{"id":9089,"date":"2015-11-13T06:45:39","date_gmt":"2015-11-13T13:45:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=9089"},"modified":"2015-11-13T09:32:46","modified_gmt":"2015-11-13T16:32:46","slug":"baking-skills-business-smarts-launch-10-year-olds-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2015\/11\/baking-skills-business-smarts-launch-10-year-olds-career\/","title":{"rendered":"Baking skill, business smarts launch 10-year-old’s career"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Swords\"<\/a>

Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News<\/p>

Ian Wollschlager brought his latest creation, a loaf of cranberry-orange bread, into Harper and Madison on Wednesday. He is seen here in the cafe’s kitchen with owner Joanie Swords.<\/p><\/div>\n

Before he founded his own bread-making business last year, 10-year-old Ian Wollschlager had had a few other entrepreneurial ideas.<\/p>\n

One involved creating an indoor go-kart racing track, for which he created his own plans.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s really good at art, so he drew the whole schematic,\u201d said his mother, Lotus Wollschlager. But his father, David Wollschlager, thought maybe the idea was a little too big.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had to encourage him to step back and take baby steps,\u201d he said. As a result, \u201che came up with the idea of bread. Everybody needs bread.\u201d<\/p>\n

It helped that Ian loved baking. He\u2019s been helping out in the kitchen as long as he can remember\u2014\u201csince he could stand,\u201d according to his father. Using a bread machine first and then graduating to baking in an oven, Ian came up with his own banana bread and then a pumpkin bread.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe banana bread recipe we got from a Betty Crocker cookbook from 1987 and we tweaked it a little,\u201d he said, and he did the same with a pumpkin bread recipe he found on the Internet. He started selling a few loaves now and then, mostly by word of mouth at his church, Faith Chapel, and among friends and other home-school families.<\/p>\n

He and his little brother Kaden, 8, are home-schooled by their mother. When he came up with the bread-making idea, his parents decided to break the process into parts and incorporate them into their studies.<\/p>\n

\"CapreAir_Variable\"<\/a><\/div><\/div>Ian named his company BBL Bread\u2014\u201cfor Billings, Lockwood and Laurel because that\u2019s where I originally wanted to sell my bread\u201d\u2014and came up with the slogan, \u201cCome break bread with us.\u201d<\/p>\n

A big step came a couple of months ago, when Ian\u00a0and his family, who live near Billings West High School, attended a private birthday party at Harper and Madison, a caf\u00e9 and bakery at 3115 10th Ave. N.\u00a0Ian struck up a conversation with the owner, Joanie Swords, and ended up taking a tour of her big kitchen.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was interested in seeing my oven and how much that cost, and my mixer and how much that cost, and my walk-in cooler and how much that cost,\u201d Swords said. \u201cAnd he was adding it all up in his head.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before the evening was over, Swords had ordered 12 loaves of banana bread to use for her Saturday morning French toast special. The place was packed that Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think half his church came that day because he had been doing some marketing,\u201d Swords said.<\/p>\n

Ian was there, too, keeping an eye on the plates of food coming out of the kitchen. If he saw French toast, he went to the appropriate table to introduce himself and tell the diners more about his bread. Swords subsequently ordered 12 loaves of the pumpkin bread for another French toast special.<\/p>\n

\"Family\"<\/a>

Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News<\/p>

Ian with his parents, David and Lotus Wollschlager, and brother Kaden.<\/p><\/div>\n

It was on that visit that Ian pulled Swords aside and told her he had some ideas for how better to handle the long line that often forms when people are trying to place orders at the front counter during the breakfast rush. He also spent more time in the kitchen, watching how everything was done.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy staff loves him because he was just right there asking questions,\u201d Swords said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Ian got his first check from Joanie, he said, \u2018Dad, we need a new oven,\u2019\u201d David Wollschlager said. And once again, David had to counsel his son to be more patient.<\/p>\n

This week, Ian brought in to Harper and Madison a new loaf of bread that he and Swords came up with in honor of the holidays\u2014cranberry-orange bread. Swords placed an order for 12 loaves, which will be served as French toast a week from Saturday, Nov. 21.<\/p>\n

Ian gave Swords a few suggestions on presentation, saying it might look best if served with an orange slice on the side and one cranberry atop a dollop of whipped cream.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s an entrepreneur at heart,\u201d his mother said.<\/p>\n

Ian has also been getting some advice from another food entrepreneur, a friend of his parents\u2014Keith Lauver, the founder of Cooksimple in Red Lodge<\/a>. Lauver has taken Ian under his wing and is helping him with business decisions on things like pricing and packaging.<\/p>\n

But Ian is interested in more than making money. In 2013, he spent two days working a lemonade stand in front of the old Log Cabin Bakery on Montana Avenue, whose owner was also a friend of his parents. Ian raised just under $100 and gave it all to his favorite charity, Habitat for Humanity.<\/p>\n

He has been tithing with his BLL Bread earnings, splitting 10 percent of his revenues between his church and Habitat for Humanity.<\/p>\n

Asked if he was setting any money aside for himself, Ian said, \u201cnot really,\u201d but then shot a quick look at his father and said, \u201cbut I\u2019m saving up for a dune buggy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Before he founded his own bread-making business last year, 10-year-old Ian Wollschlager had had a few other entrepreneurial ideas. One involved creating an indoor go-kart racing track, for which he created his own plans. \u201cHe\u2019s really good at art, so he drew the whole schematic,\u201d said his mother, Lotus Wollschlager. But his father, David Wollschlager, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9090,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,18],"tags":[1689,1352,3379,3378,3377,2260,1686],"class_list":["post-9089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-billings","category-diversions","tag-cooksimple","tag-faith-chapel","tag-habitat-for-humanity","tag-harper-and-madison","tag-ian-wollschlager","tag-joanie-swords","tag-keith-lauver","prominence-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9089\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}