£5 school enterprise ideas

gillian62

My son, who is in Y6, is taking part in their school enterprise scheme. He has been given £5 and needs to buy and or make items and sell them at school, to friends and family. Any profits made can be reinvested to make more profit.

Does anyone have any ideas on what he can do please? They aren't allowed to make food unless it is fruit related. We are looking for something that is easy to do or make.

Thanks, Gillian.

Ladywhisper

I did young enterprise when at school. We chose candles. Just bought some cheap plain candles and got glitter/beads/stickers to decortate. Ended in good profit for each of our group and easy enough to do! Sure theres plently of other things you could buy cheap and decortate, always bit round the house you can use too.

celyn90

The ones that sold well when i was teaching were things like balloons filled with flour - with faces drawn on them and wool for hair.

http://www.ehow.com/how_2225375_squishy-balloon-balls.html

Lokolo

Its coming upto mothers day is it not? And Easter?

Buy some cheapo candles as suggested above, put up a few A4 posters around school advertising the candles + prices and say you will be selling them at lunchtime outside the hall or whatever. And make them put on it saying Perfect Gift for Mothers Day or whatever. Or sell cards.

GET ON IT!

Masomnia

I like the mothers' day card idea.

Can be made pretty cheaply and all the kids will want to buy them so they don't have to bother going to the shops after school, looks like they made the effort to make the card and so on. You've still got time to make some, invest profits in more materials to make more cards!

dizzie

An idea that my son had when he was in Primary school was to make rubber band balls (an enterprise he decided on for himself, not for any school project I have to say ). He bought a big bag of rubber bands (in various colours) and made little bouncy balls with them which he sold for £1 - £1.50 each ( I think he was auctioning them to the highest bidder!).

These went down great with his friends although they probably drove the teachers mad - children bouncing these little balls all over the playground. Still, he made a healthy profit judging from the weight of coins in his pencil case :cool:

oystercatcher

How about glass painting on jam jars or small glass pots etc and putting a tea light in. Glass painting can make something cheap look really nice if it's kept simple.

Oystercatcher

celyn90

Dizzie - That's genius! :rotfl: looks like you have a budding Richard Branson there

gillian62

Thanks for those ideas. We are quite interested in the candle idea, so are looking at what would be the best size to get, and price to charge for them.

I will also look through my craft box this weekend, to see what other things we could make, probably a few simple cards too.

He is able to change his ideas throughout the project, so we may try different ideas.

lynzpower

When I did BE at school we did hair scrunchies ( not quite as fashionable now though!) made them for pence ( scavving fabric from anywhere) and sold for about 50p each IIRC.

one idea I did have was jam making or even making a fantastic burger relish- onion marmalade - good also on ploughmans, sandwiches etc. This is cheap as anything and so easy to make, and definately gets one of the 5 a day in Whether there would be much of a market I dont know - in schools that is- if they have a table at the school fete I think it would do quite well. A sack of onions is only a pound or so, and you can easily get 10 jars out of one bag of onions, sell them for a quid each? they are definately a more of an adult buy though!

You can get soap making kits in toys r us, maybe worth having a look what they have in them? A personalised soap, emery board, and little samples? could make a nice mini treat box ( make out of card) with some sellophane on? Get the kids to go to large dept stores, write to companies to see what they can offer in terms of trial toiletries etc? I worked for a charity as a volunteer once and we hit the shops asking for toiletries from the counters in large stores etc, and got A LOT more than we thought we would. Might be worth a go, especially if the contents can be scavenged?

elektra-2007

have you seen the flannel reindeers? well they can be made into bunny ones for easter they cost about 50p each.
4 bars of soap 87p (fairy from wilkinsons)
4 white flannels 80p (buy the cheap ones)
some google eyes and pom pom nose
really easy to make...made them with beaver scouts look really effective.