Sometimes it takes a parent’s business to inspire a child to start their own business. Kate Daniels created “Buddy Talk” and “Camp Talk” because she was inspired my the other products in her mom’s company, Around the Table Games No matter where the inspiration comes from, it is so important that we encourage our children!
Here’s my interview with Kate:
Sarah: So Kate, tell where you’re from and how you got started in business.
Kate – I’m from Missouri and I got started by, watching my mom make the games and I thought it was really cool so I created two games myself.
Sarah – That’s awesome. I understand that you do some other things too. Your mom was talking to me about pet portraits and some arts and crafts type things. So tell me a little bit more about that.
Kate – A few years ago I really liked taking photos; I would go around the house taking pictures of everything. And I also really love pets. So I decided when my church had a blessing of the pets, I went up there and I took pictures of the pet owners and their pets.
Sarah: So what made you start thinking about being in business was it is just the fact that your mom was already in business? Is your dad in business too?
Kate - No – he’s actually a firefighter.
Sarah – That’s fabulous!
Kate - He has had his own business. He cut lawn.
Sarah – Okay, that’s great. And so what do you feel like are the most important skills that you would really need to have to be in business?
Kate - Creativity.
Sarah – So true! You definitely need creativity! So what have been the biggest obstacles that you’ve had to overcome as a young entrepreneur?
Kate – Coming up with the pricing.
Sarah – That’s really hard for a lot of people, even adults. You don’t want to price it too high and no one buys it. You don’t want to price it too low and then you don’t make any money. So that definitely is a real big obstacle. How do you feel like your age has affected you? Do you feel like it’s been really good that you’ve gotten a lot of attention from people that say, “Wow, you’re in business, good job.” Or do you feel like it’s been really hard to be your age?
Kate - I think it’s been good.
Sarah – Awesome. So what about college? Are you planning on going to college later on?
Kate – Yes. I want to be an interior designer and an architect.
Sarah – That’s awesome.
Kate - I’m planning on going somewhere in California.
Sarah – Well, California is definitely fabulous! There’s not a lot of snow here unless you’re in the mountains, which I really love. So what were some good surprises? What are some things that you think, wow, I didn’t know business could be this good, I love being in business?
Kate – I usually like going to the toy fairs in New York, those are really fun. And meeting new people.
Sarah – You know what’s so great about the connections is that because you’re so young, you can keep those connections forever. You can continue with those connections and so later on when you’re starting your interior design business and you can follow up on those connections that you’ve had before and say, “Hey, I would love to be able to show you what I’ve learned and give you some ideas.” Your connections will likely help start your next business because your connections are really, your network and your connections are really equal to the income potential that you have in your business which is awesome.
Kate - Yeah.
Sarah – So do you do everything by yourself or do you have a team of people that help you? Do your parents help you?
Kate - With my games, my mom and my dad help me. With And then creating the game, I had my friends help me come up with some of the questions too.
Sarah – Oh, that’s good, that’s good. And I bet your friends like to be involved in that, so that’s awesome. So tell us a little bit about marketing - where do you find the clients, how do you start getting the games out there and people buying them and things like that?
Kate – I usually just give them to family members and then they tell other people and it just keeps going around.
Sarah – So word of mouth?
Kate - Yes.
Sarah – Awesome. So what do you feel like are some tips that you can give on balancing everything, balancing business and family time and school time and maybe church time or whatever else you’re – music time, whatever you’re doing. How do you balance it all?
Kate – I take some time for myself.
Sarah – Good. Do you use a calendar, do you use a white board, what do you guys do to keep everything straight in the family?
Kate - We use a calendar.
Sarah – Perfect! So if you could give tips to kids around the world, what would be some tips that you would give to young 
entrepreneurs, CEO Kids?
Kate – Just do what you like and like what you do.
Sarah – I love it! Kate – tell us one more time where kids and parents can find your games.
Kate - You can find them at aroundthetablegames.com and we’re giving away free shipping with a promotional code of FREESHIP.
Sarah – FREESHIP, okay fabulous! What I love about them is they are pocket size so they can just fit anywhere – like doctors’ offices, bank lines, road trips, camping and more!
All right. Always when you do what you love and you love what you do like you said, then you can definitely find the joy even if it’s a hard workweek or something like that or there’s deadlines. So keep doing what you’re doing and doing what you love of course and we’ll watch for you as you launch the next phase of the games or become the architect that you want to be or the interior designer that you want to be. When you live your dreams, there’s always going to be a great future for you.
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