01
THE PITCH60 seconds.
Make it matter.
Say what your business does, who it helps, and why it belongs in the world.
Explore this project
MR. CORDIERThe Business Studio / 001
Every great idea.
Starts somewhere.
Build something. Test the numbers.
Stand behind your idea.
01 / THE CHALLENGEImagine it.
Imagine it.
Then build it.
A customer. A constraint. A blank page.
That’s where real business thinking starts.
Concept Constraint Pitch00%
The process · Five stepsFrom possibility.
From possibility.
To a plan.
Follow the idea.
Scroll through the process
60 seconds.
02
THE BUILDA real plan.
On one page.
Your customer, problem, product, and price. Turn a possibility into a plan.
Explore this project03
THE TWISTPlans change.
Can yours?
A tiny budget. No social media. One day to sell. Adapt your idea to an unexpected constraint.
Explore this project04
THE NUMBERSGood idea.
Does it add up?
Test fixed costs, variable costs, and price against the sales you need to break even.
Explore this project05
PITCH DAYYour work.
Your moment.
Present it. Defend it. Learn from your classmates. Make the next version better.
Explore this projectMake your next move count.
Test your margins. Build your canvas. Rehearse your pitch. Make real decisions in three classroom business challenges.
Enter the venture labTHE NUMBERS / LIVE EXPERIMENTThe idea is yours.
The idea is yours.
Make the numbers work.
Your first micro-business has $40 in fixed costs. Each item costs $0.50 to make. Move the price and see what it takes to break even.
$0.75$8.00
A little help.
A lot of potential.
0102030405
Business Plan Generator
Your next idea starts here.
Break-Even Calculator
Put your idea through its paces.
Marketing Twist Spinner
Expect the unexpected.
Writing Style Snapshot
Make your pitch read clearly.
Lemonade Stand
Ten days. Your prices. Your business.
BUILT IN THE CLASSROOM.
MADE FOR THE REAL WORLD.
A Business teacher's perspective, with a little extra behind it.
Real lessons from a real classroom — Business, tested on real middle schoolers. With a bit of help from time in the school office and a couple of side projects along the way.
Business
Mini-projects, worksheets, and warm-ups that make entrepreneurship click for middle schoolers — built, tested, and rebuilt in a real classroom.
Real-world thinking, kid-sized
Every project starts from a constraint — a tiny budget, an odd customer, an awkward twist — because that's what makes the math and the pitch actually matter.
The numbers have to work
A pitch that sounds good isn't enough — every project ends with fixed costs, variable costs, and a price checked against a real break-even number.
Built to be shown, not just graded
Every project ends in front of the class, out loud — a pitch, a worksheet defended, a set of numbers explained. Grading rewards the presentation, not just the paper.
Beyond the classroom
A few things picked up outside the classroom too — time in the school office, and a couple of small side projects — show up here now and then.
What a typical week looks like
MON
A real (or made-up) business gets picked apart — what's it selling, who's it for, why does it work?
WED
Build day — the worksheet gets filled in, the twist gets applied, and the numbers get checked.
FRI
Quick quiz — a short check on the week's concepts, vocabulary, and the numbers behind them.
How a Business project actually runs.
Five steps, same order every time — from idea to pitch to peer review to whether the math actually works.
1
Elevator Pitch Challenge
60 seconds, out loud, no notes — say what the business does, who it's for, and why it's better.
Deliverable: live 60-sec pitch2
Design Your Micro-Business
The full worksheet — business, customer, twist, problem, product, and price.
Deliverable: 6-field worksheet3
The Marketing Twist
A random constraint gets applied — no social media, a $1 price cap, one day to sell. Adapt or fail.
Tool: Marketing Twist Spinner4
Break-Even Basics
Fixed costs, variable costs, price — and the number of sales it actually takes to stop losing money.
Tool: Break-Even Calculator5
Pitch Day & Peer Review
The final version goes in front of the class — classmates score it against a rubric before a grade is ever given.
Deliverable: peer rubric scoreDo students need business experience to start?
No — every project starts from a blank worksheet and a constraint, not from prior knowledge. That's the point of the format.
How do I check my break-even math?
Use the Break-Even Calculator in Free Tools — it's the same formula worked out step by step in the free project pack PDF.
Business resources worth returning for.
New guides and tools, published as they're actually ready — not on a content calendar.
Business class project pack
A handful of mini-business projects, worksheets included — for warm-ups, exit tickets, or a full class period.
Free PDF — ask in chat
Break-even & pricing worksheets
The math behind whether a business idea actually works — fixed costs, variable costs, and finding the break-even point, worked example included.
Coming soon — free PDF
Peer review rubric
The same rubric classmates use on Pitch Day — four categories, plain language, no jargon — so students know exactly what's being scored before they present.
Coming soon — free PDF
AI tools I actually use in class
The handful of tools that survived contact with a room of middle schoolers and a 47-minute period, and the ones that quietly didn't.
Your business workbench.
Generate a micro-business, test its break-even point, adapt to a marketing twist, and refine your pitch. Real tools for your next project.
Venture lab: profit, planning, pitches & challenges
PLAY · EXPERIMENT · LEARN
Small stand. Big decisions.
Take charge of Mr. Cordier’s Lemonade Stand. Start with $30 and navigate 10 trading days: set your prices, prepare your inventory, respond to the weather, and choose how to finance your expansion.
$30 starting cash10 trading daysSupply & demand
Play Lemonade Stand
Opens in a new tab. Play in English. Complete your game in one sitting; progress resets when you reload.
Click generate for a random micro-business scenario — a warm-up, exit ticket, or full mini-project.
Business—
Customer—
The Twist—
Your TaskFill in: Problem · Product · Price · a 30-second pitch.
Before any business is a good idea, the math has to work. Enter the numbers below to find the break-even point.
Stuck on an idea? Spin for a random business-and-twist combo to kickstart a pitch.
Spins so far: 0
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Paste any paragraph below to see a plain-language snapshot of its writing style.
This tool describes writing style — sentence length, repetition, vocabulary range. It cannot tell you whether a text was written by a person or by AI, and it isn't a tool for accusing anyone of anything.
A NOTE, NOT A WISH LIST
You really didn't have to.
If a link brought you here expecting a wish list, I appreciate the thought more than I can really say — but there's truly no need. My classroom already has what it needs to do good work.
Teaching your child is a privilege I don't take lightly, gift or no gift. If the class ever needs something specific, I'll ask for it directly — you'll hear it from me, not the other way around.
So truly — thank you for thinking of us.
— Mr. Cordier
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