Charlie Mawson with some of the delicious chocolates available at Charlie’s Pies, Cakes and Chocolates.
While most people his age are hanging out with their mates or kicking a football around on the weekend, a teenage entrepreneur in Euroa is hard at work running his own business.
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Seventeen-year-old Charlie Mawson is still in school.
He is also the proud new owner of his own business — Charlie’s Pies, Cakes and Chocolates — in Euroa.
While he is much younger than your normal business owner, Charlie had been working towards having his own shop since he was 16.
His parents own Mawson’s Bakery further down Euroa’s main street from his business, and Charlie said he had been around the bakery since he was small.
“It gave me an encouragement to go and do my own thing,” he said.
Charlie said he also enjoyed doing business subjects such as economics and accounting at school, and coupled with support from his parents, he decided to open his own business.
As per its name, the business sells pies, cakes and chocolates.
But it does have a point of difference to other food businesses in Euroa.
The cakes are more layered patisserie-style ones, which Charlie said were entirely different to what you could find elsewhere in town.
“That’s our market, that’s what we think we have, our point of difference in Euroa, because there’s no-one in Euroa right now doing that type of business,” Charlie said.
The chocolates come from Indulge Chocolate in Bendigo — also owned by Charlie’s parents.
And real melted Belgian chocolate is used in the shop’s hot chocolates, with milk, white or dark chocolate scooped from pots, making a tasty treat.
Running a business is not an easy task while still studying at school, but Charlie is making it work.
A Year 11 student at Goulburn Valley Grammar School in Shepparton, Charlie goes to school from Monday to Friday, catches the bus home, and then is straight to the shop to do some work filling stock and doing some “back-end work”.
Charlie Mawson’s new business bears his name.
During the day, two staff members have been employed to run the shop while he is at school.
Then on Saturdays and on school holidays, he spends the whole day behind the counter at Charlie’s Pies, Cakes and Chocolates.
Mum Gayle Mawson is also giving him a hand with some of the more back-end duties of running a business, such as wages and ordering.
“I get Mum to help me with that. She's got more experience than I do,” Charlie said.
“Hopefully one day we’ll break away and do our own thing.”
Asked when he would make time to do homework, Charlie was sure he could juggle it.
“We find time somewhere. We’ll fit it in,” he said.
And meanwhile, Charlie said having his own business was an opportunity to learn and help him to decide what he wanted to do in the future.
Hot chocolates are made using melted Belgian chocolate.
“It's a good experience because you’re still in school, you haven’t figured out particularly what you want to do yet, like if you want to go to uni or do a trade,” he said.
“So doing a business like this is, it’s just a good opportunity to feel it out and see where you want to head.
“So if I think, oh, the accounting side of this is real fun, well, maybe I’ll go into accounting. If I think, wow, this is something I really want to do, maybe I stick with this business and continue with businesses rather than go to university.
“At the end of the day, it’s all just a good experience, good learning.”
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