Young Entrepreneur Finds Really Sweet Biz

Washington Post Magazine:

Kailyn Cage was the kind of kid who loved candy and always had some with her. “Everyone called me Candy Girl,” she says. So it made sense to the financially savvy Kailyn to bring a book bag full of treats to sell to fellow students at Kettering Middle School in Prince George’s County. Kailyn had no idea that operating a business at school wasn’t allowed, she says. “I was just running all over the place selling candy. Even my teachers bought candy.”

By the time administrators discovered and shut down her little enterprise, Kailyn — who has always wanted to run her own business and has always been a big saver, according to her mother — had made a cool $1,000 selling Reese’s, Snickers and peanut M&M’s. Donna Cage persuaded Kailyn to use the profit on a couple of three-headed candy machines, the kind filled with loose M&M’s or gumballs. “If you want to sell candy, you’re going to do it the right way, legally,” she says she told her daughter.

Kailyn received permission to install the machines at a beauty salon and a supermarket, and she surveyed employees and customers to find out what sweets they preferred. “That’s the difference between my vending company and every other candy company,” says Kailyn, a tiny dynamo with a huge smile. “It caters to what the customer wants.”

Kailyn continued to expand her company and her knowledge. She bought a soda machine and snack machine and installed them at the church where her father is pastor. She took entrepreneurship classes and entered several competitions, becoming the D.C. region’s Ernst & Young/Junior Achievement Youth Entrepreneur of 2006.

She also maintained a 3.94 GPA, ran championship track and netted a $10,000 profit last year. “She does everything to the fullest,” Donna Cage, a Prince George’s County Schools resource teacher, says.

Photo by Keith Barraclough.

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