Saturday’s annual business fair was the culmination of North Point School’s financial literacy program, which provides students with hands-on education on everything from budgeting to stock trading.
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Mr Maddox Quek is a shrewd businessman who understands the importance of a prime location to attract customers and the concept of offering higher quality products at better prices than his competitors.
He’s also only 10 years old.
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Mr Quek, a fourth-grader at North Point School, was one of about 150 budding entrepreneurs who sold products and promoted their business ideas at the private school’s Young Entrepreneurs Annual Business Fair on Saturday.
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The expo, held at the Seven Chiefs Sportsplex just west of Calgary’s city limits, featured a wide range of student-created products and services, from homemade baked goods to dog chew toys and salsa.
Quek said he arrived early to scout out a booth near the fair’s entrance, selling a range of handmade wooden trays that he made with his father.
“I like making things out of wood and so does my father, so he helped me and we settled on this shape,” Quek said, adding that it takes about 40 minutes to make one tray.
Saturday’s annual business fair was the culmination of North Point School’s financial literacy program, which provides students with hands-on education on everything from budgeting to stock trading.
North Pointe School Principal Brent Duvost said the student business fair has been a popular event every year since the school opened in 2015, except for 2020 and 2021, when it was canceled due to the pandemic.
“An entrepreneurial spirit is infused throughout the school and through our financial education program, students participate in financial literacy classes every week,” he explained, adding that the school’s curriculum is centered around experiential learning.
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The program also covers topics such as fundraising and investment, and includes an annual business pitch competition (modeled after a television show). Shark Tank and Dragon’s Den) and a stock market simulation contest will be held.
“We’re trying to find ways to take traditional models of learning — math, social studies, language arts, science — and make it an engaging process of experiencing the world around them,” Duvost said.
Bruce Globerman, the school’s director of financial education, said the program is a required part of NorthPointe School’s curriculum for students from kindergarten through grade 12. The youngest students learn the basics of finance, including what a business is and how it operates.
Over time, the program will become more comprehensive and students will begin to learn more detailed business concepts, such as profit margins and marketing, Globerman said. Before the annual fair, students prepare a robust business concept that outlines the message they want to convey with their business, the products or services they plan to sell, the cost per product and the selling price.
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Globerman added that the course focuses on understanding what “profit” is, and that a portion of the proceeds from sales at the business fair will go to the students.
“Even the youngest child understands what profit is,” he said. “If you make something, you have to sell it for more than it cost you to make it.”
“We also give lessons on how to be a better salesperson so they know what attracts people to their booth and how to get them to buy our products.”
One Northpointe student who was clearly concentrating on his lessons this year was Gavin Mark Shepherd, a 16-year-old Year 11 student who was selling a range of tuk confections called “Baked Beanies” that he made in his basement at home.
The touks are made from polar fleece, he said, and each one takes about 20 minutes to make. His table was lined with a variety of colors and custom designs.
“It’s a very stretchy fabric,” he said, adding that the material is warm and a little more windproof than a traditional tuque.
He decided the beanie would be a good business concept after realizing it would fit snugly under a ski helmet, and when friends started asking him to make them, he realized there was a demand for the product.
Mark Sheppard said he has no plans to pursue a career in business but that his homemade touks (hats) have become a viable “side hustle”.
sstrasser@postmedia.com
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