3 TIPS You're Going to LOVE!

Tell us how we at TREP$ can help you be more successful

and how you can help us bring entrepreneurship to more kids.

Happy New Year!

Let's make this the best year yet.

Thank you for a very successful 2012. Our reach expanded, as schools in more states started offering TREP$ to their students. Schools in their second and third years saw more students registering to participate, and more children than ever before had their first experience as entrepreneurs.

This is really wonderful, and it hasn't happened accidentally. You are the backbone of TREP$. You are the teachers, the parents, the volunteers. Without you, the businesses would not have been created, the lessons would not have been learned, and the lifelong memories would not have been made.

We know you don't need our thanks. We know you walk around your marketplace, and that's enough to keep you fueled. You see their faces, their tables, their proud parents. You already know.

But thank you anyway.

Pamela deWaal and Hayley Romano

Learn more about TREP$ here.

Did You Ever Think About How Your School Became a TREP$ School?

Your school became a TREP$ School because some wonderful soul referred them to us!

Now it's your turn- You know the program and what the experience does for kids. Who better to help us spread the word?

Who do you know that would benefit from offering TREP$?

Talk to your friends, family and colleagues in other districts and put them in contact with us. As a "Thank You" we send the referring school a gorgeous TREP$ banner to hang at their Marketplace! Cedar Hill just got theirs!

Too Many Food Related Businesses?

Many schools have struggled with the dilemma of how to handle the
"too many food businesses" problem...

How has your school overcome this obstacle?

Here are some ideas we've heard from you about how to limit the number of food items at your TREP$ Marketplace:

Food related businesses are off limits to first year TREP$. Only returning TREP$ may have them. This really encourages the new TREP$ to innovate!
Require students with food business intentions to be a part of a lottery with a finite number of food businesses. This needs to be done very early in the program so that alternate plans can be made.
Warn them that their food businesses will not be approved if they don't demonstrate innovation! At least this way, the food tables you have will be items that WOW THE CROWD!

Have a great idea to add? Post it on our facebook page! www.facebook.com/trepsed

Did you see the SHARKS hunting this young entrepreneur?

"After searching for magnets for my locker in 5th grade, I decided I could make my own. Soon, I decided that it would be fun to wear and trade my bottle caps. Thus, Snap Caps®, "the original interchangeable bottle cap necklace"® was created. Our company, m3 girl designs, was started by my sister, Margot, my mom and I, m3! Margot and I love brainstorming and creating new designs!"

Click here to see the SnapCaps website.

Meet Sky,
owner of T-Shirt Wonders

I'm 12 years old and in 6^thgrade. My name is Sky Gilbert. Our TREP$ Market was on April 20, 2012 at Marian E. McKeown Elementary School. About September, when school had started, is when I started thinking about TREP$. I was thinking that early because TREP$ is usually in December; this year it got changed to April. I had been in TREP$ last year so I was excited.

My first idea was to make dried fruit and beef jerky. Beef jerky had been a big hit before for other TREP$ members. In early March, my mom came to me with a different idea. After talking about it, we then changed my TREP$ plans. My mom's friend gave her the idea. She was at work and my mom saw the scarf on her neck and she fell in love with it. It was like Cupid came down and shot my mom. Whoosh! All she could talk about was the different kind of scarves that I could do. Mom's friend sent us many online links to look at. I had started making my scarves. They were being made out of used T-shirts. We didn't have to go out and buy anything for my company.

At TREP$, my company was called T-Shirt Wonders. There were three different kinds of designs. One of them was 'Bracelets'. My bracelets were being sold for $2.00 and I made them out of small T-shirts. Another one was called 'Small Designs' and they were scarves being sold for $3.00. They used bigger shirts cut into 1 inch thin tubes. After I cut as many tubes as I could from the shirt, I tied them all together for a scarf. Lastly was the 'Big Design'. They were more intricate. These were $5.00 because of the way I cut them. I cut 1 large tube, 10-14 inches wide, from each shirt. Then I cut slits in the tubes. After that I wove the loops together. Some of the rows of slits I left open. Another intricate design was braiding thin T-shirt strips. In all, I made $64.00 with recycled T-shirt scarves. I had more fun at TREP$ this year than last year. I wish I could do TREP$ again next year.

Meet Brad, of B-Rad's Rockets

Hi my name is Brad and I am an eleven year old 5th grader at Marian McKeown Elementary School. While brainstorming my ideas for TREP$, I stared at my fish and wondered, I could sell fish! Unfortunately, I would have to feed them so they would stay alive. Since I also like LEGOS, I thought about selling them. My dad stated that some LEGOS were hard-to-find, so I passed on that idea too.

Then my mom shouted, "How about rockets!?!?!" so that's what we did. My mom reminded me that we had done something similar to this in Cub Scouts, and it was a lot of fun. My project's name is B-rad's Rockets, where everything is B-radical!!! Unlike NASA, these rockets have designs on them to make your B-last off extra B-radical. Some examples of the designs included professional sports teams, cartoon characters, and animals.

