Post by Todd B on Dec 31, 2007 13:59:57 GMT -5
Great job, Johnny!
www.monroenews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071224/NEIGHBORS/105699607
Article published Dec 24, 2007
Money-making ideas fuel young entrepreneur
IDA - When Johnny Koch looked at his family's property, he didn't see a stand of pine trees, he saw a gold mine.
Knowing that some people love cutting down their own Christmas trees, Johnny decided to cash in. He put up a sign at his home on Jackman Rd. and waited for the traffic. At the time, he was in the third grade.
"He convinced his dad to sell the pines," said his mother, Brenda Koch (pronounced "Cook"). "We told him he was crazy."
Crazy like a money-making fox. More and more people started stopping by and gladly paid Johnny $20 to cut down their own trees from the family back yard. That year he made $500.
"I got a lot more than I expected," Johnny said. "I just wanted money. I wanted a dirt bike."
At 12 years old, Johnny already has grown into a successful entrepreneur. He grows vegetables and sells them. He raises chickens and sells the eggs. He picks berries for cash and helped run a haunted house.
"He always comes up with ways to make money," his mother said. "He's always doing something."
This year Johnny is raking it in with his latest idea: Christmas wreaths.
"I wanted to make money off that, too," he said. "I know I can do it."
And he has.
His uncle makes wreaths and happened to have an extra machine, so Johnny gladly took it. He runs his little business in the garage. He clips the trees in the yard and stores the trimmings in a large box. He collects pine cones and spray paints them silver and gold. Nearby are piles of ribbons and ornaments and holly he and his mother use to decorate the final product.
During a wreath-making demonstration, Johnny placed a circular metal frame on the work bench and used his foot to operate the machine. He placed a swath of trimmings onto the frame and pounded in metal clips to hold the trimmings in place.
So far he's sold 65 wreaths at $10 a piece. Whenever he can, Johnny sits in a shack in a field at the corner of Ida West and Jackman Rds. where he'll do business with customers who pull over after seeing the homemade sign that reads "Koch's wreaths."
A member of the 4-H Klover Kids, Johnny is a sixth-grader at Ida Middle School where he earns A's and B's. In addition to his money-making ventures, Johnny enjoys riding dirt bikes, four-wheelers and snowmobiles. He plays some video games, but not much. He doesn't have a lot of time for that.
"He's one of those kids who's got to be doing something," said his grandmother, Rose Hunt.
The son of John and Brenda Koch, Johnny is the youngest of three boys. He said growing things and raising animals and selling stuff is just the way he is; he said he got a lot of it from his dad.
"I don't play a lot of sports," Johnny said. "So I like to do this instead."
Next he wants to grow flowers to sell, like mums in the fall. Although he's made some pretty good money over the years, Johnny has put away a lot for college where he wants to pursue the field of agriculture. And when he grows up he says he wants to be a "farmer-slash-businessman."
That is hardly a surprise since he's already doing both. And, at age 12, he's a veteran.
"He's quite the entrepreneur," Mrs. Koch said. "He is a character."