Levi rules in junior business world as boss of My Dyslexia Shop

Mini entrepreneur* Levi Anderton’s “superpower” has launched him into the business world and the pages of a new book teaching kids how to be epic* money managers.

Levi, 11, has dyslexia, a condition that makes reading difficult because his brain has trouble processing letters and sounds.

Bullies used to make his life at school tough, but now he’s the boss of his own business and helping other kids just like him.

The Queensland Year 5 student, who also has ADHD, has earned about $7500 since starting his My Dyslexia Shop business two years ago.

Levi sells “reading rulers”, a reading tool that helped him “a pretty decent amount” when his teacher gave him one to try in Year 3.

“It helped me understand sentences and follow along,” he said. “I wanted to sell them because I wanted to help other kids.”

He has since added ruler cases inscribed* with his motto* “Dyslexia is my superpower” to his offerings, and estimates he’s sold about 700 ruler packs (containing 5600 rulers) plus 600 cases through his website and at markets.

His business success has also caught the attention of financial guru* and “Barefoot Investor” Scott Pape, who picked out Levi’s story, from about 2000 submissions, to include in his new book, Barefoot Kids: Your Epic Money Adventure.

“I am just so thoroughly impressed with Levi and what he’s been able to do,” Pape said. “He’s really turned what could have been something that he struggled with into an absolute attribute*, and he’s helping others in the process,” Pape said.

“I want kids to open this book and look at the kids in there and say ‘that could be me, I could do that’.”

Levi is one of 45 Aussie kids with inspiring money stories featured in the book, which provides fun advice for children aged 7 to 13 on how to make money, save, invest, give to others in need, start a mini business and get anything they want (with parent approval, of course!).

Levi’s reading rulers can help people with dyslexia unjumble letters on a page. They work a bit like a coloured highlighter to make letters stand out clearly when the transparent*, coloured ruler is placed over them.

With the help of his mum, Levi found a supplier online, placed his first order for 25 packs of eight rulers and set about designing his business website in 2020.

“I just about sold out on the first day and the next day 200 people bought them, which is a lot, so I had to buy 500 more packs,” Levi said.

One pack contains eight rulers of different colours so kids with dyslexia can experiment to find the colour that helps them most.

Levi bundles up a pack of mini rulers, a pack of mega rulers and a reading ruler case for $19.95, or the items can be bought separately.

“It feels amazing at the same time as insane because so many people know me and my rulers now,” Levi said.

Half the money Levi makes goes back into his business, such as buying new stock and marketing* his products. He devotes 25 per cent of his earnings to giving rulers to a charity that supports people with learning difficulties and to schools. He keeps the remaining 25 per cent for himself, making the occasional special purchase like a remote control car.

Levi’s mum, Skye, taught him the basics of money management – a bucket for savings, a bucket for spending and a bucket for giving – from Scott Pape’s Barefoot Investor books.

Levi said starting his own business was “quite a big jump”.

“I had to persist* a lot but then at the same time I had my mum by my side helping me and that made it a lot easier,” he said.

Ms Anderton, who runs her own online shop, said she was very proud of Levi, who had learnt a lot from his business venture and become more confident.

Barefoot Kids: Your Epic Money Adventure, by Scott Pape, is published by HarperCollins and available for $29.99 from November 7, 2022.

GLOSSARY

• entrepreneur: someone who creates a new business
• epic: heroic and grand in scale or character
• inscribed: when words are written on something
• motto: a short sentence or phrase that expresses someone’s beliefs
• guru: an influential teacher or popular expert
• attribute: a quality or characteristic that someone has
• transparent: see through
• marketing: activities aimed at promoting products for sale and attracting buyers
• persist: keep trying to do something, not give up

EXTRA READING

Let’s learn more about money

Call for money lessons in schools

How to be a teen entrepreneur

Meet Queensland’s 15-year-old millionaire

QUICK QUIZ

1. Why does dyslexia make reading difficult?
2. How much money has Levi earned since starting his business?
3. What is inscribed on the ruler cases that Levi sells?
4. What is Scott Pape’s new book called?
5. How many kids with inspiring money stories are featured in the book?

LISTEN TO THIS STORY

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. Business brainstorm
Anybody can start their own small business. It all starts with an idea! Spend 10 minutes to brainstorm a list of as many different business ideas as you can that you could start yourself. Think about the types of goods and services that people might want to buy and try to keep your ideas simple, like Levi’s.

Time: allow 10 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English; HASS; Economics and Business

2. Extension
Choose your best business idea and answer these questions to develop your idea further:

• Who would be the target customer of your business?
• Why would they want to buy your product or service?
• How/where would you market and sell your product or service?
• How much do you expect it would cost to provide your product or service? How much do you think you could sell it for? Will this make it profitable?

Time: allow 30 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English; HASS; Economics and Business; Mathematics

VCOP ACTIVITY
Read this!
A headline on an article – or a title on your text – should capture the attention of the audience, telling them to read this now. So choosing the perfect words for a headline or title is very important.

Create three new headlines for the events that took place in this article. Remember, what you write and how you write it will set the pace for the whole text, so make sure it matches.

Read out your headlines to a partner and discuss what the article will be about based on the headline you created. Discuss the tone and mood you set in just your few, short words. Does it do the article justice? Will it capture the audience’s attention the way you hoped? Would you want to read more?

Consider how a headline or title is similar to using short, sharp sentences throughout your text. They can be just as important as complex ones. Go through the last text you wrote and highlight any short, sharp sentences that capture the audience.