Coloring outside the lines inspires entrepreneurship
By Beth Teitell
Boston Herald Columnist
Thursday, August 17, 2006
Every year when my children head back to school I make the same resolution: to take immediate action on the newsletters that come home in their backpacks, alerting me that glue needs to be brought in a week from Thursday, or that the following Tuesday is ‘‘green day” and everyone is supposed to wear something that color.
Inevitably, I stash the flier in some drawer, where it remains ignored until the night before the deadline, when I get a gnawing feeling that there was something I was supposed to do, at which point I desperately e-mail another mother in the class (making sure to never ask the same mom twice so that none knows the full extent of my problem). ‘‘Are the toilet paper rolls due tomorrow?” I’ll write. Or: ‘‘Do the egg cartons have to be the dozen size, or are the kind that hold only eight OK?”
Then I’ll be up all night, unrolling a six-pack of Charmin, or wolfing down omelets, so no eggs will go to waste.
This year, however, things are going to be very different. Not only do I vow to gather the necessary materials the moment I get my assignment, but I’m going to turn it into a moneymaker. After all, there are lots of other mothers who procrastinate, too. I know; I get their e-mails, and I see them making their midnight glitter purchases.
Here’s my brilliant plan: I’m going to load up on every supply imaginable (buying the economy size whenever possible) and then stand outside the school like a scalper, my illicit supplies tucked inside my trench coat. ‘‘Crayons, crayons, I got crayons. Buying, selling. Whadda you need? I got periwinkle, burnt sienna, lemon yellow.”
If business is good - and I can fly under the principal’s radar - maybe I’ll set up a kiosk just for those slacker moms who are still unprepared at 7:55 a.m.: paper shopping bags for the ‘‘vest” project, empty coffee cans and old magazines for decoupage ‘‘pencil pots,” string, all marked up 200 percent.
Gouging? That’s such an ugly word. I prefer to think of it as the School of Enterprise.
