Cohen Ball, 10, has started a business selling nightcrawlers as fishing bait. (submitted photo/Laren Baller)

By Teena Monteleone

Persistence pays off

Young entrepreneur digs up new business venture

May 31, 2020 | 8:00 AM

Cohen Ball wanted a slick new pair of sneakers, but they weren’t in his family’s budget, especially in the midst of a pandemic. So, the 10-year-old Prince Albert boy found a way to buy them himself – by selling nightcrawlers. Now, he has the sneakers and a lucrative new business venture.

“It just took off,” said Cohen’s father, Laren Ball. “Our friends are purchasing from him right now and he has more than 30 customers on his Facebook page.”

‘Baller’s Crawlers’ offers the fishing bait, a favourite meal for Walleye, at $3.50 per dozen worms. Cohen catches and packages the nightcrawlers himself.

“Please message your orders and the day that you want them. Depending on the size of your order, I might need a few days to collect them,” his Facebook page reads.

His father started picking nightcrawlers several years ago, but it was only this year that Cohen started to show more of an interest in it.

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“I was thinking to myself, is he gonna be quiet enough? Cause you need to be quiet and light on your feet to pick the bait, but he did. He just picked it up this year,” said Ball.

The business will continue over the summer months, but Ball said he and Cohen are making plans for the long term. They’ve started a worm farm in their garage.

“We’re hoping they’ll have babies and it will save our backs from getting sore helping our son pick worms, that’s for sure,” he said.

While a desire for new shoes and maybe some new hockey sticks drove Cohen to start the business, Ball said the venture opened his son’s eyes to the importance of hard work and perseverance.

“If you have a dream in mind, anything is possible,” said Ball. “I’m hoping as he gets older, he’ll realize the importance of hard work and what money can do. He’s starting to realize it is hard work to do things in life and this has been an important lesson for him.”

For this young entrepreneur, persistence and picking worms is paying off.

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teena.monteleone@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @TeenaMonteleone