Ages 13–15

The micro-business sprint

Six weeks, one small business, one page of real numbers at the end. Profit is what is left after everything, and most people find that out late.

About 25 minutes Read it themselves Earns The Profit & Loss Badge

The Quest

For the kid

Six weeks. One tiny business. Real customers, real money, a page of numbers at the end.

The goal is not to make a lot, but to find out what "profit" means by being the person who calculates it.

Week What you do
1 — Idea and costs Pick something you can make or do repeatedly. List every cost before you sell anything — materials, packaging, bus fare. Total it
2 — Price it Cost per unit, plus your time, plus a margin. Check what people nearby pay. Wildly off means one of your numbers is wrong, usually your time
3 — Make a small batch Ten, not fifty. Unsold stock is money sitting in a box
4 — Sell Family group chat, neighbours, a Saturday table. Write down every sale: what, how much, to whom
5 — Adjust one thing Only one. Change three and you cannot tell which change did it
6 — Count Money in, money out, what is left

Your mission

Build a one-page profit and loss sheet. Four lines:

  • Revenue — everything that came in.
  • Costs — everything you spent to make it.
  • Profit — revenue minus costs.
  • Your hourly rate — profit divided by the hours you worked.

Almost everybody's first business pays badly per hour. Knowing your own number is worth more than the money.

The Parent Playbook

For you — read before you start

Your role has a name, and picking the wrong one is the main way this level fails.

Be the investor, not the rescuer

An investor puts in money, asks hard questions, and lets the thing succeed or fail. A rescuer buys the leftover stock so nobody feels bad.

  • Lend the startup money and mean it. Twenty or thirty dollars, written down, repaid out of revenue.
  • Ask questions rather than giving answers. "How did you get to that price?" "What happens if only four people buy?" Let bad answers stand — customers correct them better than you can.
  • Drive them to the supply shop. Logistics is a legitimate parental contribution.

What to say

When they want to give up in week 3, which is when almost everybody does:

"You committed to six weeks. You can absolutely decide never to do this again in week six. Right now we are in the boring middle, and every business has one."

When it makes almost nothing:

"So what does that tell you your hour is worth? And what would you change to double it?"

Mistake to avoid

Do not buy the unsold stock. Twelve unsold cupcakes are the most valuable thing in the six weeks — they are what "I made too many" feels like.

Do not fix the pricing for them.

Do not let the family be the only customers. One stranger's purchase is worth ten from relatives, who buy out of love.

Do It Together

The 25-minute activity

Pitch night and the P&L 20 minutes at the start, 20 at the end · paper, a calculator

At the start — pitch night. They present: what it is, what it costs to make, what they will charge, who will buy, how many they can sell. You ask three hard questions, then decide whether to lend. Be willing to say "not at that price."

At the end — the P&L.

  1. Lay out every receipt and every sale on the table. Physical paper, not a tidy summary.
  2. Add up revenue, then costs. Subtract. Let them do the arithmetic before you correct anything.
  3. Count the hours honestly and divide profit by hours. Sit with that number.
  4. Repay the loan out of the profit, in cash. The handover matters.
  5. Ask the closing three: "What would you charge next time?" "What was the biggest waste of money?" "Would you do it again?"
  6. Keep the sheet. On a job application at seventeen, "I ran a business for six weeks and here are the numbers" is uncommon.

Done? Tick the level. Next: the money that disappears inside games and apps.

Done with level 04?

Fills in one leaf on the Growers map and earns The Profit & Loss Badge. Kept in this browser only — nothing about your child is sent anywhere.

Financial education, not advice. It describes how Canadian accounts and programs work and recommends no product, provider or investment. Dollar figures are statutory.