Cookie King
George is our youngest son. He doesn't excel much at sport but he's a good boy. A parent couldn't ask for any better. He's a bright kid and popular in school but he sometimes loses marks because his writing is not so neat. He's something of a non-conformist and that can jar with teachers.
The more I look at George, the more I see myself. He's a fully paid up contrary'un as we say in Yorkshire. But I'm sure that what he doesn't get in UCCA points he will more than make up for in pure chutzpah.
George has a certain entrepreneurial spark that I can't recognise in any other member of the family, me included. He understands things about business beyond his years.
A little while back he began selling cookies at school. He would buy a few packs from the local Tesco, split them up and sell the biscuits separately. This way he was clearing about £7.50 a day profit for about 10 minutes work.
He knew just where to stand near the lockers, knew what his customers wanted and priced his product at a nice round figure. He didn't sell too many and never had any left over, thus ensuring that demand always outstripped supply. He could teach some of those dummies on Alan Sugar's The Apprentice a thing or two.
George doesn't get much spending money compared with many of the other kids in his school so he was saving what he made in order to buy a big ticket item such as computer game - the sort of thing he rarely gets from his parents.
I suppose he was taking advantage of the Jamie Oliver effect where schools have been persuaded to adopt healthier diets, leaving scope for opportunists to cash in on a persistent teenage weakness for biscuits.
It was too good to last. A teacher got wind of his business and George's biscuit trade has been knocked on the head. That's the trouble with our schools. They neither know nor care about entrepreneurship.
A good teacher might have taken him in hand, might have tried to get a cut for the school or suggested ways in which he could have modified his selling towards healthier lifestyles. But they don't do A-levels in selling. If they did George would be up for an A*.
I asked him how he felt and he seemed quite relaxed about it. “I'll leave it a while until things have quietened down then start again,” he says. That's ma boy.
The more I look at George, the more I see myself. He's a fully paid up contrary'un as we say in Yorkshire. But I'm sure that what he doesn't get in UCCA points he will more than make up for in pure chutzpah.
George has a certain entrepreneurial spark that I can't recognise in any other member of the family, me included. He understands things about business beyond his years.
A little while back he began selling cookies at school. He would buy a few packs from the local Tesco, split them up and sell the biscuits separately. This way he was clearing about £7.50 a day profit for about 10 minutes work.
He knew just where to stand near the lockers, knew what his customers wanted and priced his product at a nice round figure. He didn't sell too many and never had any left over, thus ensuring that demand always outstripped supply. He could teach some of those dummies on Alan Sugar's The Apprentice a thing or two.
George doesn't get much spending money compared with many of the other kids in his school so he was saving what he made in order to buy a big ticket item such as computer game - the sort of thing he rarely gets from his parents.
I suppose he was taking advantage of the Jamie Oliver effect where schools have been persuaded to adopt healthier diets, leaving scope for opportunists to cash in on a persistent teenage weakness for biscuits.
It was too good to last. A teacher got wind of his business and George's biscuit trade has been knocked on the head. That's the trouble with our schools. They neither know nor care about entrepreneurship.
A good teacher might have taken him in hand, might have tried to get a cut for the school or suggested ways in which he could have modified his selling towards healthier lifestyles. But they don't do A-levels in selling. If they did George would be up for an A*.
I asked him how he felt and he seemed quite relaxed about it. “I'll leave it a while until things have quietened down then start again,” he says. That's ma boy.
Labels: A-levels, Alan Sugar, chutzpah, cookies, entrepreneurship, George, Jamie Oliver, Tesco, The Apprentice, UCCA, Yorkshire
posted by Richard Donkin at
3:18 PM
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