The Money Camp Teaches Kids about Finances

Campers learn to start business, handle money

By Pamela LeBlanc
Austin American-Statesman
February 14, 2009

Forget tents, lakes and campfires. At The Money Academy’s Grow Your Own Money Entrepreneur Camp, it’s all about cold, hard cash.

During the course of a week, campers cook up a business idea, develop a marketing plan and analyze expenses and potential profit. Then they set up shop, peddling their services or wares to the customers lunching at the health food restaurant on Toomey Road.

“What kids need to know is ‘Why do we need money?’ and ‘Why isn’t everything free?’ ” says The Money Academy founder Gayle Skiera. “They need to know how money works and why.”

Skiera started the Money Academy in 2004 because she wanted her daughter to better understand the world of finances. Worried that children today learn about money from TV and the Internet, she put together a camp where students come up with a business plan, borrow money to start a company and pay interest on it. The academy also offers financial coaching, after-school programs and workshops for adults.

Parents send their kids to the camp to gain an understanding of how the world works, Skiera says. Kids go because they get to earn money. Typically, they earn from $7 to $22 each during the session.

“They made the money. It’s theirs,” Skiera says. As Skiera says, that sure beats poison ivy.

At the beginning of the week, the campers come up with a product they think they can sell. The first ideas — foam visors or video games — aren’t necessarily the best. But after the campers head out, clipboard and pen in hand to survey customers, they usually come up with something that works.

Past groups have sold bath salts, hand-dipped candles, cards and potted herbs. Once, a group sold live ladybugs. Knowing they couldn’t fly if they were cold, they kept the bugs chilled. Turns out they could still crawl.

“We had a room full of ladybugs,” Skiera says.

They did manage to bag up the critters, but when it came time to sell, some of the bugs baked in the sun before the campers realized they needed to keep them in coolers.

“We let them fail all over the place,” Skiera says. “You learn to ride a bicycle by falling off.”

This time, the campers at the Casa de Luz restaurant location decide to decorate and sell reusable canvas bags. Staffers purchase bags from a hobby store, and the campers, who call their company El Mundo Verde, paint them with environmentally friendly slogans and designs.

“We’re outside a health restaurant and it seems like something they’d like,” says Kara Fox, 12.

El Mundo Verde spent $58.09 at beginning of the week for supplies, and buys a few more things as the week progresses. They save receipts and keep financial records. Campers rotate through various roles within the company, from CEO to sales manager.

“CEO is hard,” says Matthew Williamson, 11. “It’s kind of different because it’s other 13-year-olds trying to listen to an 11-year-old. So they don’t listen.”

Today, it’s Brent Davis’ turn to take the helm. He organizes a quick staff meeting as soon as the group returns from a field trip to Shady Grove, where they learn a little about what it’s like to operate a restaurant.

“We need to make a lot of product in a little time, so there’s no time to mess around,” Davis tells the troops.

Within minutes, the room is bustling. Some paint canvas bags, others set up merchandise on an outdoor table. A few count out money.

Paul Dutton, 13, sales manager for the day, flutters around the sales table, positioned under a shade tree. A sign says “Paper bags kill our trees. Plastic bags take 10,000 years to decompose. Hurry. Last day.”

The bags sell for $10.25 to $13.25 each, but it takes a while to draw any interest.

“It’s a good thing you’re selling them, but I’ve got four in my car right now,” one potential customer says as she walks past.

After a 20-minute lull, a man with two kids in tow pauses to survey the goods. They pick out a bag, and he hands over the payment.

“Thank you,” he says. “We’re very happy with our purchase.”

Such transactions help teach campers how a business works and puts value on money.

“I think he’s going to learn how to be an entrepreneur, and I’m an entrepreneur,” says James Davis, whose son attends camp. “You have to expose children to everything. As you get older, your horizons shrink. I want to make sure my son’s horizons are always broad.”

So which would kids rather — a camp packed with swimming and baseball or money and business?

“I think I’d rather be at a camp like this because you pretty much learn something,” says Rachel Hatton, 11, the day’s sales presentation manager. “I’ve learned how to manage my money and how to save it.”

She has plans to set up a lemonade stand, and an impressive goal in sight: She’s going to buy a Wii computer game system.

pleblanc@statesman.com; 445-3994

Austin American-Statesman