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Home-schooled kids learn entrepreneurship along with 3 Rs
by Jennifer Click

For the Pavelka kids, starting a business is old hat and failure is just a path to a new idea.

The four siblings — Rachel, 14, Christian, 13, Hannah, 11, and Amanya, 9 — have operated more than 20 businesses in the last eight years.

“When we start a business, we usually start really small just to see if it works,” Christian said.

Some businesses may only last a few days — for example, the puppet shows they performed during their mom’s piano lessons for 25 cents a ticket — but others have lasted several years, such as Rachel’s current business, Every Girlz Dream Jewelry Co. She buys wholesale jewelry from artisans in Peru and then finds outlets where she resells the jewelry.

After taking an entrepreneurship class from her mom, Janita, who home schools all four kids, Rachel was looking for business ideas when she stumbled across the Peruvian jewelry on eBay.

“I thought that it would be cool to sell,” she said.

Rachel has been selling the jewelry since August 2008 and now has two women who sell for her in Bellevue. She sells the jewelry through consignment shops and at the Nebraska State Fair, craft fairs and farmer’s markets. She also sells the jewelry through a Web site she designed.

New ways to make money

Paper routes were a standard moneymaker for the kids while they lived in Bellevue, but since moving to rural Oxford in June, they have had to search for other ways to supplement that income.

Hannah sells candies and candles as Hannah’s Treats, Christian sells natural soap as Starfish Soap Co., and Amanya sells sunflower seeds as A’s Seed Money. Rachel and Christian have set up Web sites, www.everygirlzdream.webs.com and www.starfishsoap.webs.com, and the other two girls sell their products through the family’s Web site, www.pavpacksales.webs.com, which Rachel manages.

The money they make goes into savings accounts or can be spent, and it supports charities.

“The rule of thumb is 10 percent to God, 10 percent to spend, and 80 percent to save,” Janita said.

In the past, the kids have supported charities they have worked with in and around Bellevue. Christian named his soap company Starfish Soap Co. for Starfish Ministry, a charity that fed up to 250 homeless and needy people in downtown Omaha every Sunday. Currently, the kids support ministries in Israel that help the poor and the needy, Voices of the Martyrs, anti-abortion causes, missionary friends, needy local families, and other local causes. They decide every month where their money is going to go.

If at first...

They work by the motto, “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.”

“We think if this business doesn’t succeed, we’ll try it again with another business,” Hannah said.

She has the newest business of the group, selling candies, toffees and spices from a company in South Dakota near where Janita grew up.

Hannah may be the sibling most interested in building her own business when she is older. This spring, she plans to raise goats for meat and dairy products, and she eventually wants to run her own veterinary office.

Some of the kids’ profits from cooperative efforts such as baby-sitting go into a family fund. In January, the family plans to travel to Florida to participate in Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend and then will go on to the theme parks. Money from the fund will help purchase tickets.

The kids also sell their items through Tradebank, one of the world’s largest trade exchanges. Money they make goes into an account with Tradebank, and they then can use it to barter for goods and services, such as lodging for their Florida trip.

A business education

With their endeavors, the youths have found that the first step is just to ask. By asking, they might end up with a customer they didn’t have before.

“I just let them go,” Janita said. “You have to let them dream.”

While Janita is the encourager, the kids’ dad, Tim, is the voice of reason, pointing out the costs and liabilities that come with having a business. But as the children work with their businesses, they are learning lessons that can be applied to many areas of life.

“I like making my own decisions,” Christian said.

Once they run out of supplies for their current business endeavor, they re-evaluate and then determine if they want to continue or go in another direction.

“They are always thinking of seed money for their next business,” Janita said.

And although they sometimes have disappointments, the kids are never down for long.

“If you make a mistake, you can try again,” Hannah said.

Keys to success

The four Pavelka siblings’ keys to business success:

1. Start small, Christian says
2. Evaluate how long it’s going to take to get your investment back, Rachel says
3. “Don’t be mean to the customer. Then they won’t want to buy from you,” Amanya says.
4. “You just have to ask,” Amanya says.
5. “If you make a mistake, you can try again,” Hannah says

Jennifer Chick is, among other things, a regional correspondent for the Kearney Hub. This article first appeared in the Kearney Hub.

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