Growing up I used to love horse riding. When I was seven, I asked my parents if I could have my own pony. My dad said he would pay half but I had to pay the other half. Well with my first failed venture of selling fleas I had to find another way to earn some money.
My dad and I decided that buying some chickens and selling the eggs to the neighbours would be a good idea. Besides my mother liked the idea of having lots of fresh eggs. We did some basic sums made a number of assumptions (guesses), like how many eggs does a chicken lay a day (one most days) and how much food a chicken eats (who knows but a bag should last a month or so????) and how much we should charge for each egg. This was easy. We decided that my eggs should be more expensive than the shops. Yes, more expensive and for good reason, they were super fresh, home delivered and they came from the happiest free range chickens (I used to spend so much time with my chooks that when I walked into their enclosure they would run up to me so I could scratch them on their backs, weird fact I know but I can tell you they were happy chooks).
I bought my first pony about 6 months later, Tangerine, a strawberry roan pony, who was as fast as lightning and my pride and joy for many years.
What did I learn:
- The difference between turnover and profit. Profit was what was left over after I had paid for all their food. It was much less than the turnover was!
- The value of being able to differentiate my products.
- There is a difference between theory and reality. My business plan is what got me started and I needed to make some changes along the way.
- Business can be fun!
- Having a business can help you achieve your goals.
Author: Sam Harrop
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