Archive for January 12th, 2009

So my daughter had her first Girl Scout meeting today. And I’m (sort of) surprised to learn that we’re (mostly) ahead of the curve on this cookie thing. That my daughter is an overachiever comes as no surprise to me. As I’ve mentioned before, she is single-mindedly obsessive about anything she chooses to focus upon. What surprised me was that as novice scouts go, she’s gotten out of the gate with record speed. What also surprised me is that she’ll have plenty of opportunities between now and the end of February to sell cookies on her own. I would have thought that they’d have group activities scheduled for every weekend between now and the Girl Scouts equivalent of D-Day. (C-Day?) But they don’t. That’s good, in that she’ll have some time to be able learn something about sales and marketing on her own (with my supervision). That’s bad, in that it’s going to make it harder, I would think, for her to sell the number of cookies she wants to move. She has her sights set on a Nintendo Wii, which will take moving some 2,000 boxes to earn.

That’s a LOT of cookies. Read the rest of this entry »

My daughter is a newly-minted Girl Scout. In fact, her first official troop meeting is tomorrow, after school. She’s excited about Girl Scouts for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is that she’ll get to sell cookies.

That’s right. She’s excited about selling Girl Scout cookies.

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

My daughter is a force of nature. She Who Will Not Be Swayed. She focuses like a laser beam on whatever strikes her fancy du jour, and can withstand all efforts to divert her attentions – gale-force winds, a pack of sled dogs, 20 Mule Team Borax, you name it. Having been down this obssesion road once or twice before, I’ve learned that it’s like the tide – no use swimming against it. I’ve also learned that every now and then, I can use this obsession to try and give her a little real-world experience in things within my area of expertise, in this instance, sales and marketing. So let’s talk about marketing cookies. Read the rest of this entry »