Teaching Good Things, Practical Skills for Real Life

Equipping Families with Practical Skills for Real Life!

Category Archives: Encouraging Young Entrepreneurs

Gifts that Encourage Real Life Skills – DYI

I am all about being practical and I love gifts that encourage real life skills!  Here is a great tutorial on how to turn an old desk into a workbench.

A visit to the thrift store, some creativity and a days work you can make this!

 

I love all the kitchen sets I’ve seen on Pintrest!

I will be making something similar to these for Peach!

Do you have any other DYI-Upcycle projects that encourage creativity and skills?

Don’t forget that our instructional DVDs are also great real life skill gifts!

Giving Generously: 40 Hour Emergency Candles

Here is a practical gift. Add a ribbon and a clever note  and this would be a great gift.

Place a book of matches and add a lid on it and you’ll have about 40-50 hours of light. These can be made for less than $2.00 if you are buying new jars, but less than $1.00 if you are recycling jars.

You could sell these for $5.00 easily, especially if you market them as “emergency” or “survival”  candles.

Go here to see how to make them (super easy), be sure to read the comment section, lots of great ideas.

Here are other frugal giving ideas! 



Encouraging Young Entrepreneurs – Joseph Marsh, Chicken Farmer

 

I’d like to introduce you to a young man that I know and attend church with each week, his name is Joseph Marsh, and he is 14 years old.
Joseph’s business is called Ridgetop Farms and he sells eggs and pullets ( young hens).
He chose this business because he enjoys working with chickens and has the pasture area to raise animals. He also enjoys interacting with customers.
Joseph has three brothers and three sisters, of whom he is the second oldest. His family moved out to the country when he was six, and since then they have been slowly expanding their farming. His family has raised a garden and invested in egg layers, broilers, and turkeys. In the past two years, he has turned the chickens into a bigger enterprise and expanded their number. God has blessed him with many good opportunities to expand his market and obtain the equipment necessary for chickens.
His parents have encouraged him to always be improving the end product, and they have also encouraged him in adding new enterprises to the ones he already does. His dad has helped him with projects and sometimes gives him new ideas about things.
Joseph has been homeschooled all his life, which  he is really grateful for.
He continues to educate himself with excellent farming and business books that provide great methods and practical knowledge, along with talking to other farmers.
There are times when people don’t take Joseph very seriously because of his age, they are surprised that a young person is interested in business and farming, but that doesn’t discourage him. :)
Joseph chose chicken farming so he could have the freedom to make his decisions, and have freedom to pursue certain things and not others. He likes building things and starting enterprises, however, he knows he has to stay within limits and not do something that would be impossible or something his parents would disapprove of.
What he finds most challenging is being flexible during the changes of seasons, because when dealing with animals, they can sometimes be unpredictable.
What he finds most rewarding about what he does is when a customer tells him they enjoy the eggs or chicken.
Since starting his chicken business Joseph believes he has grown the most in diligence, patience, and communication skills.
He uses his profits to save, give, and invest. He has also been known to give eggs to people who could not afford them.
Joseph would love to expand his business by adding honeybees and maybe some larger animals, primarily to have more products to sell to customers. He would also like to start an online business selling poultry supplies. He would like to do farming on a larger scale and operating online businesses when he is an adult.
His advice for young people that are considering starting their own business is,  ”Find skills you have or marketable products you could make, raise, or create. Then turn your idea into a business through developing a plan to sell your products or services to people, whether that’s through word-of-mouth, or a website. It’s always good to remember (myself included) that blessings, prosperity, and profit only come from the Lord.”
Joseph would love to answer any questions some of you may have, let me know if you’d like his email address.
 

1 Way Grown Stay-at-Home Daughters Make Money

Olivia has decided to make coupon/deal shopping for our family her part time job. :) The thing about a job is that you have to be committed, you have to do it even if you don’t ‘feel’ like it. I have shopped the deals from time to time, and there really is no excuse for why I don’t do it now, other than TIME. But if I were on Facebook less and surf the deals more I could make it work (there is today’s confession).

Anyway, Olivia is committed to adding to our family’s economy by shopping the deals. She spent about 4 hours making list, clipping and printing coupons, devising her shopping trip. You can’t save or make money without a good plan!

For us it is about a 45 minute drive to the good stores (which is another reason why I quit the deals). So Olivia and Emma decided to make a day of it. The two of them set out for a day of adventure, deal shopping and memory making!

You can read more about their adventure and memory making at Olivia’s blog.

She bought $191.00 worth of stuff for $41.00!!!

