MAKE MONEY MAKING BREAD!

Image Gallery The staff of life can be the stuff of income. The Watson brothers' whole wheat loaves bring in over $1,000 a year.

MOTHER'S CHILDREN

Two brothers earn while they learn. By Benjamin and Joseph Watson

Three years ago, when we were nine (Joseph) and eight (Benjamin), we met a lady who sold homemade bread at local fairs and meetings. We liked the idea, so we asked our mom if we could get a Bosch bread maker and start our own business: Watson Bread Brothers.

BY ben jamin and Joseph Watson

We made some mistakes at first—like on the first batch when we poured all the water into the bowl of flour instead of the other way around. One time we.forgot to put the yeast in the dough. The bread looked sort of funny in the oven—it wouldn't rise! We tried sprinkling a little bit of yeast on top of the loaves, but that didn't work.

We worked out our problems, though, and now we're doing swell. We grind our own flour with a flour mill and make four to six loaves of honey-sweetened, whole wheat bread at a time. We normally sell 16 loaves of bread a week at $2 each (we could probably sell them for $2.50). One time we baked 100 loaves for a school fair (it took us two weeks) and made $200 in one day! We deposited more than $1,000 in our savings account in our first year of doing business.

We're also Bosch dealers, earning commissions from selling the company's flour mill, bread maker and other kitchen machines. We school at home with our mom, so our bread business is an important part of our education We do our own bookkeeping, ordering, banking, promotional planning and tax reporting as well as our regular school lessons. And we still find time to ski, bike, fish, camp and play touch football.

Having your own business is fun. You can make a lot more money than most kids get in allowances, and it makes us happy to know people are getting good nutrition from eating our 100% whole wheat bread. We realize most kids can't afford $500 for a bread maker and flour mill. Maybe you could do like we did—our mom bought the machines and, in exchange, we give her at least two loaves of bread each week. [Editor's Note: Emily Murphy — see the sidebar — runs a home baking business without either machine.]

After three really great years, we're convinced: A home bread business really is a great way to earn while you learn.