Here is a link to an article about selling Girl Scout cookies and whether it is valid business experience. I left my comments at the Fort Wayne Sentinel. You can do the same or share your thoughts here which is easier.
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Hey, I tried to read the article. The link is not working.
The link has been fixed. Also I had referenced Forth Worth and it was Fort Wayne. Sorry for the confusion.
I think the girls are too young to understand a “business model”. I think of their experience as perhaps team building, working for a common cause,and maybe building a little confidence in talking to people (but they are talking to strangers in some cases, and I don’t think that is such a great thing.)
I’ll mention also that I have concerns about kid fund-raising programs. I’ve not allowed my daughter to go out, even in the neighborhood, selling magazines or candy bars or whatever, to raise money for school. I just write them a check. I think that it’s often embarrassing for the kids to be turned away, rejected, or unable to meet the quotas. Some kids thrive on the challenge to meet quota, others, not so much. You have to know your child and act accordingly in allowing or not allowing participation.
Selling the girl scout cookies is really just another fund-raiser, isn’t it?
Rita is correct here on the point that the girls may not understand business models and so forth. However, I will suggest that there has to be a bridge to understand simple commerce. The key to understanding business is to understand it in simple terms. I believe these concepts are taught in some schools – it was taught in mine in grade 2 and further up.
Plus, I will give the girls some points on, for the most part, being extroverts, savvy and understanding what they’re doing by selling these cookies to us. I usually get at least a box because they do a better job working with the girls and the GSA has evolve to embrace an ever-changing society. It’s worth the trouble to sell a few cases and then some.
I don’t know how it is to be a girl scout, we don’t have this type of organization in our country, but I’ve seen and heard about it. I think that every activity in which children involve as they are young will further help them in their business life because it will make them more open and communicative. So maybe girl scout cookies isn’t the best business model, but it’s a small step in developing as a great person and maybe a great business woman 🙂
Speaking as a former girl scout and the mother of a former girl scout, I think maybe this is too narrow a definition of “business skills.” They learn about teamwork, about record-keeping, and, at least in the old model, about following through on their commitments by making sure all the orders are delivered and each customer gets the cookies they order. In the booth-sales model, they learn to talk politely to strangers, and again, handle money, make change, and a little about selling.
Sure, it’s not a complete business model, but passing along some of the risk (having to swallow the cost of inventory you can’t sell) costs the parents, not the girls, and is unfair to families where money is tight. Rather than having them share the risk, why not set it up to share the reward–for every 25 boxes of cookies you sell, you get a free box for yourself. After all, salespeople do get most of their salary in commission.