<div> <p>School&rsquo;s finally out, but before it ended on Wednesday I had an opportunity to learn an interesting lesson at an end-of-school event earlier in the week.</p> <p>My son&rsquo;s school runs several Market days during the year for the kids. Or I should say that the kids run the Market Day. Each kid (Kindergarten through 8th grade) gets seed money at the beginning of the year. I think it&rsquo;s about $100 (monopoly dollars). With this they buy a business license, space at a table and then set up signs and bring their wares to sell for Market Day. They can either make something to sell or bring something like tasty snacks or toys they no longer play with. The prices are usually pretty low, a couple of dollars here and there. They can hire another kid to run their table if they want to do some shopping. Their customers are other kids and parents who love to come and spend play money for a change! It&rsquo;s lots of fun and teaches the kids about commerce, negotiating skills, planning ahead, etc.</p> <p>At the end of the year, to bring the money back into the school bank, the parents turn the tables and run Government Day - charging grossly inflated prices for items of their own - to quickly snatch up all the dollars in the kid&rsquo;s bank accounts. Think $1000 toilets purchased by the Army or $50 K for a bridge to nowhere. Same concept.</p> <p>Anyhow, I had decided to sell some books from my family&rsquo;s overflowing bookcase at home. Get rid of the gift books from relatives that never hit it off with the kids, or the books that were now too young for us. Or the girl books that would never appeal to my boys. I dutifully set up my wares at the table I was assigned to, next to another parent - a father - who had ingeniously created little Lego race cars that came as a kit with instructions and packaged in sandwich baggies. I was charging $20 per book, he was charging $100 per lego kit.</p> <p>When Government Day officially opened you can guess what happened next.</p> <p>He sold out in 10 minutes, after causing a lot of havoc from the kids crowding around the table (we were in a difficult spot in the hall way right next to a doorway). When the multitudes had dispersed, his side of the table was empty and my side of the table was still full of books. No surprise. But I didn&rsquo;t let that get me down. I began picking up books one by one and describing them to the passersby and inviting them to purchase a book. I looked for books that would appeal to whoever was near by based on age, gender and interest (it helps to know your audience). Soon about half the books were sold. Then I began offering discounts, package deals, and finally deals like, &ldquo;find someone to buy this book and I&rsquo;ll give you 5 bucks.&rdquo; This worked especially well for kids who had spent all their money on the Lego cars and still wanted to buy a cupcake or some candy.</p> <p>By the end of Government Day the only books I had left were the two that my 3 year old had pulled out of the stack because he wasn&rsquo;t ready to part with them.</p> <p>Initially, I was struck by how having the right product makes selling effortless. I felt a little sorry for myself that my table partner was having such an easy time of it and made a mental note to myself to remember this for future reference. But once I started hawking my books, it also occurred to me that the kids would enjoy having new books to read, at a relatively cheaper cost. I had to work a little harder because my product wasn&rsquo;t as &ldquo;sexy&rdquo; but nevertheless, I was able to sell out by the end of the day.</p> <p>I came away from the experience with my eyes more open to the world of business and consumer psychology. It was an interesting day.</p> </div> 2009-06-26T18:50:43Z -5.9883 247 5219 true 15 26757 i-learned-a-business-lesson-at-my-kids-school-this-week 7 2009-06-29T10:24:52Z 2009-06-29T15:25:09Z

He sold out in 10 minutes, after causing a lot of havoc from the kids crowding around the table. When they had dispersed, his side of the table was empty. My side of the table was still full of books.

1 2009-06-29T15:25:09Z