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Kidz-Biz makes headlines! Read their stories: Antelope Valley Press Entrepreneurs are Getting Younger They are perhaps the youngest business professionals this side of the Antelope Valley -- or anywhere else for that matter. The gutsy group of five local girls, ages 6 to 10, has yet to lose all of their baby teeth. But with several years to go before reaching high school age, they've enrolled in the school of hard knocks. The girls run Kidz-Biz, an after-school and weekend community service business that teaches responsibility, community, economics, leadership and cooperation, not to mention subjects like expenses, pricing promotion, advertising and productivity. "Kidz-Biz is geared toward girls because most childhood business opportunities are geared toward boys," said Chief Executive Officer Marco Dydo, who lives in Palmdale. "You don't have girls entering the workplace until the age of babysitting. This is an opportunity for me to teach my girls and other girls cooperation and leadership in a business environment. Dydo is well suited to teach these girls a thing or two about the business world. This the owner and producer of Tribe Records, which is under the parent company Artistic Developments International. Tribe Records operates form offices in Palmdale, Glendale and Simi Valley. The total number of children will be selected and formed into functional groups of five kids. The Kidz Co-op will elect a president, who will report to the Kidz-Biz CEO on a weekly basis to plan events, discuss problems and coordinate activities. Kidz-Biz specializes in community services, such as a trash-a-thon. The girls seek sponsorship in a neighborhood where they'll spend the day cleaning up trash. The first, and so far only, trash-a-thon was in May. The girls picked up trash in a debris-riddled field near the Palmdale Learning Plaza for more than six hours. "People just go there to dump trash, and a lot of kids walk through there," Dydo said. "So, it's unsightly and a little dangerous." Waste Management donated a dumpster and the girls went door to door seeking pledges. The group turned a profit on the trash-a-thon. After paying off their expenses, they had enough left over for salaries. According to Dydo, 25% of the gross profits will be deducted and placed in an investment portfolio, and each group member will receive her prorated share in the investment. The group will hold bimonthly investment meetings, which will teach them about investing, researching and tracking an investment portfolio, Dydo said. The group also will produce a monthly newsletter to track the individual progress of each fun group, and the results will be charted and published at the close of the fiscal year. The group is also working a what it is calling a "Do Right" campaign. Members will sell T-shirts that promote the "do right" philosophy, which is essentially saying, thinking, and doing the right thing. When practiced daily, the philosophy leads to right choices, Dydo said. "It's kind of like D.A.R.E., keeping kids off drugs," Dydo said. "The message is just saying 'do the right thing.'" The shirts will sport a "Do Right" logo, and Kidz-Biz is working with a wholesale company to print the shirts. Dydo's 8-year old daughter, Sienna, brainstormed the idea of Kidz-Biz two years ago when she came to a disappointing realization: she wasn't receiving any profit from the Girls Scout cookies she sold. "She went 'wait a minute,' " Dydo recalled, " 'all we got to do is go camping in the mountains and freeze our butts off.' " From there, father and daughter began discussing ideas about how to get a business up and running. Eventually, Kidz-Biz was born. Today, Sienna is president of Kidz-Biz. Also employed by the company are Sarae, 6, Sophia, 10, Vanessa, 8, and Shaila, 10. "You get to learn how to be in a business, and you learn how to handle money, " Sarae said.
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