Today was a pretty eventful day and was spent taking my three daughters from house to house selling Otis Spunkmeyer cookie dough. It’s a fund raiser for their school, and we’ve all seen programs like these, the more cookie dough you sell, the higher quality the prizes you’ll receive. Prizes range from slap bracelets to a camera you can mount to your bike helmet.
But the main prize my daughters really want, the grand prize, is a 7″ Capacitive Tablet with keyboard case. It’s powered by the Android operating system and comes with Angry Birds already installed (a big bonus for my kids). It’s not an expensive item at all. I could snag one up on ebay for around a hundred bucks. But, in my eyes, the prizes they’ll receive for participating in the Otis Spunkmeyer cookie dough fundraiser aren’t the only things they’ll gain.
Now in order for them to get this prize, along with all the other prizes below it, they’ll need to sell 100 items priced at $16 per item. So in the process of scoring some pretty cool prizes, giving service for a fund raiser and gaining sales experience, out of the $1600 in pure deliciousness they sell, a good portion of that will go towards a good cause.
But I have to be honest, every year when the school sends home the paperwork for these sorts of things, my first reaction is to throw it in the trash. But this time, I saw it as a great learning experience for my kids and a great teaching opportunity as entrepreneur Dad.
Lessons Learned from the Otis Spunkmeyer Cookie Dough Fundraiser
Lesson 1: Get off to a good head start.
With any opportunity, a key aspect of success is your start. The first day is the most important day. If you can knock out a good portion of your sales in the first day, or bring in a good amount of profit, you won’t have to stress about reaching your goal later on. Just as in a race, no matter how fast you are, a good start can be the difference between a win or a loss.
So far, my kids have around 25 sales after one day. The fundraiser lasts until November 2nd. So with such a good start, we’ll have plenty of time to reach our goal. If they can sell just 10 per day for the next eight days, they’ll have their tablet.
Lesson 2: Beat your competition off the blocks.
When it pertains to the Otis Spunkmeyer Cookie Dough Fundraiser, you know there are going to be a ton of other kids rapping on doors as well, eager to earn those prizes. So if you want to sell to everyone you know in your neighborhood, you’d better hit the road before they do.
Mission accomplished! By the time we had pretty much knocked out our entire neighborhood, we saw a Father with his three kids walk out of their front door with Otis Spunkmeyer in hand, heading from house to house. As much as I want success for every child, you snooze you lose!
Lesson 3: Great rewards will come with great effort.
Being a salesman can be taxing, and sometimes extremely repetitive. It takes work going from house to house, getting rejected, saying the sames things over and over again. My goal is, if they work their absolute hardest to reach their goal of receiving that tablet, then maybe next year they won’t have an interest in doing it, because I worked them to death this year! I know, keep dreaming right? It’s only time plus the cost of gas Dad. It’s worth a shot though!
On the serious side, they could have just sold to their parents, maybe their aunts and uncles, grandmas and grandpas, and got a slap bracelet and some Angry Birds pens but with some hard work, they could get a prize that had some real value to it. We try our very best to teach our kids that they have to earn the things they want. We don’t just get them anything they want.
Lesson 4: Cute kids sell!
This may backfire on me, but I have been trying to teach them to use their strengths to sell more cookie dough per customer. Right now, their biggest sales asset as little girls is the fact that they’re so stinkin’ cute! So naturally, I told them to smile and have fun……and bring their four year old sister to the door with them! I know, I’m sort of cheating. It takes a real grump to turn down a bunch of cute girls.
Next thing you know, they’ll be using this tactic on me!
Lesson 5: A sense of accomplishment.
I hope that during this process, they’ll learn that they can accomplish their goals. While going from house to house, I start talking about the prices they’ll win and it keeps them motivated. I hope they also learn that they are amazing and have more talent at more things than they know. Sometimes all it takes is that first step to learn that.
Conclusion
As much as I resist, the Otis Spunkmeyer Cookie Dough Fundraiser is a good thing for kids. I know they’ll reach their goal of hitting 100 items sold, because they are showing all the signs of wanting to succeed. I learn so much from my kids. They keep me motivated. I’m glad I can share in their success and teach them a little in the process.
So, for those of you who are also participating, just as it says on the front of the prize catalog, “Go for the Dough!”
David Allred is the author and creator of CFW. David has been teaching entrepreneur minded people how to earn a full time income working from the comfort of home for nearly a decade.
Think about it. Never miss your kids’ events, set your own schedule, choose your own income and enjoy a lifestyle and income which most people only drool over!
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