s something that we lack in society, is that we don’t talk about money. Allowing them to own their own company opens their minds to the value of money and the value of earning it yourself” said Daniela.
In fact, a strong case for the program to be focused on young girls is the disparities that they will likely encounter once they grow up and enter into the workforce. According to the 2019-2021 census “Men continued to outnumber women among full-time, year-round paid workers: 61.7 million compared to 47.8 million” (www.census.gov) While women are more likely to be focused on family needs, a full-time job for both parents might not suffice for some households. Therefore starting a small business gives women the freedom to create their own work culture and work hours. While these young ladies might not be interested in pursuing a business degree just yet, the program does allow them to have the confidence to start their own business if they do ever experience job shortages or job insecurity in the future.
Daniela will lead a kid’s Entrepreneurial Club in the Spring which will be open to both boys and girls this time, ages 10-15 years old. The 8 week program will run from April-May 2024 and meet on Wednesdays from 2pm-4pm in Wrightwood. Registration will be open in January 2024 and for more information or to sign up for the program visit www.growinguprooted.com/garden-school
