Putting Entrepreneurship Where it Belongs: Poverty, Child Sellers, and Small Business Support
- Donna Rosa
- Aug 2, 2016
- 9 min read
Updated: Apr 9
Shortly after I returned home from a consulting assignment in Liberia, I was working in my office and happened to look out the window. A groundhog was waddling straight down the middle of the street. In my neighborhood in suburban New Jersey this is a WTF. And that was my first thought.
But I’m quite certain that no one else on Madison Street would have come up with my second thought:
“Someone in Liberia could get $20 for that.”
That’s what my driver told me on one of my trips to the field. I had asked about the critter we sped past along the road, slung upside down by its little spread legs, fastened to a y-shaped stick. I remember thinking how working in developing countries alters your brain in strange ways.
But there was something else going on, and it bothered me more than my own reframing of a groundhog as income:
The opportunistic peddlers were children.
The roadside pineapple (and the performance that gave it away)
On another field trip (same assignment) I was waiting in the car as the driver made a roadside stop. Three young girls approached and asked if I wanted to buy a pineapple for $5, an astronomical amount.
When I said no and after some discussion, one of them feigned a dramatic pout and pleaded: “But I am hungry.”
I peered at her in jest. “Then why don’t you eat the pineapple?”
Taken aback, they howled with laughter.
Busteeed.
They were children doing what children do everywhere: testing boundaries, trying tactics, improvising. Only this wasn’t a schoolyard negotiation. This was commerce, on the side of a road, because they needed to sell.
The uncomfortable truth: child entrepreneurs are everywhere (and we don’t talk about the “why”)
These sales children are everywhere in the developing world. They should be in school. Many toil at terrible jobs for little or no pay.
Yet from the examples above it’s clear they learn about market pricing, negotiation, psychology, and scarcity early on. They may need those skills for the rest of their lives.
There are budding young entrepreneurs in all countries, and we love that. We romanticize it, even. We post the stories. We celebrate “hustle.” We talk about grit.
But the “lemonade stands” of Liberia (and elsewhere) are a far cry from those on Main Street USA.
For the poor it isn’t about fun; it’s survival.
If these kids manage to earn anything at all, it’s not pocket money for video games. It may mean they get to eat that day.
These are the youngest entrepreneurs of necessity.
Entrepreneurship of necessity vs. entrepreneurship of opportunity
We use the word entrepreneurship as if it always means the same thing.
It doesn’t.
Entrepreneurship of opportunity
This is what most people picture:
you spot a gap in the market
you create a product or service
you build something scalable
you might take investment
you have at least some safety net, time, and room to experiment
It can be hard. It can be risky. But it’s usually a choice.
This is different:
you sell because there is no job
you sell because the household needs food
you sell because school fees are due
you sell because “cash today” outranks “possibility tomorrow”
you sell whatever you can access, carry, or copy
It’s still entrepreneurship, technically, but it’s not the shiny version. It’s entrepreneurship compressed into a single urgent question:
“What can I sell today so we can survive today?”
This matters because interventions that work for opportunity entrepreneurs often fail for necessity entrepreneurs. Different constraints. Different time horizons. Different risks. Different stakes.
Micro- and small enterprises create growth, just not like this
Micro- and small enterprises can create economic growth and prosperity, and I believe deeply in their potential.
But not this way.
Not through children carrying the burden of household income.
Not through a system where a kid learns pricing before they learn reading.
Not through “hustle” that is really a symptom of poverty, instability, and missing options.
If we want to put entrepreneurship where it belongs, we have to stop confusing income-generation under pressure with enterprise development.
Education and enterprise: the overlap we should be designing for
There’s an interesting generational overlap between business and education.
Children clearly need education. But what about educating parents, by teaching them how to run a business in the context of their own business?
Here’s the logic:
If parents have profitable, stable enterprises, they can pay for school costs (fees, uniforms, supplies, transport).
If household income becomes more predictable, children can do what they’re supposed to do: attend school (assuming school is available).
When children stay in school, they expand future options beyond survival-selling.
