USES kids host Entrepreneurs Market

The children of Boston-based nonprofit United South End Settlements (USES) once again hosted their annual USES Entrepreneurs Market on August 1. Completely run by the students of the club48 afterschool and out-of-school-time program, this market aims to teach kids between the ages of 5-13 about the power of entrepreneurship, leadership, and collaboration as they create and sell their own handmade items to the public in the South End neighborhood.

The program was introduced by Kaiti Coffin, Director of Youth and Family Mobility Programming at USES, and developed with her colleagues Breana Morgan and Elizabeth Sherr. "I saw other programs create this neat learning experience for their kids where mathematics, creativity, and business skills were taught together in a fun way. So I thought, how could we make this fit into our two week summer programming sessions?"

The process starts with each classroom in the club48 program tasked with creating a business idea and a product to sell at the Entrepreneurs Market. The students have one week to name their business, determine what they want to sell, pick a selling price, and figure out how much one item costs to create. Each classroom then presents its concept to an adult panel, made up of USES staff and a USES Board member or volunteer. At the end of their presentation, the students are expected to ask for a loan. Approval rates are always in the kids' favor — not once has a business loan been denied.

During their second and final week, the students focus on making posters, putting up neighborhood flyers and creating their items to sell at the upcoming market, which typically occurs at the end of their second week. "The kids usually want to make different types of jewelry or keychains or some sort of food item like snow cones," says Coffin. "It's great when they choose something easy enough that they can make ahead of time. One year, we had a younger group who wanted to make dream catchers and they ended up being so complicated to make that the adults had to come in and make them with the kids."

On the day of the market, kids set up their vendors in the USES courtyard and figure out who will be running each cash register and helping customers. With the Entrepreneurs Market open to the public, students get to learn about direct communication, respect, and service in real time with people they have never met.

"They learn so much through this market — not only how to create a business, sell items, and repay a loan, but they learn how to get in front of people, present ideas, and how to answer questions on the fly," Coffin shares.

As the final piece to the project, the kids determine if they can repay their loans and if there are any funds leftover which they can use to celebrate their hard work. Now in its third year, the kids once again landed in the green. Students chose to celebrate with a pizza, chicken, and fries party in two classrooms. Another classroom chose a movie day with popcorn and candy, and another decided to celebrate with Happy Meals and a new game for their class.

Coffin hopes that USES will continue the Entrepreneurs Market in their summer programming for years to come. "This market provides an opportunity for different students to shine in different areas. All the students are met with challenges and it's very cool to see how each student shines every year."