It’s never too early, or too late, to discover your entrepreneurial side. If you don’t believe us, then take it from Michaela, a local middle school student who came up with a clever and creative way to earn money for a purchase she really wanted. Join Lynne on this week’s edition of Money, I’m Home as she chats with Michaela about what piques her entrepreneurial spirit.

 

 

[music]

0:00:06.6 Lynne Jarman-Johnson (LJJ): Money, I’m home. Welcome in. I’m Lynne Jarman-Johnson with Consumers Credit Union from finance to fitness, we have it all. And today we have a very special guest because we love to hear from our members and learn a little bit about what makes them save? What makes them special? And today we have Michaela, she is a middle schooler here in West Michigan. Michaela, thanks so much for being with us today.

0:00:30.3 Michaela: Thank you for having me.

0:00:31.6 LJJ: Now you are a middle schooler and here you are on a podcast, is this the first time that you’ve ever done a podcast?

0:00:38.9 Michaela: Yeah, it is. I’ve never done this before.

0:00:41.5 LJJ: How are you feeling? Pretty good?

0:00:43.3 Michaela: Yeah, I’m a little bit nervous, but…

0:00:45.5 LJJ: Well, I’ll tell you what your name came to me because I found a story about you, and it really was inspiring, especially when you hear about being shut in during COVID and what are we supposed to be doing, and how can we make sure that we’re saving money during all this time, so we love to hear from members who are great success stories, so I’m going to ask you a few questions, Michaela, because I think your story is absolutely wonderful.

0:01:10.4 Michaela: Okay.

0:01:11.0 LJJ: So, listen, tell me a little bit first off about you and what you do, what are your hobbies, and then we’re going to get into how you started to save and why.

0:01:20.2 Michaela: Okay, I’m 13. I really like to dance and I really like to be outside, and I really like school.

0:01:29.6 LJJ: So, what is your favorite part about school?

0:01:32.0 Michaela: I really like math and obviously hanging out with my friends.

0:01:36.0 LJJ: Well, obviously. I love the fact that you like math, tell us a little bit about what happened during COVID when everything shut down. Were you at home studying online or what happened?

0:01:45.9 Michaela: So at first they shut down the whole school and we couldn’t go into school, we had online classes, and that was really hard because normally I like to ask questions to the teachers, but it was really hard for me because I couldn’t ask questions as much, and then we started doing a hybrid where we would go into school a few days and then do online for a few days, and then we got actually back into all in-person, and that was really nice because then we could all see each other again and I actually got to meet my teachers this year. Which was nice because it started it in sixth grade where we stopped in the middle of the school year, and that was really hard, and then seventh grade, I didn’t even get to meet my teachers really.

0:02:31.2 LJJ: Is that just something else? As adults, anyway, I’ve talked to people who will say, you wake up and you think, what happened to that year?

0:02:39.8 Michaela: Yeah. It was really hard. I didn’t even know what was going on most of the time, and it was just way different than a normal year.

0:02:50.3 LJJ: Wow, so can you give me a hint… Now that you’re back in school. Does it make you laugh? I remember, I don’t remember being your age obviously, but I do remember being in school and thinking to myself, today, I just don’t want to go to school, that’s probably… You don’t think about that as much, do you?

0:03:09.3 Michaela: No, at first, when we first went to online, I was like, “Yay! We don’t have to go to school.” But then I was like, I really, really, really want to go to school. So, now I’m so thankful that I get to go to school every day, and it’s just really great.

0:03:25.2 LJJ: Well, that is awesome. So dancing, how was that impacted? Did you guys have to stall for a little bit, did you do any video learning?

0:03:33.1 Michaela: Yeah, we did online dance for a little bit, but my teachers are really good and they try to keep things moving along as fast as possible, so we eventually went back to dance and we had to wear masks and hand sanitize every time we walked in and out and we obviously had to social distance, but it wasn’t that much of a change at dance as much as school. I still got to see everybody and it was better than school.

0:04:03.4 LJJ: That’s great, that’s great to hear. Well, I’m glad you’re healthy and keeping up with everything. Funny story, a while back, I did a video of a product that my daughter-in-law had brought home for Christmas, and then I talked about it, and you saw the product in action.

0:04:20.3 Michaela: Yes.

0:04:20.9 LJJ: We don’t have to mention it or anything like that, but I do know that it’s pretty pricey, especially for a middle schooler, it’s not anything… I know that as a mom, I would say, Yeah, yeah, we’re not going to get that. You know?

0:04:33.0 Michaela: Yeah.

0:04:33.6 LJJ: In fact, I purchased it so that all my kids can use it when they come home, but here’s what happened, all of a sudden I find out that we have an entrepreneur in our midst, because you decide… Look, that I really would like to buy this product, so do me a favor and tell me, where was it that you decided I… A, I want to buy something because I think kids of all ages, especially with how you can get online and see all the different things that are coming at you, how you decided to choose something, but then secondly, what made you go, “You know what, I’m going to save money.” And then how did you go about doing it?

