A school against entrepreneurial students

1 News reports:

Lennox Goodhue-Wikitera, 17, has been keeping students cool over the summer with his Juicie treats since 2022. But the school’s board of trustees now says he can only sell the frozen juice if he hands over all profits to the school and doesn’t take a wage. That’s despite donating around $3000 to the college of money made by the enterprise. 

“In late 2021, the canteen at our school closed down, and I had this lightbulb moment, walking around thinking I could really do with a Juicie right now because it was so hot and there was no canteen then the light bulb moment came – why don’t I just sell them?” he said.

“The next day, I turned up with a chilly bin in tow. I started selling them for about $1.50, sold a few at first, every day I kept selling more and more.”

Great to see Lennox seeing a need, and filling it.

In addition to the ice block sales, Lennox set up a business buying and selling imported products online and in his store, Bali Boutique, on the main street of Kaitāia.

He’d also attended a free IRD workshop in Kaitāia to learn more about his tax responsibilities. IRD staff later visited him at school during lunchtime to help him file his tax returns. He now has an accountant who does that for him. 

Amazing. We need more students like Lennox. And good on IRD for being helpful.

However, this year Lennox ran into problems once again with his ice block sales when the board asked to see a breakdown of his business expenses and saw Lennox had been paying himself a wage. 

“So profit is revenue minus expenses right, so there are lots of expenses involved in running this enterprise, for example I have to purchase chilly bins, I have to use my petrol to drive to Pak’nSave, there’s power in the freezer at home, also my time is expensive so I charge a very fair remuneration for myself,” said Lennox.

The board stopped him from selling at school again.

So the board banned him, because he had the temerity to pay himself a wage for his time. What an awful message this sends young people.