Nine-year-old Cameron Jones had no idea a snack break a few weeks back would become a light-bulb moment, one that would not only turn into a new business venture for him and his 6-year-old brother, but also a way for his parents to teach life lessons to the two youngsters — but it did.
While mowing grass a few weeks back on his family’s lot outside of Warsaw, the youngster decided to stop for a quick snack. “I was over there,” Cameron said Monday, pointing to the 50-year-old pecan tree. “And I just noticed there were all these pecans falling out of the tree, fresh pecans.”
He grins a bright, toothy smile, recalling the moment, he said, when the light bulb came on in his mind.
Realizing how many pecans there were on the ground, the young entrepreneur turned to his parents and younger brother, Taylor, with an idea. “I guess it started as a project, but then we thought, why not a business,” the youngster said.
“It was all their idea,” mom Aleza Jones chimes in, beaming with pride at both her boys. “They actually thought about this, thought it through.”
“They taste good,” young Taylor pipes in, saddling up beside his brother, a shiny roller in his hand.
“Yeah they do,” Cameron adds. “That’s why we got the idea. If we like them, others will too.”
So the two decided they could work to pick up the nuts, bag them and sell them.
“And then we could make our own business from there,” Cameron said, the grin returning to his face.
That business is now called Nutty Brothers, an apt title for the two fun-loving youngsters who have turned an afternoon playing under the pecan tree into a venture that has, in less than a week, begun to flourish.
During that time, the pair have sold some 20 pounds of pecans.
Their marketing plan was centered around word of mouth and mom’s social media page and, of course, the two smiling faces of young boys hard at work with a commodity to sell.
“It’s been so much fun,” Cameron said, with Taylor nodding his head furiously in agreement.
“So much fun,” the younger brother adds.
For Mrs. Jones, a teacher at Sampson Middle School, and husband Brian, owner of Jones Dumpsters, the business idea their sons came up with was also a great way for them to teach lessons they believed their youngsters needed to learn.
“We both grew up doing chores and working,” Jones said. “I have worked all my life and know it’s a way of life. We wanted our boys to know that things don’t just get handed to you all the time. This was a perfect way to teach them that.”
And, Mrs. Jones added, it gave them a chance to really hone in on the work ethic they wanted to instill in both their boys.
“It’s teaching them so many things — how to keep up with money, how to save, how to borrow and pay back money, how to actually run a business, talking to customers, helping them, working, everything — and they are really catching on to it all. I think they better understand that it is important to work for what you get.”
Among the lessons the boys learned early on was the need for equipment to help in their venture — and the realization they had to pay for it.
Jones said he bought the pair a roller and another “picker-upper,” so that gathering the pecans would be easier.
“When they made their first $100,” dad said, “I told them they had to pay back the money I had loaned them to get the equipment. And, I also reminded them that it was their equipment so they had to take care of it or they’d have to buy more.”
Holding up his roller, Cameron smiles and nods. “Yep, we had to pay dad back for these, with the money we made. That’s what business is all about.”
The pair were using that equipment Monday to go over the lot, gathering the hard-shell pecans and dumping them into a a big blue gallon bucket, stopping from time to time to have a little fun with their dad — a pecan battle that ended with everyone bent over laughing.
“They have a good time, but they are working hard, too,” Mrs. Jones attests as she watches her boys gather the nuts.
Cameron will quickly point out that the business he and his brother started ended up being a lot more than he actually expected.
“I thought it was just pick, crack and sell, but there’s a lot more to it. It really is work, and not as easy as I thought.”
Mrs. Jones laughs. “He’s right. They thought they were just going to pick up a bucket, but then those pecans just kept falling and people just kept wanting them.”
Now Cameron said he is also learning to save some of the money he’s making since he has his eye on a toy car he’d really like to add to his collection.
“I’m really trying to save up for an RC car. I want to save $200, but it’s hard, that’s for sure,” Cameron said.
But with the pecans falling fast and two youngsters eager to make their business a success, mom Aleza believes they will get to their goal and beyond.
“If they put their mind to it, and work hard, they will get there. They sure want to.”
The new business venture, though, the boys and their parents say, would not have been possible without their grandmother, Linda Jones, who helps watch the home-schoolers.
“We really couldn’t do this without her,” Mrs. Jones said.
“That’s right,” Cameron chimes in. “She’s a big help.”
With pecans to pick up — and crack — and daylight left on the Columbus Day holiday, the youngsters said they’d spent enough time talking.
“We’ve got to get back to work,” Cameron said as Taylor walks away, his roller fast at work collecting nuts.