Entrepreneurialism

I’ve just had 2 young entrepreneurial boys (somewhere year 4 to 6) from Epping North public come around with a bucket and car cleaning stuff knock on the door and ask if they could wash our car for some money! So I said yes

 

Thats awesome but in 2020 and expensive cars with sensitive paint and clear coat and also suing/loss of damage culture (nowhere near USA etc) becoming the problem this is an interesting topic.

On the other hand really impressed considering you used 'epping'. There is another school starting with the same suburb where it appears students that age cannot cross the road/get out of their parents car safely/or have any sense of traffic danger.

 

How much you give them

 

Reminds me of the time two Boy Scouts knocked on the door of someone during bob-a-job week. The man answering the door said there was a tin of green paint around the back with some brushes, and they could paint the porch.

An hour later the Boy Scouts came to collect their fee. As they were being paid, one piped up “by the way, it’s not a porch, its a Ferrari”....

Thanks to Shane Bourne from Hey Hey its Saturday for that one.

 

$10

 

Err... sadly my car is not looking so pretty. It’s from 2006, clear coat already seriously looking terrible because the car has never really been garaged, and the rain has gone under the clear coat layer. I don’t think they can make it worse!

Oh yes. Some Epping students spend weekend time going to tutoring so they can get into selective highs...... you are referring to those kids, right?

 

It was more food for thought than anything - with changing times would you (1) want your kids going out there doing that, (2) receiving services from a kid (cold call). Im pretty neutral/confused on this

Theres another primary school in Epping that I used to drive through to get to work. Kids would jump out the cars on middle of the street and just run into the grounds without any care in the world (saw some close calls and probably the parents fault too). So was impressed when you said a neighbouring school with similar age group said they could wash cars. Dont think selective high schools matter if they don't make it healthy into high school

 

North Epping is like a village. There’s only local traffic. We are just outside North Epping, but it’s not a bad neighbourhood at all! I’m friendly with some neighbouring families, gave one family a unicycle and the boy learnt to ride really quickly, sometimes I’d take him to unihockey or Unicycling adventures (and the parents let me!) and I’ve shouted the (3) kids a day doing the tree tops adventures one time at Christmas. There’s another family, I gave them some excess Airbnb bedding stuff, they gave me home grown vegetables....
I feel most people are fairly relaxed around here. You see kids skateboarding, little groups of kids on their bikes too. When they see me on my unicycles the kids are impressed.

Also, on North Epping’s Facebook page, I’ve seen some posts about local kids selling lemonade and baked items by the side of the street, and the posters are trying to drum up business!

 

Im quiet aware of north epping - still feels like 90s there while the other side of the station has changed dramatically

Kinda has its own charm specially once you go north of m2

 

Sweeping drives
Cleaning cars
Paper rounds
Pot washing

Did all of the above from the age of 10 until probably 15

 

The rapey issues kinda saw a end to the scouts going around the neigbourhood talking to old wierd people.

 

Best one we had was in the 2000's, some guy was putting a 50" plasma out on the footpath for collection as we walked home from school.
My mate an I both knew what the tv was worth and asked why are you throwing it? He said he got another under warranty and they didn't want the old one back. It would turn off after an hour of use.

We took it home, plugged it in and used it for a month straight playing PlayStation!

We went back to the guy knocked on his door and I asked him if the tv was recessed into a wall as was the uber rich way of doing things. As we had managed to replicate the fault by building a cardboard hood around it!

He said yes. We let him know there was no issue when using it for the last month. He told us to keep it and he'd been given another model (which mustn't have had the same issue).

We got our parents to list it in the weekend paper and we sold it for $3000!

Certainly beat the $20/week from paper delivery. Gave the guy a box of chocolates in his mailbox and we both saved the money - paid for half my first car a few years later. Never been so lucky again.

 

People throw away stuff so easily…. Good on you and your friend!

 

Now you mention it, I remember doing bob-a-job week when I was in the Cubs, ~60 years ago (age 9/10). It would be unthinkable now, but we all just went off on our own, knocking on doors - in those days of course wives were generally at home. Washing cars, [hand] mowing grass. cleaning windows, polishing brass etc.

 

I watch too many crime docos.

Today I Would not be comfortable for children to be going to strangers houses knocking on doors, regardless of area.

 

Fair enough.

 

I was thinking of Epping Vic - can't cross the road in lockdown.