This isn’t charity. It’s systems thinking.
Put simply:
Strong household enterprise → stable income → kids in school → better long-term livelihoods.
That’s putting entrepreneurship where it belongs: in the hands of adults, as a means of building stability, not in the hands of children as a last-ditch strategy.
Why “scrappy” isn’t the same as “profitable”
At the base of the pyramid, small business owners may be scrappy, but they’re rarely shown how to properly manage a business and make a profit.
Many are operating with:
no bookkeeping
no separation between personal and business cash
unclear pricing (and weak understanding of costs)
poor inventory control
high leakage (waste, theft, spoilage)
limited negotiating power with suppliers
no formal access to capital
no safety buffer when shocks hit (illness, weather, conflict, inflation)
People often say, “They’re natural entrepreneurs.” Maybe.
But being resourceful under pressure isn’t the same as being equipped to run a sustainable enterprise.
What’s usually missing: capital, skills, and time in the system
They also need access to capital and technical training. It all exists, but not nearly enough, and usually via short-term, ineffective interventions.
A single workshop is not a strategy.
A loan without training is not empowerment.
Training without follow-up is often entertainment.
The common failure pattern
Many programs deliver one or two pieces of the puzzle:
Training but no capital and no mentoring
Capital but no training and no accountability
Mentoring but no tools, templates, or operational support
Short-term “wins” that don’t survive the next shock
What works better is boring, consistent, and relational.
Which brings me to mentorship.
The case for longer-term mentorship (the thing we underfund)
Providing basic business skills together with longer-term mentorship can obliterate poverty and put entrepreneurship where it belongs, whether it’s bush meat or a fruit treat.
The reason mentorship matters is not motivational. It’s operational.
Mentorship is where people:
apply skills to their actual numbers
get corrected before mistakes become expensive
learn to plan for seasonality and cash gaps
build habits (pricing discipline, records, inventory checks)
make better decisions under stress
What “basic business skills” should actually include
Not theory. Not jargon. Not 80-slide decks.
For micro and small enterprises, focus on a few fundamentals that move profit and stability:
1) Pricing and margin (the survival math)
What does it cost you to make or buy this item (fully loaded)?
What is your true margin?
What happens if costs rise 10–20%?
Which products are “profit leaders” and which are “time wasters”?
2) Cash control (the business won’t survive without it)
Separate business money from household money
Record daily sales and expenses (simple notebook works)
Know what you can reinvest vs. what you must keep liquid
3) Inventory and shrinkage control
Track what comes in and what goes out
Reduce spoilage with better storage and ordering cycles
Put basic controls in place (especially in retail)
4) Customer discipline
What makes customers return?
How do you handle complaints?
What small improvements increase trust (cleanliness, consistency, transparency)?
5) Simple planning for predictable shocks
seasonality planning (slow months are not a surprise)
emergency buffer habits
supplier diversification
If you can improve margin, reduce leakage, and stabilize cash, everything changes.
A practical framework: “Put the adult enterprise first”
If you’re a practitioner, funder, NGO, policymaker, or corporate partner, here is a useful way to think about it.
Step 1: Identify households using child selling as a coping strategy
This is not about punishment. It’s about recognizing a signal:
household income is insufficient or unstable
adult enterprise is weak or nonexistent
school attendance is threatened by cash needs
Step 2: Strengthen the adult income engine
Support adults with a package that includes:
skills training (practical, short modules)
working capital (appropriately sized)
mentorship (consistent follow-up)
market linkages where possible (buyers, cooperatives, inputs)
Step 3: Reduce the cost and friction of schooling
Even if school is “free,” it often isn’t.
Consider support such as:
fee assistance where needed
uniforms/supplies
transport solutions
coordination with schools and local leadership
Step 4: Measure what matters
Don’t only measure “business starts.”
Measure:
profit stability (not just revenue)
inventory turn and leakage reduction
savings accumulation (even small)
school attendance and progression
reduced reliance on child selling
If the program doesn’t move these, it’s likely not changing the household trajectory.
