Who said kids can’t run successful businesses? Kids can start and run a successful business as early as the 4th grade.
Of course, you still need to get good grades in school, but it’s also great to nurture your entrepreneurial skills.
If you have a great business idea and would like to nurture it to join the likes of Mikaila Ulmer and Jack Bonneau, you should write a plan for it.
If you’re a parent, you want the best for your child. What better way to secure their future than to help them convert their business idea into a small business?
You can help your kid put down their ideas and plans by writing a business plan with one of the many free business plan templates available online.
Before perfecting your plan, you can write a sample business plan to orient you to the dynamics of a business plan for kids.
The Components of a Sample Business Plan for Kids
Starting a business requires commitment to a plan, much like studying for your tests.
State Your Business Ideas
The first part of a good business plan will be laying out your big idea(s).
What’s the Big Idea?
Before helping to start your kid’s business, you should clearly understand your child’s idea and how you can convert it into a money generating venture.
Talk about the equipment you need to run the business, any relevant training you have (or will get), and how you intend to actualize the business plans.
Conduct Competitor Analysis
Competitor analysis is a breakdown of what your competitors offer, their prices, and their marketing strategies.
When you plan a business, you must know what your competitors offer to gain a competitive edge.
Some of the items you should include in your competitor analysis are:
- A product list for each competitor
- A price list for each product, for each competitor
- The needs that each competitor fulfils in the target market
- A list of the gaps in the market
- A proposal of how you intend to fill the gaps
Here’s a template of what your analysis should look like:
| Name of Competitor | Product | Price | Identified Gap | How to Fill the Gap |
| Competitor 1 | ||||
| Competitor 2 | ||||
| Competitor 3 |
Record Your Research Findings
As a parent helping your child develop a business plan, guide them through the research process and help them identify the gaps. You could even be helping your child improve their grades in school as they learn how to conduct research.
Support their idea with facts, statistics, and visual elements to make it as accurate as possible.
You and your kid can even create a template like the one below to help you record your research findings.
| Question | Yes | No |
| 1. | ||
| 2. | ||
| 3. | ||
| 4. | ||
| 5. | ||
| 6. |
Market Your Business
You already have your product and business laid out, but how do you get your target consumers to know about it?
A business is as good as its marketing strategy because it is the only way to make sales. When you, or your kid, write a business plan, map out a marketing path.
In the marketing section of your business plan, have the following segments:
- Product
- Price
- Promotion
- Place
What’s Your Product ?
Although you introduced your product or service in the first part of your business plan, you need to talk about it in detail here.
Explain what your product is, what it is made of, and how it’s different from other products in the market. If you’re selling a service, explain why and how it’s different from other similar services in the market.
If your product or service is the first in the industry, explain what it is, what gaps it fills, and why the consumer should buy it.
Name Your Price
What is the price tag for your product/service?
You can easily influence your customer base by offering them unbeatable prices for your product.
This is where your math lessons come in handy; striking a balance between your sales volume and your prices to make a decent profit.
Are You Investing in Product Promotion?
How do you intend to introduce and maintain your product in the market? Discuss the forms of advertising you intend to use for your merchandise and how effective the strategies will be.
For instance, do you intend to use social media campaigns, or will you be marketing on other forms of media such as television adverts and printables?
Discuss how your product will be packaged to entice prospective consumers. The name, packaging, and contents of your product speak volumes about your business.
Explain the brand name and how it speaks to your target market. You can also include a pictorial sample of your logo or packaging to help explain how your product connects with the intended consumer.
What’s Your Location?
When you finally start supplying your goods or services, how will your consumers access them?
Are you a purely online seller, or will you have a brick-and-mortar store? If you have several stores, be sure to provide detailed information about them.
If you sell online, give accurate and working links to your online store. You can also provide a guide on how consumers can access your shop and make purchases.
Organize Your Finances
According to Alfred Marshall, an economics mogul of his time, “Capital is that part of wealth which is devoted to obtaining further wealth.”
Your business needs both human and financial capital to produce, distribute and sell your product or service.
You can list down a management team and have a worksheet to show their responsibilities and how much you intend to pay them.
In your business plan, explain how much capital you need to get your business up and running. Provide a working figure with a breakdown of how you will use it.
Sourcing Capital
Explain how you intend to raise the startup costs for your business. Do you have savings, or do your parents/guardians intend to finance your project?
What about angel investors? Do you have any?
If you are a parent intending to finance your child’s business, will you be investing from your savings, or do you intend to get a loan?
Breakdown Capital Usage
At this level, you will explain how your capital will be used. How much do you need for manufacturing and distribution?
Are there any other overheads between manufacturing and selling your products/service? If there are, explain how much they will cost.
Return on Investment (RoI)
Here, you explain how you will get back your capital and realize profits from your business. Indicate how you will price your product/service and show the projected profit margin.
Also, provide a timeline for how soon you should have regained your capital. Give a projection of how much profit your business should be reeling in a specific time frame.
Pssst!
Successful kids’ businesses are not run by geniuses; they are owned and run by kids who were passionate enough to capitalize on their dreams.
Awaken Your Entrepreneurial Self
Building your successful business starts with creating a well-detailed business plan.
If you aspire to become one of those kid entrepreneurs or would like to grow your child’s business dream into a successful business, write down an actionable plan.
Actualize your great business idea by creating and following a great business plan.
