Meet the White sisters from Makarora - Alexia (8), Niamh (6), Huia (4) and Tova (2) - who are collectively known as The Wonky Plait. Their business is wide-ranging, selling everything from broomsticks and wands to garlic seedlings, rat traps and pickaxes.
Their bank balance might still be in the red, but they are having a lot of fun and, most importantly, learning some important skills around business and money, along with more practical hands-on skills.
It started with Alexia, who wanted to earn some money to buy a house — she did admit it could get a little ‘‘annoying’’ living with three sisters — and she was keen to have a stall on the side of the road.
But as the township’s population was only about 800, the girls’ father Toby did not think that was a practical idea, so they started thinking about what they could sell and recently launched a website.
Mr White admitted it was an ‘‘eclectic’’ mix of products; the girls all had ideas which got thrown into the mix and they were all involved with the production side.
The name came when Alexia was learning to plait and her initial attempts were ‘‘quite wonky’’. Her plaiting was no longer wonky but the name for the business stuck.
The girls were learning about the concept of business - including the difference between selling things and making a profit, through deducting their costs - and they would hopefully learn some life skills, Mr White said.
‘‘And maybe kill some rats,’’ their mother Janet Rhodes added.
Alexia said she had learned times tables while counting out punnets of garlic, while Niamh said she had learned ‘‘sometimes when I screw, the screwdriver can go off course and it goes all winky-wonky, like a wonky plait’’.
They had also learned about not promising things to potential customers that they could not deliver, like the doughnuts that Huia was keen to sell but did not stock.
The girls had a booklet to keep track of their financial situation and they were also aiming to broaden their product range, possibly into flowers and maybe possum and stoat or weasel traps. They were keen to help out with the Predator Free 2050 initiative.
The family moved from Waitati to Makarora in January and the children attend Makarora School, where Alexia offers cut-price deals to her friends for her home-made headbands.
As for their future plans? Alexia reckoned when they got enough money to buy four houses, they would probably split the proceeds.
