Young Entrepreneurs – Math and Your Dream Business

Have you ever thought of starting your own business like Renee Tookenay? She is an entrepreneur who created her own natural cosmetics business. Starting a business requires passion, a great idea, and some math. Yes, math! Nelson (Edwin) and Let’s Talk Science have teamed with some tips about starting your own business. Let’s go!

Prepare: Let’s get creative!

Do you have a great idea, a passion, or a hobby you'd love to turn into a thriving business? Do you want to run a business by yourself or collaborate with a partner? Let your creativity guide you to make your dream a reality.

For example, let’s see how to start a business selling cakes and other sweet treats.

Plan: Let’s get down to business! 

Now that you’ve decided on the focus of your business, there are many things for you to consider. These include budgeting, supplies, branding, advertising and more. Many of these involve math!

A great place to start during the planning phase is to create a survey. A market research survey is a way to gather information to help you understand people’s wants and needs. Surveys can include different types of questions, such as multiple choice, true or false, ranking choices and short answer questions.

Image - Text Version

Shown is a colour photograph of dough rolled flat on a table, with the shape of a question mark cut out of it. The camera is looking down at a round piece of beige dough on a brown wood table. The question mark is cut out from the centre of the dough, in a thick font, revealing the darker table below. The table and dough are sprinkled with flour. There are two star-shaped cookie cutters on the right and one star-shaped piece of dough on the top left. A pale wooden rolling pin lies across the lower left corner of the image.

For example, part of a survey for a baked goods business might look like this:

Multiple Choice
What is the greatest amount of money you would be willing to pay for a dozen cupcakes?

• $25
• $30
• $35
• Over $35
• I wouldn’t buy cupcakes 

Ranking
Rank these sweet treats from your most favourite (1) to least favourite (4).

• Brownies
• Cakes
• Cookies
• Cupcakes 

Short Answer
Where do you usually purchase baked goods?

Once people have completed your survey, you will need to determine what the data tells you about your proposed business. This can include:

• Organizing and representing the data using tables and graphs
• Analyzing the data
• Drawing conclusions from the data

Image - Text Version

Shown is a colour photograph of several people’s hands near papers printed with graphs. The camera looks across a table covered in sheets of paper. Each sheet is printed with different types of colourful graphs of different types. Three different people’s hands are visible around the table, but their faces and bodies are outside the frame. One person’s hand is on the table, pointing to an orange, circular graph. The second hand is spread out on the edge of the table. The third is resting near a paper cup in the background.

Now that you have an idea about what your customers want, it is time to create a budget. A budget is a plan to manage income and expenses.

All businesses need to spend money on various things. These are called expenses. There are two types: fixed expenses and variable expenses.

• Fixed expenses are regular expenses that are easy to predict. These include expenses like rent, insurance and staff salaries. 

• Variable expenses are items and services that cost different amounts and are paid at different times. These include expenses like material costs and gas.

Business budgets also include the expected revenue. This is money that a business expects to bring in.

You often see budgets in a table like the one below. By creating a budget, you will be able to figure out how much money you expect to earn and spend. A surplus occurs when, in a given year, a business’ revenue exceeds its expenses. This will cause a positive balance in the budget. On the other hand, when a business spends more than it receives in revenue, a deficit occurs. This will cause a negative balance in the budget. The balance is the total expenses subtracted from the total revenue.

Propel: Let’s put the plan into action!

So far, you've had a vision for a business, you've done your research and crunched some numbers. There are still some other things to think about before your big grand opening. These include coming up with your brand and advertising.

Memorable brands often have great names and logos. A logo is a graphic that represents your brand. It may use words, pictures or both. Many logos use geometric shapes. Graphic designers use shapes to represent ideas. For example, a triangle that points up can represent stability. A circle can represent wholeness and harmony. You can create even more interesting logos by combining shapes!

For a baked goods business, think about what shapes could represent baked goods (e.g., circles for cakes and cookies).

Image - Text Version

Shown are 24 arrangements of shapes in four different colours, arranged in a grid. Each arrangement takes up the same size of square space on a white background. The shapes include squares, triangles, circles and diamonds in different sizes and combinations. The only colours used are blue, yellow, red and black.

Reflect: Let’s think about it!

No matter what stage you are in – planning, building, or working in your business – it's always wise to pause and reflect on where you've been, where you are and where you're going.

Not sure what else to do next? You can find more information about starting a business and getting start up funding from the Government of Ontario and read about the career journeys of entrepreneurs.

Starting a business can be hard work, but it also can be incredibly rewarding.

Meet Edwin
Nelson’s digital education platform, Edwin, is a safe virtual sandbox giving students choice and autonomy in their learning. Many of the math resources featured in this article are from an Edwin lesson collection called, "So You Want to Be an Entrepreneur."

Let’s Talk Science appreciates the contributions from Nelson Edwin in the development of this backgrounder.