What to avoid (hard-earned lessons for programs)
If the goal is to build dignity and long-term stability, avoid these traps:
Over-celebrating child hustle. It can normalize what should be temporary.
One-off trainings with no follow-up. People return to old habits under stress.
Debt-first solutions. Loans can help, but poorly structured debt can crush households.
Ignoring local market realities. Not every product is viable; not every market can absorb more sellers.
Measuring activity instead of outcomes. Attendance is not impact.
If you want entrepreneurship where it belongs, design like you mean it.
The bigger point: most poor kids don’t have “career options”
Most kids in rich countries have a choice of careers when they grow up, whether it’s entrepreneurship or something else.
In poverty, there may be only one way to make a living now and ever after:
Figure out how to sell something.
That is not romantic. That is constraint.
And it’s why the goal should be to build conditions where entrepreneurship becomes:
a path (chosen, supported, scalable)not
a trap (mandatory, precarious, and inherited)
FAQs
1) Is child street selling always harmful?
The reality is complicated. Families make choices under pressure. But child selling often correlates with missed schooling, increased vulnerability, and long-term limits on opportunity. The policy and program goal should be reducing reliance on it by strengthening household income and access to education.
2) What’s the difference between “child entrepreneurship” and child labor?
Child entrepreneurship is often presented as empowerment, but when a child is selling because the household needs income to survive, it functions much more like child labor than a learning experience. Context matters: hours worked, risk exposure, school attendance, coercion, and alternatives.
3) Why do business trainings for microenterprises often fail?
Common reasons include:
training not tailored to real businesses and local markets
no follow-up mentoring
no support to implement changes (tools, templates, capital)
programs measuring participation instead of profit and stability
4) Is access to capital the main constraint?
Often it’s one of several. Capital helps, but many enterprises also need:
pricing discipline
inventory control
supplier strategy
basic recordkeeping
customer retention practicesCapital without these can increase risk.
5) What does “long-term mentorship” look like in practice?
It can be simple:
monthly check-ins for 6–18 months
review of sales, costs, cash, and stock
specific goals (margin improvement, savings targets, school fees planning)
accountability and troubleshootingConsistency matters more than sophistication.
6) How can programs avoid creating dependency?
By focusing on:
skills transfer
locally-led mentoring
market-based viability (real demand)
gradually reducing external supportThe goal is capability, not ongoing subsidy.
7) What should funders measure to know if an enterprise program is working?
Look beyond “number of businesses trained.” Measure:
profit stability
reduced leakage/shrinkage
savings growth
improved household resilience to shocks
improved school attendance
reduced child selling as a coping mechanism
8) What can businesses or corporations do?
If you’re in the private sector, you can contribute by:
creating market linkages (fair buyer relationships)
funding mentorship (not just workshops)
supporting supply chain inclusion with realistic standards
investing in locally-run enterprise support systems
Conclusion
There are budding young entrepreneurs in every country, and we love that. But we need to be honest about what we’re seeing when children are negotiating pineapple prices on the side of the road.
That’s not “entrepreneurship education.” That’s poverty speaking.
Micro- and small enterprises can absolutely create growth and prosperity, but not when the burden lands on children, and not when adult enterprise is starved of skills, capital, and sustained support.
If we want to put entrepreneurship where it belongs, we have to do the unglamorous work:
teach practical business fundamentals in context
provide appropriate capital
fund longer-term mentorship
link households to stable markets
reduce barriers to schooling
measure outcomes that reflect real household change
That’s how you build stability that lasts.
Final Thoughts
I still think about that groundhog on Madison Street and the reflexive thought it triggered: someone in Liberia could get $20 for that.
Working in developing countries changes how you see “opportunity.” But it also clarifies what opportunity really is: options.
Children selling on the roadside aren’t chasing a dream. They’re trying to eat, today.
So yes, let’s support entrepreneurship. Strongly. Strategically.
But let’s put it where it belongs: in viable, well-supported adult enterprises that generate income, keep kids in school, and create a future where selling is a choice, not a necessity.
Comments