Starting a Car Boot Sale
Business Ideas For Children

Kids Business Ideas: Starting A Car Boot Sale

When it comes to kids business ideas, starting a car boot sale may not even come to your mind. But a car boot sale business venture for a child or teen is a very effective way of teaching a child about business and customer service.  Additionally, it is a type of business that a child can conduct on the weekends while school is still in service. This will ensure that your child’s job does not conflict with their busy school schedules.

A car boot sale business may seem like a foreign term to those of you who reside in the United States. That is because the term “boot” is the UK word for trunk. Think of a boot sale as a common yard sale, only the person operating the sale sells items from the trunk of a car (a boot) or from the tail bed of a truck. This type of sale is most commonly seen with people selling fresh produce from the back of their trucks. However, in recent years more and more people have started to branch out and sell more types of products from the back of their cars.

Things To Consider When Starting A Car Boot Sale Business

The first thing you will need to consider when starting a car boot sale is what you will sell from your car. You should have your child ponder the types of things that they could sell that people would want to buy. Since most people sell produce such as fruits and vegetables, you could have your child start off by growing their own garden on your property. This will teach them work ethic since they will have to continually water and take care of the garden until it is time to harvest. Additionally, it will teach them to value money more when they consider how much work they put behind the products which they will selling from the boot of your car.

The second thing apart from what products will be sold is how you will execute your boot sale. If your child is a teenager who has a driver’s license, chances are that they can drive to their selling location on their own.  However, if they are unable to drive then you will want to take into consideration that you will most likely be transporting them to and from the location, and in most cases will have to stay at the location while they make their sales from your trunk.

The third thing that you will want to consider is where you will hold these trunk sales. Many department store parking lots will allow you to hold these types of sales; however, you may need to obtain a specific type of permit in your local town in order to execute this type of sale. Other towns have no rules or limitations to these types of sales. You will need to check with your specific city council in order to determine where you may conduct such sales and what the fees will be in order to operate this type of business.

Finally, you should consider the means in which your child will advertise their business. Most people will simply fashion signs which they will place on and around their vehicle in order to advertise the products that they will be selling. Others will run advertisements in their local newspapers.  This is completely up to you! Allow your child to be creative when it comes to the type of advertising avenues that they choose to use.

If one of form of advertising doesn’t seem to be working, encourage your child to attempt another form of advertising until they find a means that produces more sales. This will teach your child basic problem solving skills and will also teach them to “think outside of the box”.

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