0:05:11.3 Michaela: Well, my mom came home one day and she was like, “Michaela, look at this amazing product that you found.” And I was like, “This is so cool. Well, let’s get it.” And then she’s like, “It’s a little bit expensive.” And I didn’t know what to do and if I wanted it, and I researched it a bit more and I realized that it was a super cool product, and I knew that we were going to my grandparents.

0:05:42.7 LJJ: Yeah, your parents are somebody I need to get on this show because they…

0:05:46.0 Michaela: Yeah.

0:05:46.2 LJJ: They literally are nomads, they go and they drive in their RV, right? How fun.

0:05:50.0 Michaela: Yeah. They drive around in their RV all around, and they visit such cool places. In the summer, normally they stay at this RV park, and they do a kind of a garage sale, except some people…

0:06:04.6 LJJ: Is it crafts, like craft sales, like people make things?

0:06:06.1 Michaela: Yeah, you can do crafts but you can also do garage sale stuff. So they had some stuff that they were going to sell. But then I was just like, “Wow, this is a great opportunity for me to make a little bit of money. And we have a Cricut, it’s a machine that you can cut out a bunch of stuff, so you can link it with your phone and you design what you want to design, and then there’s a bunch of different materials that you can do… You can put it on shirts or cups or wood for signs, and it just cuts it out for you and then you can apply it to whatever you’re putting it on.

0:06:44.8 LJJ: Basically, it makes these designs that you can transfer onto other things to make a cool gift, let’s say.

0:06:50.7 Michaela: Yes. And so it was really easy for me to make signs on there, and I could just make it with the logo of their trailer park, which I feel like everybody would have gone crazy for because there’s not really anything with that logo on it. So it was really cool. So I made a bunch… It took so long. I mean like… I got a little annoyed.

0:07:18.4 LJJ: You know what, this is a really good point. It’s not for the faint of heart. I mean this was a lot of work.

0:07:21.9 Michaela: Yeah. Yeah, I was up a lot of nights, just making these signs and up until the very last minute… Well, first of all, we had to buy these really long planks of wood, and then we had to cut them, and then we had to stain them. I think I made around 20.

0:07:42.8 LJJ: Wow.

0:07:43.0 Michaela: And then I had to make more because I ran out.

0:07:46.9 LJJ: You had orders placed.

0:07:48.5 Michaela: Yes.

0:07:49.1 LJJ: I love it.

[laughter]

0:07:50.4 Michaela: Yeah.

0:07:52.3 LJJ: So all right… So did you then take into account how much it cost for your product and supplies?

0:07:57.7 Michaela: I did. So we had to refill the Cricut material also, and everything in all cost around $100, $150 maybe. So I had to pay my mom back, obviously, for the supplies that I used. So I had to take that into account and if I didn’t sell anything then I’d be in debt.

0:08:19.3 LJJ: Uh-oh. But that’s not what happened, huh.

0:08:22.9 Michaela: No. I made a lot of money.

0:08:25.5 LJJ: So tell me, if you don’t mind, how much did you make after you paid back your mom?

0:08:29.5 Michaela: After I paid back my mom, I made a little bit over $500.

0:08:34.4 LJJ: Oh my goodness. So, is this something that you think, “You know what, this is exactly what an entrepreneur does?” And when you think of Consumers Credit Union, we literally do that everyday. We give money. We loan money so that someone can start a business and plan their dream out, and then they pay us back. So, you have taken that to your own level. And I think that’s awesome.

0:08:58.0 Michaela: Yeah.

0:08:58.7 LJJ: So tell me really quickly, I think you got to buy the product. Wow.

0:09:05.1 Michaela: Yes.

[laughter]

0:09:05.2 LJJ: So, there is an investment. Are you going to do this again for other items or do other types of entrepreneurial… Is this what you… Has it started a passion for you?

0:09:14.3 Michaela: I’ve thought about it. I think it’s just about the time that I have, because I do a lot of things. Like dance takes up most of my time, and then I have school and all the other stuff. But I’ve definitely thought about it, and I think I might start like a little business making simple stuff.

0:09:30.8 LJJ: That is awesome, Michaela. I’ll tell you what, I’m really happy that we have you as a member, because I do believe that there will be a day that that business shines even brighter than the way that it has already.

0:09:42.1 Michaela: Yeah. [chuckle]

0:09:43.3 LJJ: Thanks so much for being with us today, Michaela.

0:09:45.4 Michaela: Yeah, thank you.

0:09:46.5 LJJ: Well, listen, if you have a story just like Michaela’s… Wow. Isn’t that just inspiring for us all? Then please send them our way. Money, I’m Home with Lynne Jarman-Johnson, and Jake Esselink is our producer. Thanks so much, Jake, for your production skills today. Again, just send them our way, and we will get those stories on the air. We sure appreciate everybody. Money, I’m Home, with Consumers Credit Union.

[music]