Lil Chefs’ Sweet Treats – Khadija Grace Dafondanouto and Alayia Fabre

Business partners and friends Khadija Grace, age six, and Alayia, age 7, own Lil Chefs’ Sweet Treats.  These entrepreneurs are always expanding their sweet treat offerings by trying new recipies, but their favorites include cake pops, cupcakes, and fruit tarts. Khadi and Alayia hope that Colorado & Company viewers will come shop from them and other youth business owners at the YouthBiz Spring Marketplace held April 28, 2018 from 10:00am-2:00pm at Young Amerians Center for Financial Education in Cherry Creek.

Watch Khadija Grace and Alayia’s segment on Colorado & Company.

Question: Khadija Grace & Alayia, tell me a little bit about yourselves – name, age, how long you’ve been entrepreneurs?

Alayia: My name is Alayia Fabre and I am seven years old and this is my friend Khadi. We are partners for our business called Lil Chefs’ Sweet Treats where we bake sweet treats for our customers.

Khadi Grace: My name is Khadi Grace and I am six years old and my friend Alayia and I started our Lil Chefs’ business last summer.

Q: Do you have a website? Or any social media? If so, let us know what it is.

Both: No, we don’t have a website or social media account yet.  But you can reach us at yacenter.wpengine.com/coco/

Q: What motivated or inspired you to start a business?

Alayia: What motivated me was I first saw my two friends with businesses, one with popsicles and the other with a lemonade stand. This inspired me! Khadi and I brainstormed what we could do together and came up with the idea to sell cookies and cake pops. We first sold these at the Black arts festival last summer and we sold out everything we made.

Khadi Grace: My dad is a chef and he has his own food truck business.  My dad inspires me to have my own bakery one day.

Q: Please share an overview about your business, Lil Chefs’ Sweet Treats.

Alayia: Lil Chefs’ Sweet Treats is our business where we sell different treats. Each event we think of something new to sell or how to make our treats taste better. First, we sold cookies and cake pops at the black arts festival. And then at YouthBiz Holiday Marketplace we decided to sell biscotti and chocolate covered pretzel sticks. We decorated them with sprinkles and candy balls. We like to sell something each of us wants to make. For example, at this spring’ Marketplace I’m making our cupcakes.

Khadi Grace: This time, I am making cake pops, and lemon and fruit tarts.

Q: Tell us about some of the challenges you face being a young business owner.

Alayia: One barrier is that sometimes we don’t know if we’ll have enough materials to make all of the items we want to sell. And sometimes it’s scary to know if we will do well at our event but we have learned to push through and keep learning from our mistakes so we can become better business owners.

Khadi Grace: Sometimes I get nervous when I am talking to the customers about our treats and Alayia does most of the talking. I am learning how to not be shy and talk more to customers and tell them about my treats. I am also learning how to count money.

Q: What’s the best part about having your own business?

Alayia: I have always wanted to work in a store and being a business owner has helped me to sell things just like the people I see. Sometimes you get red or make mistakes when you’re finding what works or what we want to make for the next time, but now I know how to push through when it gets frustrating. Also, when it gets exhausting to be a business owner we learn to take breaks and take deep breaths and tell ourselves we can do this.

Khadi Grace: I love baking and decorating the treats because it is so much fun. I also like making money to put in my bank account and having my own business like a grown person.

Q: Why should other youth start a business?

Alayia: I think other kids should start a business because they’ll learn that even though it’s hard and you want to take a break in the end you learn to be tough, and when life is tough it makes you stronger and stronger.

Khadi Grace: Kids should start their own business because it is a lot of fun and helps you be smarter and more confident about having a business and making money.

Q: Please share about your involvement with Young Americans Center for Financial Education.

Alayia: I have a bank account where I save money every month and we also both put some of the money we make from Lil Chefs’ Sweet Treats in.

Khadi Grace: I have a bank account there and put my money in there, sell my treats there, and also take fun classes that teach me about how to save and use money.

Q: Tell our audience why someone should come by the YouthBiz Marketplace to purchase products from you.

Alayia: I think someone should come by so they can support business owners like us. I also think you should still come because imagine that you were me, if I didn’t get a lot of people to come to our business event we would be very sad and won’t sell our wonderful treats, so why don’t you help us look forward to our event and be one of our customers.

Khadi Grace: I think people should buy our treats because they are sweet, yummy, and homemade and it is important to support young kids’ businesses.