Flash Back Friday: [Solopreneur Edition] Six & Savvy

Flashback Fridays: taking a walk back in my entrepreneurial past.

You know how they say some people are born to be entrepreneurs. I never thought that about myself. Looking back though there are many factors that connect the dots & create a picture of the entrepreneurial dream.

Technically I was the only child. My sister and I are 13 years apart. I'm the youngest.

I had a lot of free time to myself.

My mamar had a nice perfume collection. I would spray and spray the various smells until I couldn't breathe. My mama would fuss, but I didn't mind, I was busy creating.

I would pretend that I was a superstar and I was going to an event and everyone couldn't keep their eyes off of me and were lured to me by my perfume.

I started spraying the mixes into old crayola water color paint containers. I would take them to school and sell them. One day my mama locked me out of her room. She said she was tired of me stealing her things and blah blah blah.

She locked me out of my warehouse.

Mama killed production with that.

By this point I was selling to other classrooms [remember elementary students don’t interact with other classes often].

THIS WAS BIG.

I had even had customers at my after school care program. Different aged kids at different schools too. .

I wasn't ready to close shop. The internet wasn't around yet, so I couldn’t go to google for answers.  

I found everything in my house that smelt good by the slightest. Mixing and mixing and the matches just weren't right.

I was nearing a dead end, and then it came to me: buy your own supplies.

I went to the craft store and got mini bottles. I purchased alcohol, essential oils, and baby powder. We’re not even going to talk about the powder.

I was back in business. I was selling the paint pots at school and aftercare during the week. On Saturdays I would set up shop up the neighborhood and sell the bigger bottles.

I was six and a savvy solopreneur !

Pink Lemonade Stand: Fostering Entrepreneurship in Girls

When you think of summer you think of children playing outdoors, vacations, barbecues, and generally a good time! At least I know I do. Many people think refreshing sweet tea and fresh lemonade. 

Mid winter I wanted fresh lemonade and thought how I would have the Diva groups start lemonade stands. Then I thought teach them to truly create a lemonade stand or whatever their creative minds can conjure up. An idea was born...

I am hosting a virtual Lemonade Stand for young girls next month through my nonprofit organization, Divas, Inc. It's fostering entrepreneurship in young girls and those young girls at hearts. 

We are in a choose yourself era, where you can make your dreams come true. You don't have to wait for someone to discover how amazing you are. You discover how amazing you are and you act on it. You create the things that you want and dream of, instead of PASSIVELY waiting. 

There are sooooo many gatekeepers and naysayers that prevent people from believing in themselves. There used to be a time when people had to convince others to believe in them, but these days people don't even believe in themselves. 

Societies and parents are on auto repeat "go to school, make good grades, and go to college." Even though it's proving that college degrees aren't keeping these student from being under-employed and on the long list of the unemployed. I will applaud the efforts to encourage girls to explore fields that have been traditionally considered male jobs. I'm all for furthering your education if thats what YOU want to do. 

However, I still rarely see girls being encouraged to be entrepreneurs. The purpose of the workshop is truly to encourage creativity and belief that if they dream big and work towards an established goal...they can make it happen. The event is open to girls 5 years old to 17 years old. We will create, have fun, create some more, chit chat, create and cultivate dream(ers). 

I have solicited local positive female entrepreneurs to assist with the activities and empowerment. I will keep you updated.  

How are you choosing yourself?