COLUMBIA, S.C. — Camille Turner isn't your average fifth grader. While other kids were taking time off from school this weekend, she was helping run her dessert business 'CT Sweets' in downtown Columbia. She was one of a dozen young entrepreneurs who had their businesses on display at the Museum of Art on the main street Saturday.
It's part of a child business fair hosted by the organization Life Ready Learners.
Kyana Thomas, the director, said that after a $30 application fee, the young business leaders are given a hand cultivating their ideas and putting together business plans.
"They are coached, they are taught - what does it take to be a 'kid-entrepreneur?'" she said.
They're then invited to attend these pop-up shops across the state.
"When they leave our homes, they'll be adults themselves and they'll need to function and carry themselves, to manage themselves and money," Thomas said. "If they don't learn it now, it could be difficult when they grow up."
Ninth grader Emma Smith said the experience taught her a lot about operating her small business, "Buzzy Bees."
"I'm learning a lot about price ranges, like what people will pay for certain things," she said. "I'm learning how to crochet new things, obviously. I'm also learning communication skills and how to communicate better. I just love it."
Turner said she's also learning how to manage money.
"You to make your profit worth it, so it has to nice presentation, it has to taste good," she said.
Thomas said these business skills will be important for the students' entire lives.
"When our parents were growing up, they could rely on a pension and work a job for 40 years and retire," she said. "That's no longer a possibility; it's no longer a reality. So entrepreneurship is the way of America and probably the world. We need to just embrace it. But not only that, we need to learn."