So this is how it starts.  5 flavors,1 carbonating canister, 3 bottles and 117 dollars.   It’s the creation of Ryan’s first business venture.

Ryan’s paper route has earned him a lot more than just his $41 paycheck each month.  It’s taught him life lessons that only having a job can do.  Being accountable to a “boss” that’s not your mom, giving customers that extra special service, pounding the pavement for new subscriptions, planning ahead, being prepared, and the latest one…clipping coupons.

Ryan actually reads the paper he throws on driveways.  He’ll often come in from the garage saying, “Hey, mom, did you know there was a bomb scare at Sierra College yesterday?”  or “Whitney High did a real car crash simulation to show kids about drinking a driving with a funeral and everything.”   That story made quite the impression.  

And now he’s reading the coupons.

Ryan’s a big fan of taking care of our planet.  He earns extra money collecting recyclables with Nathan and doesn’t waste anything.  So when he saw the coupon in the paper that said Make soda.  SAVE MONEY.  Clean planet.  he was sold.  He wanted to do all those things.

The coupon was actually a mail-in rebate worth $20 off the purchase of soda stream, a home soda maker.  He figured he could save the planet while making a little extra money by setting up a home-made soda stand.  (He’s not going to save the planet at home because we don’t drink soda!)

So we went out to Kohls after running his paper route yesterday and bought all the supplies.  He’s learning things like initial investment, recurring expenses, profit, etc.  

Before we left for Kohls he spent some time really thinking everything through.  After all, he was spending his own hard-earned money on this venture.  When kids pay for their own stuff, it has more meaning.   And because he has now sunk a lot of money into this, he really wants it to succeed.

After firing up the carbonater and making his first liter of root beer (it was actually pretty good) he started crunching numbers so that he knew exactly how much it cost him to make one soda.  Here’s an example:  the flavors cost him $2.99 each.  Each one makes 12 liters.  $2.99 divided by 12 is approximately 25.  Each liter, therefore, costs 25 cents.  He’s working on how many “cups” he’ll get out of each liter, then needs to do the same with the carbonation, the cost of the cups and ice. It’s a great math lesson.

He’d have it all figured out but I stopped him at 9:30pm because he hadn’t finished packing for his honor band trip to Disneyland.  Maybe he’s working on it right now on the double-decker bus.  Probably not.  He’s on a double-decker bus with his friends!

His first real test will be the Kids’-Only yard sale coming up next Saturday. After that he plans on having soda stands and selling at the soccer games he refs…when he’s not reffing.  He wants to donate 10% of his profits to charity.  I told him I thought that was a great idea.

At some point he’s going to have to square with the fact that selling the soda means he needs to buy cups which means the cups will need to be thrown away…

Ryan has learned a lot having a paper route.   And the interesting thing is that working for somebody else has introduced him to the idea of working for himself.