Steven Pazienza, president of the Moorestown Business Association (MBA), has given a fair amount of thought to the state of small businesses. He regularly encounters business owners who were never given the financial training to run a company, leading him to wonder why financial literacy isn’t part of the standard school curriculum.
A father himself, Pazienza decided he wanted to give kids a head start. So he went to the MBA and pitched the idea of a mentorship program that would give young students hands-on experience in running a business. Business Apprentices of Moorestown (BAM) had its first incarnation at the Main Street Candlelight Stroll holiday kiosk on Nov. 30.
While there are opportunities for teenagers to learn some basics of businesses, there are far fewer places where students of a younger age can get a head start, so Pazienza decided he wanted to cater to the 10- to 13-year-old demographic. He knew he wanted to teach kids high-level concepts such as scheduling, handling money and marketing, but at a scaled-down and manageable level.
Pazienza recruited his 12-year-old son, Milan, and fellow MBA member Russ Nesevich’s daughter, Charlotte — both students at Moorestown Friends School — to help bring the program to life. The pair decided on the name Business Apprentices of Moorestown and helped create sign-up sheets to enlist fellow students as volunteers to man a kiosk at the candlelight stroll. With their parents’ permission, students signed up for one-hour shifts.
Nesevich explained that there are people across the area struggling to get the necessities of life, so any BAM proceeds should benefit a local charity. The two young co-chairs decided that Moorestown-based nonprofit Code Blue Collaborative should be the beneficiary of funds raised at the candlelight stroll kiosk. Proceeds will finance the purchase of winter clothing for the homeless.
The students took an active role in every component of setting up the kiosk, selling their goods (hot chocolate, apple cider and cookies) and cleaning up afterward. They suggested donations and informed passerby that the funds would go toward keeping the homeless warm this winter. By the end of the day, they’d raised around $800 for the collaborative.
Milan said the experience gave him a taste of the struggles that come with running a business. He hadn’t anticipated the cost of purchasing some of the kiosk items and was interested to learn about how to price products to turn a profit.
Milan also said he and Charlotte tasked their volunteers with various jobs, from making the products to stopping passerby to see if they were interested in supporting the business. He ended up with ideas on how things could have run more smoothly.
“I really like the idea … of getting a sense of business and being able to try it out — how it works and the struggles,” the youth said.
Pazienza said he anticipates BAM kiosks becoming a regular fixture at MBA events. His hope is to task two new co-chairs with running the kiosk each time, so different students get a chance to take the lead. BAM also will choose a different local, nondenominational beneficiary each time.
To learn more about the Moorestown Business Association, visit moorestownbusiness.com.
