We're Kyra and Erin, fifth grade students at Cedar Hill Elementary School.  We are the owners of ERA Designs.  It all started with going to after-school TREP$ workshops.  These workshops were really fun and taught us how to be entrepreneurs.  We learned all about owning a business.  It was very exciting. 
 
We decided our business would be selling tie-dye and splatter painted t-shirts.  We didn't realize how much work this was going to be. First, we tie-dyed all of the t-shirts and had to wait for them to dry. This took so long to do!  Next, we had jerseys with cap sleeves.  We designed these shirts with splatter paint.  This was a lot of fun! After both styles of shirts were completely dry, which took a few days, we then went to our next step. 
 
We customized a stencil.  We wanted something original that no one else had anywhere.  We came up with the design of a peace sign and inside the peace sign said "Jersey Girl".  We then spray-painted each shirt with this design.  This also took a very long time.  We had to be very careful how we sprayed the stencil.  We did not want it to bleed onto the rest of the shirt.  At first, we practiced on an old sheet.  Then, when we felt comfortable, we started on the shirts.  We messed up a few times until we got it right.  That was upsetting because we had to try and fix our messed up t-shirts. 
 
We worked very hard on this business and made only a little profit at the TREP$ marketplace.  Our supplies had cost a lot of money so when we paid back our parents for the supplies they bought for us to get started, we had very little profit.  This was a tough lesson.  We sold every t-shirt we made.  Now that we have paid for all of our supplies, we hope to make more of a profit.  We are excited because we have orders for more, and are supplies are paid for!  This just might turn into a profitable business!
 
We had so much fun with this, and learned so much about what it's like to run a business.  TREP$ was great.  We hope we get to do this again in middle school, because now we'd be even more ready.

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