Posted
on March 30, 2014
A
lot of entrepreneurs start pretty young.
That
was the case with Ingvar Kamprad, who was born in Sweden on this date
in 1926. When he was still a young boy, he discovered that he could
make a good profit by buying matches in bulk in Stockholm, and then
selling the matches in small quantities or even individually. He went
from neighbor to neighbor on his bicycle, peddling his matches.
 |
As a child, Kamprad looked ordinary.
But he had a definite gift for sales and
business! |
Then
he started to sell other things as well. Fish, Christmas tree
decorations, seeds, pens and pencils.
At
this point, he was still just a kid!
When
Kamprad was 17 years old, he started a business whose name is an
acronym for his own name plus the name of the farm and town where he
grew up: Ingvar Kamprad, Elmtaryd, Agunnaryd.
You
may have figured out that the company he started as a teenager was
IKEA.
IKEA
specializes in ready-to-assemble furniture plus appliances and home
decorations / accessories. There are 349 IKEA stores in 43 countries
(which actually seems like an incredibly low number, given the fact
that there are four IKEAs within an hour's drive of my house!). IKEA
sells billions of dollars worth of goods each year, and its website
contains about twelve thousand different products!
Kamprad
has become one of the wealthiest people in the world.
Did
you know that IKEA is owned by non-profit foundations Kamprad has set
up? His INGKA Foundation is dedicated to promoting “innovations in
architecture and interior design,” but it has partnered with UNICEF
and other organizations to provide things as varied as tsunami and
earthquake relief, schools in Liberia, and environmental projects. It
is unofficially the world's largest charitable organization,
according to Wikipedia.
IKEA
has also entered the affordable-housing market. In other words, its
not just what is IN the house that IKEA is providing, it's the house
itself. Check out IKEA's BoKlok here.
Did
you know...?
While
researching this post, I discovered that an IKEAs near me has a
supervised play area for kids with a ball pit and a movie theater! I
guess parents can drop their kids off there for free, for up to an
hour! There are also children's play areas throughout the store (but
parents have to supervise in these) and in the IKEA restaurant.
(Honestly,
I didn't even know that there was an IKEA restaurant!)
And,
get this, this IKEA host a tiny BUT FREE birthday party for the
birthday kid (ages 10 or younger) and two friends, with
entertainment, soda, cake, and a birthday gift from IKEA. That's
pretty crazy, huh?
I
am not sure if all IKEAs have this arrangement, but I've discovered
that two here in California do. So, if there is an IKEA near you,
check it out!
Also
on this date:
Plan
ahead:
Check
out my Pinterest boards for:
And
here are my Pinterest boards for:
Because the
organizers
of Lemonade Day urge kids to start a lemonade stand! 
And then there's maybe my all-time favorite story about a kid who's an entrepreneur: Caine's Arcade. Do yourself a favor and check it out!
