Lottie means business

While her classmates are learning their times table and figuring out fractions, Lottie Calver is studying profit and loss and working out her business overheads.

The Sprowston eight-year-old spent her summer holidays setting up a business making beautiful things out of resin, and now has a firm foothold on the ladder to success.

And it all came from a birthday present from her mum and dad in June.

“We got her a resin necklace making set, just as an extra present,” said mum Laura. “She really took to it.”

Lottie added: “I made a necklace for me and one for my friend – then I decided to start a business!”

A loan for materials from the Bank of Mummy and Daddy got her started, and within weeks she had customers through her Facebook page – Lottie’s Resin Creations – and was invited to have a stall at fairs around the county.

With financial obligations to settle, Lottie had to learn about repayments and responsibilities to investors and is already paying Laura and dad Simon back the £700 they loaned her, leaving her with a healthy £450 profit so far.

“She gets paid some and she pays back some,” said Laura. “We’ve tried to teach her how it works – she’s learned about liability insurance and what it means to be self-employed. She doesn’t like it, but she knows that she has to have it.

“She’s using maths in the real world and is learning so much.”

From working on the dining room table, the White Woman Lane School pupil quickly commandeered space in the garage as her workshop, where she makes her jewellery, magnets and ornaments.

And she even knows about sub-contracting, as her parents and brothers Caleb, Rorey and Dylan are often roped in.

Lottie said she liked making resin cats best, but she has learned how to make earrings, which are becoming popular.

Despite the successful launch, she’s not sure if she will make it her career – but she does have goals.

“I’m saving for a bike,” she said. “And I want my business to be bigger than Daddy’s.”