business Smallowners

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Story by Christina Hughes Babb Photos by Can Türkyilmaz & Benjamin Hager

typical kids spend untold summer hours watching television, networking on Facebook, playing video games and hanging at the mall, happily oblivious to the pressures of turning a buck.

Teenager Truc Le peddles baubles, beauty supplies and other girly gifts at kawaiionlineshop. weebly.com.

Read Truc’s story>>

But a few young people possess a beyond-their-years business savvy coupled with the rare desire to launch an early career or do their part to better the world.

Meet the neighborhood’s most enterprising youths — trust us, they are people you might want to know in the future.

Fashionista and philanthropist

Name: Truc Le age: 13

Biz: Keeper of Kawaii Online Shop

Petite 13-year-old Truc Le is into girly things — pop bands, pink bows and looking pretty. Her father, a Vietnam emigrant, helped her turn her fashion “obsession” (her own word) into something productive and potentially profitable.

In typical teenage fashion, Truc, an eighth-grader at Richardson ISDs Liberty Junior High (which partially serves Lake Highlands), hasspentmanyhoursaimlesslytextingorchattingonline. Observant dad Loi Le figured his daughter could make better use of her free time, so he helped her set up an online shop. The idea, he says, was not necessarily to turn a profit, but to teach his daughter a skill she could use later in life.

Once the store — Kawaii Online Shop (kawaiionlineshop.weebly. com) — was in place, it was up to her to create the business plan and write the website copy.

She wanted to sell things she and her peers enjoy — accessories, makeup and colored contact lenses that she wears, which are extremely popular with Asian girls, she says. She also offers advice on taking care of purchases, and she keeps a direct line of communication open with customers.

“I asked my friends at school what types of things they would buy, and based on that, I decided what I wanted to sell.” One of the first lessons she learned about retail, she says, is that “the more you buy of something, the less expensive it is.”

She sells at a fair price and includes a small shipping fee, which allows her to make a modest profit on each sale.

Her dad helped her buy the inventory in bulk. Even with his help, this process involved trial and error.

“We placed a couple orders that didn’t come out right or where we got items that were of poor quality. I want to feel good about the product I sell, and I want my customers to trust me,” she says. So they kept trying until they got it right.

In addition to being a young fashion buyer, Truc is also a designer. She styles and sews (on a sewing machine that was a gift from dad) hair bows that she sells to girls at school and gives to friends as gifts. Soon, when she feels they are “good enough”, she will sell those in her virtual store, too.

Her father says he’s pleased with the discipline and responsibility she’s gaining from the project. There’s no room for slacking when it comes to a business like this, Truc says.

“Whenanordercomesin, I usually respond to the customer on email and let them know that I will ship the order on the weekend. During the week it is difficult to ship orders because I have school and homework. But I always let them know what to expect.”

Though her online shop’s primary purpose was educational, Truc has earned about $300 profit in about three months. Of that, she donated $100 to victims of the Japanese tsunami.

“I have friends who live in Japan, and my favorite band is Japanese. I just wanted to help in any way I could.”

Through her business, she hopes to save enough money to travel to Japan and see the band she adores, the Japanese hardrockgroupGazette,performlive.What does dad think of that? She’s quite sure he will let her go if she earns the money.

When we bring it up to him, he doesn’t comment, but enjoys a short chuckle.

Book Biz

Name: Courtney Roberts age: 10

Biz: Altruistic author of UH-OH! Animal book series

On a sunny Saturday morning, there are dozens of youngsters at the Dallas Zoo, but only one of them, presumably, isthereonbusiness.Blonde-haired, blue-eyed,cute-as-a-buttonCourtney Roberts, a fifth-graderatSt.Patrick Catholic School in Lake Highlands, sets up at 8 a.m. right next to the giraffe feeding area.

The young author is here to sign her book, “UH-OH! Giraffe”, the second installment in the UH-OH! Animals series.

For the next two hours, children and adults wait in line for Courtney’s autograph and to hear her story.

Shewrotethefirstbook,“UH-OH! Cat”(colorfullyillustrated byJason Barnes) in 2009, when she was in thirdgrade. The book was a success, and its sales allowed Courtney to donate money to organizations that help animals, which is of utmost importance to her. The UH-OH! brand grew, and she began selling bracelets, speaking and reading to groups, and penning a second story about a hungry Giraffe.

At the zoo that morning, she sold more than 150 copies of “UH-OH! Giraffe” and UH-OH! Animal wristbands, available in the zoo’s gift shop, and she donated $1 from each sale to the Dallas Zoo Giants of the Savanna exhibit.

Immediately after wrapping up that appearance, Courtney’s parents drove her to Costco, where she has both a Saturday and Sunday book-signing.

The Costco event didn’t yield quite as many fans, dad Mike Roberts says, so Courtney had to work a little harder. Still, on her own, she managed to sell more than half of her inventory.

“She told us that adults at the table don’t help her selling,” Roberts says, “and she was right. We were very impressed by her spirit and initiative.”

It all started with a third-grade “power writing” assignment. Teacher Pam Suter, who has worked at St. Pat’s for 25 years, says Courtney proved particularly creative.

“The power writing assignments, and the type of writing we need to teach to prepare students for a future of research papers and standardized tests, is very structured,”Sutersays,butCourtney was more interested in the story itself, and she came to Suter with ideas.

“I told her to build on what she knows.

“I am very proud of her. She has not only matured as a person but as a writer, too. I see that writer in her and think this is a huge base for her to build on in the future.”

At this point, Courtney isn’t sure if she wants to be a writer when she grows up or even if there will be another sequel.

“Everybody wants me to write a monkey story. But I just don’t have the idea yet,” she says. “I really don’t know what job I want to have … I like sports — soccer, basketball and horseback riding — and I think I might want to design sets on movies someday, so I really don’t know.”

For now she’s putting her profits in a bank account, she says, and enjoying the day-to-day adventures.