For the past 3 years, our (now) 12 year old son, Vidur, has been setting up a game stall at our society’s Diwali mela.
This year, he earned 12K in profit.
And he can’t believe it!
While his objective was to have fun, I had a selfish motive.
To teach him about money.
1st year lesson: Sales.
3 years back, I wished for him to learn sales.
How to drive conversions?
How to select the prizes?
How to price?
He ran a “Break the can pyramid with 3 balls” game.
Made a sale of Rs. 4,000.
Had no idea about costs or something called profit.
But he understood that he could have charged more.
2nd year lesson: Costs.
Last year, I wished for him to learn costs.
Fixed costs (stall cost, game cost, etc.) and variable costs (prizes).
He had a budget to work with.
He ran the same game.
Made a sale of Rs. 8,500.
Spent Rs. 5,000 in prizes and Rs. 3,000 in fixed costs.
He thought he made Rs. 8,500.
Cute :))
3rd year lesson: Profits.
This year, I wished for him to learn how to make money.
And I saw a different Vidur at work!
He decided on a new game.
Players had to throw table-tennis balls into 10 cups arranged as a cone, each with a score of 1-10.
You total the score and win prizes on that basis.
I asked him how much he wanted to make in profit percentage.
He said, “At least 75%.”
Wow!
I said, “Okay – let’s play Excel Excel.” :))
Sales:
His game pitch was “Earn Rs. 15,000”
Score more than 30 points in 3 or 4 tries and pick any of the prizes – which included a Marshall speaker for Rs. 15,000 (he didn’t buy it – we already had one).
He priced 3 tries for Rs. 20, 4 tries for Rs. 40.
Costs:
He wanted most people to walk away with a prize.
So he set 5 slabs:
1-5 points: Lollipop (worth Rs. 5)
6-10 points: Frooti (worth Rs. 10)
11-20 points: Frooti + Oreo (worth Rs. 20)
21-30 points: Coke + Oreo + Kitkat (worth Rs. 30)
30+ points: Pick from the grand prizes
He went about buying these on a returnable basis from the local shop, which was smart.
Invested 2,700 to do so.
2,000 for the stall.
500 for misc setup.
Profits:
I was the cashier handling the money.
He was the one selling and making people play.
Enticing them to go for 4 tries (for Rs. 40).
Celebrating each ball dropping into a cup.
Mid-way, he realised the game was harder than he thought it would be.
So he encouraged people to play again, because it is a skill game eventually.
End result:
Sales: Rs. 16,600
Costs:
– Rs. 2,500 fixed
– Rs. 2,200 prizes
Profit: Rs. 11,900
He couldn’t believe he did it.
He kept 1,900 with himself and asked me to invest 10K.
While he gets a fair bit of money on his birthday and other family events, this is the most he has made on his own.
And I don’t think anything else will come close to making this money feel sweeter!
PS:
He has been investing nearly all the money he has got till date, through me.
Has invested 1.05L so far, which has reached 1.23L at an XIRR of 24%.