Still Being An Entrepreneur

Another money making idea I had when I was in elementary school was cinnamon toothpicks.  I personally did not come up with the idea behind making them but selling them but selling was all my idea. I was introduced to them on the school bus, my friend offered me on and I was hooked. But you really had to be careful with them because some would be so bad because of being soaked for so long in the oil that when you rubbed your eyes they would burn also. I think all in all these were a bad idea, years later they were monitored and put out by manufacturers.  This way, you knew they were safer than buying them from some kid on the bus wrapped up in aluminum foil.

I learned many lessons buying these and making these to sell. Back when I was a kid, there were only a few places that sold the cinnamon oil and I actually had to have other people buy it for me, like my friends older brother. He would go to the store and buy it for me, because my parents would not purchase it for me. I would them take my toothpicks from home and secretly make my own toothpicks to sale. I sometimes let them soak for hours sometimes days and if I got another jar of the oil, I would let some soak for a week or so. But due to all the kids catching on to selling them and making money off of them I would make a lot the ones that soaked for a few hours.  But by doing these, people did not like them because they did not last long. It got to the point that kids would ask, how long have the soaked. It was crazy to think that kids cared that much.

I remember having three bottles at once and letting them just soak. I was losing money left and right, it was not like the candy adventure because not many kids caught onto that one but this one was different.  I remember selling many toothpick packs all at once. I would group 25 toothpicks to one aluminum foil pack and sell off the whole pack at once. I am sure they were reselling them by the days end and robbing me of sells. I would make five dollars or more a day from selling these and sometimes if I did have candy I would make money from selling it on top of the toothpicks.