“My name is Eli and I am the boss of my own business.”
Not bad for an 11-year-old.
Eli Jones first thought of selling pine cones “like four years ago”, as a then six-year-old. Last year his plan came to fruition and he launched Mr Eli Pine Cone.
The pine cones are popular as fire starters, and as mulch around trees and plants.
The business plan is relatively simple: pick pine cones at grandma’s place near Millicent on South Australia’s Limestone Coast, bag pine cones, sell pine cones.
“The harder part is that we actually have to bag them after we get them all,” Eli says.
“We try and get the non-broken ones because some of them don’t have the little sticks on them that make them actually flammable.”
‘Marketing, work ethic and all that’
Picking is done primarily in the drier months, so the cones can be stockpiled ready for winter.
It’s very much a team effort, as thousands of pine cones need to be collected from his grandma’s property, which has been in the family for 200 years and has plenty of old-growth trees.
The time it takes to gather them all, however, is a bit hazy. Eli suggests 20 minutes for half a trailer, while his mother Em insists it takes the family a few hours to collect a load.
If Eli’s the boss and the face of the business, then Em is CEO.
“[She’s] very good at editing a lot of stuff [for online] … I’m normally like, ‘Yep, that’s good’ on the first time.”
Bags contain roughly 39 pine cones according to Eli and sell for $20 online. Since launching last year, business has been steadily increasing.
“When you’re starting you have to persuade people to keep buying more so that’s why we did the starting offer. If they did a return order then they’ll get $5 off.”
He’s also learning about supply and demand.
Last year, Eli underestimated how popular his pine cone business would become.
His stock of 40 bags — totalling about 1,500 pine cones — sold quickly and he had to stop taking orders.
“We’ll have to triple the picking stockpile this season to avoid running out,” Em says.
Future vision, with 200 years of history
Although eager to use his birth certificate to open a bank account for his savings, most of Eli’s pocket cash currently goes towards Roblox, a game on his tablet.
An account would help him with his expansion plan for the business — merchandise and a shop.
“And people can go in there and we can sell pine cones to them.”
For now, the bags are stored at the home of Eli’s grandmother, Jan Kane.
The property, and the pine cones on it, have been in her husband’s family for more than 200 years.
“All the fires were open fires in their days. Because all the rooms in the house had chimneys, open chimneys, you had to just about sit on the fires to get any warmth out of them,” Jan says.
“I would say they probably used a lot of pine cones too.
Jan says it’s comforting to see her grandson take an interest.
“Eli has always had something about picking up pine cones … [he] loves being out here and doesn’t like to go home most of the time,” Jan says.
“Being children, they love freedom, they love to have space to run around.”
Would Eli recommend the business to other kids like him?
“Yeah. Because they’ve got to learn the traits and get a good work ethic,” Eli says.