Since it was impossible to demonstrate how the rockets worked, I put together a video that captured the step-by-step instructions and posted it on YouTube. I was able to borrow my mom's iPad and played the video for all of my customers. As an added bonus, one of my first customers took his rocket just outside of my display and launched his rocket all night long which helped sell more rockets than I had expected.

At the Marketplace, my rockets were hot! They were priced at $3 a rocket and $2 for an extra fuel pack. I sold all 50 of my B-radical Rockets and took special orders that I filled the next week. I made a $200 profit.

My sister was my advertising at the Marketplace and wore a sandwich board. As her reward, I gave her a free rocket and fuel pack. I tried to give my parents a tip, but they wouldn't take it. Although TREP$ was a lot of hard work, I had a B-radical experience and can't wait to do it next year.

Meet Cassandra, Maker of Awesome Bird Houses

My name is Cassandra. I'm a twelve year old who goes to Apshawa Elementary School. I was so excited when I heard that TREP$ was finally coming to my school. I spent a lot of time thinking about what I should do to make money at the marketplace. My friend and I decided to do a service together, but I wanted to make instant money in case I didn't make any money with the service. My mom and I were thinking of things to make that involved spring because that was when our Trep$ marketplace was going to be. At first I was going to tie-dye things like shirts but that took too long and it would cost me too much. Then, I was thinking about bird feeders or garden gnomes but then my mom recommended birdhouses and I thought it was a pretty good idea.

We went to the store to look at ones that were already made and I decided to choose a variety of different styles. All of the birdhouses needed to be painted. So I also bought paint and brushes. All the supplies cost me about $5.00 per birdhouse. I decided to paint some with a theme. A few of the themed ones were Yankees, Mets, and patriotic. I also made plain ones that matched how the birdhouse was shaped like a flower, an old town house, and a log cabin. I spent a long time over spring break working on them. Every day I would get up, work on them, and repaint them to make the paint look bright and neat. The hardest part was painting all of them because it took a while. I worked for hours every day hoping that the hard work would pay off.

I decided to take pictures of each birdhouse to display at the marketplace once the birdhouse was sold; people could still see all of the different kinds that I had. If they wanted one that I had already sold they could order it and I could make it for them after the marketplace.

Finally the marketplace night arrived. I was so excited but also a little nervous. I was afraid that no one would buy my birdhouses. At the TREP$ marketplace I got lots of comments like: "this is really creative" and "that was a great idea". At first I wasn't selling anything but then I sold my Mets birdhouse. I was so happy that I finally had a sale. I sold my Mets and Yankees birdhouses for $ I2.00 and the other ones for $10.00. I displayed my picture of the Mets birdhouse so that other people could see it. I felt really good about all of the positive comments people were giving me. As the night went on I sold more and more birdhouses. Then people started ordering them from the pictures. By the end of the night I had sold 8 out of the 10 birdhouses that I had made and I had 9 more orders! I was so excited.

I hope that I can do TREP$ in middle school next year and sell birdhouses again. I think that people were impressed with me because they could see that I put a lot of effort into making my birdhouses look good. I took my time and made sure that all of my work was neat and colorful. I made a lot of money and had a great time doing it.

Meet Isabella, owner of "That Vintage Store"

For three years, I have been doing TREP$. For the past two years, I've been selling soaps, and have been making a very good profit. But when it came time for TREP$ 2012, I wanted to try something different. I had spent a week or so brainstorming, and then came up with a great idea: a 1950s themed business called "That Vintage Store!" I thought it was a great idea...

But I still didn't know what to sell. I knew I was selling candles, but I wanted to sell more, not just rely on candles. Then I came up with another idea: bookmarks! I could sell candles and bookmarks! And yet, something still felt missing....

Then one day, my mom came to me and said "How about you also sell brownies? Everyone loves those." Bookmarks, Brownies, and Candles! That was it! And so, I got my supplies and started working.

It was hard work at first, and I spent hours making each bookmark precise, and each candle great. I admit, my mom did a lot of the brownies(since they're food, and I was in school, she did a lot for the brownies since they needed to be fresh.), but I helped packaging!

Finally, market day. I set up, and realized I never brought anything to raise some of my items up, which would have made them more eye catching. Not to worry, I thought, and I made my display as pretty as possible. At first, not a lot of people came to my stall. Eventually, I managed to get a few people hooked, and then more. And more. Soon, I had a steady line of customers.

All my candles sold out, and all but one of the brownie bags sold. My bookmarks didn't sell as well, so next year, I don't think I'll sell those. When I counted my profits, I made a total of $120 U.S Dollars! I was overjoyed.

I'm now trying to get my business a real...well, business. Now that I'm learning how to sew, I think I'll make even better stuff for next year's TREP$.

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