They make money by saving us money! This is the real stuff of life, this is what they will use when they marry!

People are always asking our daughters (21 and 18) what they do now that they are “graduated”.  I want to say, “How much time do you have?”  They do things just like this. Things like this free me up to spend more time with the younger children and not be so frazzled when my husband comes in from his work. Working together as a family is not easy, but it sure is good when everyone is on the same page. :)

I’ve written about how Family Life Makes Good Cents and this is one way to prove that!

Building a Family Economy- More Than Making Maple Syrup DVD Giveaway!

I just viewed the Moore Family’s latest DVD, More than Making Maple Syrup and I love it!  Whether you really do want to learn how to make maple syrup yourself to save money or make it to sell to help build your family economy; or if you just want to see how it is done as part of your homeschool curriculum this is the video for you.

What I love most about this video is that it is made by a down-to-earth family that really does work together. What a blessing it is to see that.

Again the more skills you have, the more marketable/profitable you and your family can be.

Every Christmas my mom and grandma gives us a jug of maple syrup that comes from the tapping of the trees on my grandmother’s farm. It’s like liquid gold. :)

This is a great film that shows everything from the tapping, to the cooking down, to the canning of the sap/syrup.

Save $3.00 if you buy this before Feb. 29, 2012.


More Than Making Maple Syrup
 

The Moore family is offering a giveaway for our readers.

The giveaway winner will be announced February 24, 2012.

To enter, all you have to do is leave me a comment telling me you’d like to be entered.

For additional entries (leave a separate comment for each):
  1. Post about this giveaway on Facebook.
  2. Post about this giveaway on Twitter.
  3. Post this giveaway on Google+.
  4. Write a post, linking to this giveaway, on your own Blog. (This is worth 3 entries. Please leave 3 separate comments.)
  5. Become a Public Follower through Google Friend Connect.
  6.  ”Like” Teaching Good Things on Facebook .

 

 

Linking to The Christian Home.

Building a Family Economy – Mint

I recently set up a Mint account (it’s free). Mint brings all your financial accounts together online or on your mobile device, automatically categorizes your transactions, lets you set budgets and helps you achieve your savings goals. Although I know I am not using it to it’s full potential yet, I love it so far.  It is a great free budgeting resource. Take an hour or two and set up an account. I’m going to have my older girls set up an account to help them learn more about budgeting.

Building a family economy is about managing what you have,

as much as it is trying to always make more!

 

Building a Family Economy – Selling Sweets/Food Cottage Laws

This is the best time of year to make some extra cash by selling sweets and other baked goods for the holidays.  With busy schedules and so many people not wanting to be in the kitchen, it is the perfect time to strap your apron on and profit from people willing to indulge their sweet tooth over the next few weeks! :)

There are 13 states (Alabama, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, and Utah)  that allow home-based baking and food processing for low-risk foods.

Here is a good article that explains the Food Cottage Law and licensing.

Here are a few suggestions:

  • What you sell must be REALLY GOOD, bread, cookies, pie, etc…
  • Master 2 or 3 things and stick with them , or even just 1 thing!
  • Pies delivered the day before Thanksgiving is a good selling point.
  • Try to target offices where there are a lot of women that work; they
    are usually more likely buy something fresh and homemade.
  • Think of family and friends that work in an office that might be able to give you a foot
    in the door.
  • Make a flier and let all of your friends, family and neighbors know!
  • Word of mouth is your best advertisement!
  • Take a bunch of samples on your first visit and get orders.
  • Make deliveries on the same day each week.
  • Fudge is a great Christmas item.
  • Presentation is everything! Be sure to package them nice, it makes a big difference.
  • Offer to ship your goods as gifts, package them well and charge a shipping fee.
  • Fall and Christmas festivals are a good place to sell, but you will have the expense of your booth.
  • Let your children make the sales pitch, perhaps dress them up with an apron or something…be creative!
  • Browse Pintrest and Martha Stewart for ideas.

Also posted over at The Legacy of the Home.

Building a Family Economy – Keep Business Debt Free (video)

Although this clip is about keeping your farm dept free it applies to most of us that are in start up home businesses.

  • Do things that take time and not money.
  • Take care of your nest egg!
  • Use your creativity to do for yourself.
  • Get familiar with your product/skill/service before you jump in.
  • Do something you like! Then do a little extra to make an income.
  • Network with people in your community. This can be your physical community, or if your business is online it would be your online community/social network.
  • Don’t plan beyond your learning curve.
  • Keep your business the size you can handle.

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