Lilly Howard, 10, pours cement into a lion mold as part of her workday during spring break for Lilly’s Concrete Creations, a business she started two years ago. Photo by Ray Balogh.

By Ray Balogh
InkFreeNews

NORTH WEBSTER — Lilly Howard’s grandpa always told her, “Do what you love and the money will come.”

Well, she is and it has.

The 10-year-old North Webster Elementary fourth grader is in her second year of entrepreneurship as sole proprietor of her burgeoning enterprise, Lilly’s Concrete Creations.

She maintains a Facebook page through which customers can order decorative concrete figures, such as lions, mermaids, birdbaths, anchors, diving helmets, pelicans, stepping stones, turtles, frogs, garden statues and the like.

She has also participated in the two most recent kid’s business fairs at the North Webster Community Center, and said she is “making pretty good money.”

Lilly is a take-charge kind of gal and speaks about her after-school, weekend and summer vocation with the confidence and know-how of a seasoned businesswoman. She started out small, using a palm-sized frog mold her grandfather gave her and the ready supply of concreted available from her dad’s business, North Webster Septic Tank Co.

“I have always liked art,” she said, “and do it just for fun at my dad’s shop. I took my own money and bought some more molds,” soon filling a box with her concrete frog models. Her father, Dan Howard, took her to a farmer’s market to vend her inventory, and she ended up selling the entire box of molds for $1 apiece.

Since then she has expanded her product line, buying molds on Amazon, at auctions and from other sources. Now a pair of her hand-painted pelicans fetches $175.

Lilly doesn’t keep a meticulous inventory, but she figures she has sold five to 10 lions, maybe 20 anchors and “a ton” of frogs and other figures.

She pretty much runs a one-woman show, with Dad in the background ready to, quite literally, do the heavy lifting (the lions, for example, weigh 75 pounds each).

“When she first started I taught her the proper way to pour to have a quality product and how to strip and care for the molds,” he said. “She learned to paint from a lady in the same industry. She does everything on her own.”

Lilly echoed, “He lifts, I do everything else.”

That “everything else” includes finances. Her mother, Frankie, helps Lilly with the books, but “I handle my own money and I know my percentages,” she said, noting 30 percent of her income goes into long-term savings, 30 percent gets reinvested into the business, 30 percent she keeps for herself and 10 percent is dedicated to “charities of need.”

Lilly’s Concrete Creations received a boost when she garnered a $500 entrepreneurial scholarship from Matthew’s Painting shortly after she launched the business. That allowed her to venture into producing and selling larger items.

Not surprising for the little go-getter is her goal to expand her business.

She also sees future collateral benefits in running her own enterprise. “It has helped me in the long run for sure in making me more responsible. It will help me in the future for a job resume. I can say, ‘I have experience in this.’”

Throughout Lilly’s entrepreneurial journey, Dan and Frankie have remained her most ardent cheerleaders.

Dad sees the positive character growth. “Her confidence has definitely gone up. She has always been confident and independent, but I am seeing both on the rise. As for her passion and growth, looking back from when she started to now, it’s pretty impressive.”

Speaking for Frankie and himself, Dan said, “I love watching you grow, Lilly, and you make us so proud. Keep going as long as you still enjoy doing it.”