Nine-year-old Sault girl publishes book on running your own business

It isn’t every nine-year-old that writes a book on entrepreneurship.

But that’s what the Sault’s Hannah Buconjic, assisted by her father Nevin Buconjic, has done.

Nevin Buconjic is an entrepreneur and StartUP Sault Ste. Marie’s founder.

The self-published book, entitled 25 Money-Making Business Ideas for Kids & Teens, was released June 5.

It’s available through Amazon and will be available at local bookstores. 

“I’m excited about it. It’s nice to be an author,” Hannah told SooToday.

“I run a lemonade stand every summer and it’s called Hannah’s Summer Treats. But it’s not an ordinary lemonade stand because we also sell water, popsicles, ice cream, sweets and we donate to charities. It’s in our driveway.”

Two years ago, Hannah donated over $200 from sales at her lemonade stand to ARCH as well as money to the Sault Ste. Marie Humane Society.

“We’re thinking that this year we’ll donate to some of the food banks in town,” Nevin said.

When COVID-19 shut down her business, Hannah turned to YouTube and launched her own channel called The Hannah News Network, or HNN, including interviews and movie reviews for children.

“It was a really good experience for her and then last year she started another channel where she plays a game called Roblox and what they do is they can simulate role play online. So she records her videos and adds commentaries and special effects,” Nevin said.

Hannah edits her videos herself.

Nevin said the first nine tips in 25 Money-Making Business Ideas for Kids & Teens include suggestions such as lemonade stands, yard sales, dog walking and car washes.

“Then it progresses into things that would require more responsibilities and skills and those are more for teens and we explain this in the book. Some of those ideas for teens are selling gourmet popcorn, blogging, tech support, video production, and babysitting is a good one.”

“There are so many ideas in our book and I think I might try some,” Hannah said.

“It’s fun to make money and donate money to people. It feels good.”

Nevin foresees an entrepreneurial future for Hannah.

“She’s come a long way. She was five when she started and at the time she was too shy to talk to customers who came. She’s gained a lot of confidence. We see her creativity grow every day. She’s gone into the YouTube video creation space and I see it opening opportunities for her. She’s getting fantastic experience.”

All but gone are the days when companies move to any given community and hire a large number of employees for a mine, mill, factory or a large business in an office complex.

Not everyone plans to attend college or university and pursue a career in health sciences, law, engineering or teaching.

And, despite a successful push to encourage young people to go into skilled trades, not everyone desires to work with their hands.

With that, running your own business will become more of an option for young people in the future, Nevin said.

“I think it’s super important for young people to just experience and learn about entrepreneurship at an early age because of those powerful lessons and opportunities it can create. I think if a lot of kids can be exposed to that early on then they can try things out and learn a lot about themselves and they can also develop skills they can use whether they be an entrepreneur or work in another capacity.”

“The skills they gain as a kid will carry on into their careers. It doesn’t necessarily mean they’re going to be an entrepreneur in the end but if they can experiment with being their own boss that’s fantastic,” he said.